Gurney Journey

The Animal Art of Caroline Clowes

Published: December 15, 2022 | 10:27

A group of cattle in a pastoral setting looks up, as if alarmed. What is bothering them?

The answer is visible at the far right of the composition, where a train fills the quiet landscape with noise and smoke.

The painting was a response to the addition of an east-west train line through Dutchess County, New York.

Caroline Clowes lived from 1838-1904, a life nearly coinciding with another animal painter, Rosa Bonheur.

This exhibitor pass was what you needed to get into one of her exhibitions.

Now there's a free exhibition of original art by Caroline Clowes on view at the Samuel Morse estate in Poughkeepsie, New York through December 30, 2022.

Here's a video with more information.

Bulldog

Published: October 03, 2022 | 12:17

A Dinosaur-Eating Mammal

Published: August 16, 2022 | 11:27

Here are two concept sketches of the Cretaceous mammal Repenomamus.

It's an extinct badger sized animal who raided dinosaur nests.

I also made a maquette out of an air-dry craft foam.

The finished painting of is fully documented in a Gumroad tutorial called "The Mammal That Ate Dinosaurs."

The illustration appeared in an article on paleo mammals in Scientific American.

Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

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Raymond de la Nézière, Animal Artist

Published: July 26, 2022 | 16:20

Raymond de la Nézière (1865-1953) was a French illustrator and comic artist with a gift for capturing expressive poses in animal caricature.

He began drawing and painting from a young age, encouraged by his mother, who was a painter and potter.

In his early years he painted in oil and then began using more gouache and watercolor.

He illustrated many books and sketched all sorts of animals, sometimes in naturalistic poses, and sometimes anthroporphized as human types.

He also participated as a hunter and a horseback rider.

Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

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The Horse Pictures of Eduard Thöny

Published: May 25, 2022 | 13:55

Eduard Thöny (1866-1950) was known for his excellent draftsmanship.

He loved to include equestrian subjects and often put his horses in dramatic action poses.

In 1890 he visited Paris to study the historical paintings of equestrian specialist Edouard Detaille.

Die allerhöchste Auszeichnung für Künstler (The Highest Award for Artists)

In 1899 he made an incisive caricature of the famous artists Anton von Werner and Adolph von Menzel).

See more examples of Eduard Thöny on Wikimedia Commons. (1866-1950)

Previous post on Eduard Thony's Caricatures

Detailed German Wikipedia entry about Eduard Thöny.

Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

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Feather Identification Websites

Published: March 30, 2022 | 08:31

Find a feather? What bird is it from?

By law you're not supposed to possess feathers from wild birds (in order to protect birds from being hunted for their feathers), but there are a couple of good websites to help with feather identification anyway.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has a website called Feather Atlas that helps you identify feathers based on color, position, pattern, size, and kind of bird.

Featherbase is another website focusing on bird feathers. The site lays out the feathers of a given bird, and arranging them in groups so you can see the variety of feather types that cover a bird's body.

Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

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Animal Fable Illustrations by E.M. Rachev

Published: February 06, 2022 | 09:48

Evgenii (or Yevgeny) Rachev (1906-1997) was an illustrator best known for his images of animal fables from Russian folk tales.

Postcards based on Russian folk tales, 1960, E.M. Rachev.

He used animal characters to tell his stories, but of course the allegories were really about human foibles.

He said: "If my birds and animals help you to fathom that the story is actually about people it means that I reached the same effect as the folk tales did."

He grew up with his grandparents in Siberia. According to an online bio:

"He remembered Siberia as a fantastic land. Black grouses sitting pompously on fir branches in the evenings... Fish and wild ducks swarming the lakes... No end to mushrooms and berries in summer... But when the boy was 14 years old his grandmother died. He decided to go to his mother who at that time lived in Novorosiisk. It took him three months to get there through Russia ravaged by the revolution."

As a side hobby he collected interesting shapes of tree roots, which he sculpted into animal shapes.

His wife Lidya Ivanovna Racheva collaborated with him by compiling stories, researching costumes, and writing texts.

His books are beloved in Russian and French editions, and there is at least one book of his folk tales available in English.

Website with bio in English

Wikipedia page

Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

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Joy the Christmas Donkey

Published: December 25, 2021 | 11:01

Therianthropy

Published: December 17, 2021 | 08:54

Therianthropy is the ability to shape-shift between human and animal.

The Kelpie by Herbert Draper

Kelpies are one example. They frequent occur in Celtic folklore, appearing as black horses in the water, but with the ability to change into human form.

Some cave art has also included strange figures that scholars have interpreted as therianthropes. For example, this drawing of a cave painting by Henri Breuil shows what appears to be a human with an antlered head. He suggests it represents a shaman, sorcerer, or magician.

Other famous therianthropes include the selkie, which alternate between seal and human. The movie "The Secret of Roan Inish" is one of many interpretations.

Wikipedia summarizes the standard plotline: "A typical folk-tale is that of a man who steals a female selkie's skin, finds her naked on the sea shore, and compels her to become his wife. But the wife will spend her time in captivity longing for the sea, her true home, and will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. She may bear several children by her human husband, but once she discovers her skin, she will immediately return to the sea and abandon the children she loved."

Another famous example is the werewolf (therianthropy), as well as dog-human shapeshifters (cynanthropy).

Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

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Book Review: 100 Flying Birds

Published: December 13, 2021 | 09:08

Artists who paint birds need clear reference photos of various flight positions.

A new book called 100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight delivers a helpful collection of images in a beautiful and useful form.

Author and photographer Peter Cavanagh has documented the flight poses of a variety of species, from swans and geese to hummingbirds to eagles and owls.

The photos are sharp and clear, reproduced full-page along with the author's commentary on the facing page. The text presents the context of the shot, the mechanics of the flight pose, or insights about behavior or the environment.

That text combined with the photos makes this an unusually welcome resource for birdwatchers or ornithological artists who want a better understanding of their subject.

100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight, by Peter Cavanagh, Firefly Books, 320 pages, all color, 11 x 11 inches.

Mr. Cavanagh curated the exhibition "How Birds Fly" exhibit at Seattle's Museum of Flight in 2015.

Photos by Peter Cavanagh (@howbirdsfly on Twitter).

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