Wednesday 18 June 2008

More Birds by Thorburn

I have recently discovered that Archibald Thorburn was a well known (early 20th Century) artist well known for painting birds. I have a few puzzles (as you may have seen) now that depict Birds by Thorburn. The birds are done in great detail and are very accurate - including size, shape etc. which is very difficult to do. I am rarely interested in art but I shall be exploring this work more.



Above: The completed puzzle. I particularly like the way birds are grouped together to make the picture more interesting.



Above: A male chaffinch to compare with a male brambling (summer + winter plumage).



Above: Here you can see a Mealy Redpoll (top left), A Citril Finch (top middle) a Serin (Top right), a Linnet (middle right) and a Tree Sparrow (bottom).



Above: You can compare a Tree Sparrow (top) with a male House Sparrow (bottom). You can just about see the outline of a female House Sparrow (bottom right).

Archibald Thorburn originally published his drawings in a book (4 volumes). I found somebody on the internet selling the set (2nd edition) for £600! I think I will have to buy prints if I want to put any in frames on my wall!
In my opinion (humble as it is) most art wouldn't be worth displaying. Just occasionally, though, you find something that is. And this won't be the last time you see a post with Birds by Thorburn on this Blog!

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