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Raymond Harris-Ching

Autor von Wild Portraits

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Book of British Birds (1969) — Illustrator, einige Ausgaben143 Exemplare

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What a delightful book. I first came across Raymond Ching (as he was then known) with his book.."The Art of Raymond Ching" and was totally won-over by his mastery of subject and technique. Though the earlier book, clearly demonstrated his progression as an artist and his more relaxed and impressive later work.
In the current book that developmental stage seems to be missing. This all appears to be the work of a wholly professional and incredibly talented wildlife artist. And the text by Peter Hansard is outstanding. I consistently found that Hansard was already answering the questions that I had about the art and the Artist. No, Ching is not really a naturalist and doesn't always paint animals the way they are....for example, the portrait of a bounding kangaroo has the head held higher ...because, apparently, Ching thought it looked more spritely. And no...he's not well organised. In fact, his studio sounds a bit like a shambles but in the lovely photographs of his studio Library in England one observes a library that just leaves me green with envy. It looks magnificent. Hansard apparently knows the artist very well and there must be a lot of trust between the two because, Hansard's gentle jibes or comments come through ...though never about the art.....more about the fact that Ching works with a primitive lighting set-up and still hasn't installed the beautiful artists lamp he was given.
But about the art. I'm just blown away by the technique....by the lifelike capture of unusual poses by animals....the fear reaction by the barn owl on p 97 for example. And his mastery of botanical structure is also so impressive. The painting of the grasses on p 88 is at least equal to that of "The great piece of turf" by Albrecht Durer....though with the curious issue that I think the bird would weigh down the grass more than is apparent.
And I looked, more or less in vain, for some eucalypt leaves in his paintings of Australian birds and animals until finally coming across the flash of green on p 210. The support scenery is almost painted casually ...but with such mastery that it all looks totally natural and detailed until one really looks for the detail and finds it's not there...at least with the leaves...though it is with the birds.
And how does he achieve that detail? When you look at the pencil sketches that are included in the book, there seems to be a lot of use of the side of the pencil.....in other words he shades rather than showing the detail of feathers. So how does he then translate this into the stunning detail that you see in the completed painting. Though when you go looking for the very fine detail of feathers....as with the painting of the Wedge tailed eagle on P185 it's not there. It kind-of looks like it's there but it's more or less as indicted by the shading on the drawings on the opposite page. And the same with the drawings of the Koalas and the actual portrait of the Koalas. Ching doesn't even try to detail every hair but he certainly manages to capture the total feel for the animal.
And one should also agree with Hansard that Ching is a master of the art of painting water. I wondered if this was because water was easier to paint than complex backgrounds like the blackberry bush and grasses on p 90. Or many of the other backgrounds. Maybe....but he still puts lot of energy into the surface of the water with the various ducks and water birds that he specialises in. And the effects he creates in other paintings for the background....the muddy field with the sparrows; the earth bank with the European kingfisher ......these are marvellous works of art on their own.
One biography of Ching describes his work as conservative realism and I'd agree with that. But it's a style that is clearly very popular. (He produced 230 paintings for the Reader's Digest British book of Birds in a year). The book subsequently became the largest selling bird book in the world. Pretty impressive...even if one thinks great art has to offer some new insights etc.
I actually had to read the caption on the painting on P 159 of Hall's Gap to realise that it was not a photograph.....with the tiny cockatoos against the vastness of the landscape....very familiar to me but maybe not so for Ching,,,growing up in Wellington where the mountains (or hills anyway) are pretty much always in your face. I was intrigued to read that one of the formative events in his childhood was a visit to the museum where there was an exhibit of stuffed humming birds.....I had a sense of deja vu because I had the same experience of absolute wonder and fascination with a similar display (they were like multicoloured jewels with shimmering iridescence) at the Technological Museum (now the Powerhouse) in Sydney. And I have a vague feeling that I might have actually seen the same exhibit that Ching saw at the Wellington museum when I lived there for several years in the early 70's. Strangely enough I've never seen this exhibit again at the Powerhouse. (I think that sort of exhibit has gone out of fashion).
I find that I'm quite intrigued by the name Ching. Apparently Chinese and I wonder if (discrimination) had anything to do with him leaving school at the age of 12 and becoming apprenticed to an advertising agency? Who knows! His wife has written a biography and maybe these issues are covered there. But, he's certainly driven as an artist and certainly prolific and certainly outstanding.
Happy to give this book 5 stars.
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booktsunami | Mar 17, 2023 |

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Werke
4
Auch von
1
Mitglieder
14
Beliebtheit
#739,559
Bewertung
4.2
Rezensionen
1
ISBNs
6