Book review: Donald Watson - Bird Artist and Writer, edited by Roger Crofts

                                              

The new book - full of insights about a remarkable birder, artist and writer

THERE is a very good reason why the paintings of Donald Watson are appreciated by birders - invariably  with a sense of wonder and delight. 

In his work, the habitat is almost always as important as the bird itself, so you feel you are  actually with the artist on the moors or wherever the setting.

Some of the studies represented in Donald Watson - Bird Artist and Writer, compiled and edited by Roger Crofts, illustrate this point.

The views of, for instance, Hen Harriers, Curlew and Dotterel  are not close-up, but the birds are vibrant because they are depicted  in a landscape - often windswept  - which is ever changing according to the levels of light and vagaries of the weather.

In this overview of his life and art, Crofts quotes Watson (1918-2005) thus: "I try to capture the effects of colour and wildlife and landscape.

"Season, weather, a sense of place and atmosphere mean a lot to me

"In my kind of painting, I am happiest relating birds to their environment."  

Although born in Cranleigh, Surrey, Watson spent most of his life in Scotland, specifically Galloway, which provided the inspiration for many of his studies, many of them painted while he was high in the hills (and sometimes near the tops of mountains).

Two of the chapters in this enchanting book are by Crofts, but there are others by, for example, Watson's  daughter-in-law, Vanessa, and a couple of his birding buddies, Des Thompson and Colin Galbraith.

Between them they provide not so much a celebration of Watson's life but a gentle deeply-felt appreciation of a dedicated  family man who also happened to be a brilliant artist, a diligent author of several important books and an effective campaigner for birdlife, especially in places where it has been (and remains) most under threat.

Donald Watson - Bird  Artist and Writer is published, with support from the Scottish Ornithologists' Club, by Whittles Publishing  at £17.99 in softback. 

https://www.whittlespublishing.com/