Today marks the beginning of the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count. I was surprised by how few of my friends were familiar with this 111 year old tradition. Bird watchers around the nation grab their binoculars and hit the trail to collect conservation data that is used to protect bird species
So what does counting black ducks and tufted titmice have to do with art, duh? Well, long before I became involved in the arts, I loved biology. And one of the first artists I studied was John James Audubon. The Christmas Bird Count gives me a great excuse to talk about his artwork.
Audubon was born in 1785 in Haiti. His father had hoped he would become a seaman, and found him work on a boat. However, seasickness and dislike of navigational math made him seek firmer ground. He moved to the U.S., learned to speak a dialect of English from some Quakers and fell in love and married a woman named Lucy.
He spent 14 years writing and illustrating Birds of America, which contains 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of 497 bird species. This master piece was rejected by American publishers, but when he took it to Britain it was received with open arms.
Audubon’s methods were interesting. He would begin by killing the specimen, then he would use taxidermy to make it look as normal as possible. Other naturalists of the time posed their dead birds in an unnatural way, so this step really set him apart. He would then spend up to 2 weeks painting it in water color, gouache and pastel.
Audubon was poor much of his life. He oil painted portraits to raise funds while his wife worked as a teacher. He often was only able to feed his family by hunting and fishing. At one low point in his career, his entire collection of bird drawings was eaten by rats. Later in his life he went on to draw mammals, which I might like even more. He died in 1851.
If you’d like to get involved in the Christmas Bird Count, and I hope you do, it begins today and ends January 5. Most who participate pay just $5, and instructions are posted here: http://birds.audubon.org/get-involved-christmas-bird-count. Sounds like it could become a fun holiday tradition for all you hippie naturalist who are looking for an excuse to study a few of the beautiful paintings Audubon created.
