Neighborhood Cormorants

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At the top is John James Audubon's 1831 depiction of a Florida cormorant, and below it is a photo I took last week, just down the street.

In my last posting, I showed views of my back yard. In this view from my roof, one can see the estuary, and beyond it Little Bayou, which leads into Tampa Bay. Since this photograph was taken, mangroves have been planted along the estuary, and they've grown to almost block my ground level view of the water. While that's a disappointment, mangroves are vital to the food chain of marine life, thus insuring that birds like the cormorant will stick around.

And so if I want to watch the cormorants, I walk about 1½ blocks to this seawall and have a seat.

Cormorants are interesting to watch. They will swim in the water to catch fish, but unlike other seabirds, their feathers don't repel water in the same way, and they will become water-logged.

After a dip or plunge in the water, cormorants need to dry off, and therefore spend much of their daytime roosting between meals. That's why the fellow in the photo below is spreading his wings.

In Asia, cormorants are used to help fishermen catch their haul, and for an extraordinarily beautiful image of that, I direct you to a National Geographic page, here.
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My Rare Florida Spoonbill

Every once in a while I get the urge to make a collage. Usually I have a subject in mind, and the image of John James Audubon's Roseate Spoonbill has been rattling around in my head for quite a while. So I had to get it out.

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Above is Audubon's version of the spoonbill. Audubon's original print measures approximately 38"x24" and is currently valued at $235,000.

© Mark D. Ruffner, 2012

 And this is my own version,

The Rare Florida Spoonbill.

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John James Audubon (1785-1851) spent much of his his career producing The Birds of America, a series of 435 hand-colored engravings, with birds all at life-size or larger. He sold the series by subscription, and his subscribers included the kings of England and France, as well as major institutions of the day.

The Roseate Spoonbill, found in Texas and Florida, was highly prized for its feathers, and by the end of the Civil War, had disappeared completely from Texas. Only a couple dozen remained in Florida. Today, spoonbills found in Florida are actually the Mexican Roseate Spoonbill.

In writing this post, I have relied heavily upon the excellent site of Graham Arader, and I encourage you to read more about John James Audubon there.

I offer you two views of John James Audubon. I can't help thinking that with his sharp eyes and nose, he resembles the American Bald Eagle.
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The Woodcuts of Thomas Bewick

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) remains England's foremost wood engraver. By all accounts, he had an idyllic childhood, romping about outdoors in Northumberland instead of attending to his lessons. His aptitude for drawing was noticed early (how could it not — he drew all over the steps to church), and he was apprenticed at 14 to a silver engraver. The engraver let Bewick handle orders from printers, who required woodcut images.

In those days, images and frames for advertising tended to be rather crude, and they were usually cut from the face of a board. Bewick instead used the end grain of the wood. The end grain was a much harder surface, which allowed for fine detail and many more printing impressions. Some of Bewick's blocks have been printed as many as 900,000 times!

When Bewick's apprenticeship was finished, he sought work in London, but finding it too crowded and unfriendly, he moved back to Northumberland, where through his great talent, he had a very successful career.

He printed a number of books, including the General History of Quadrupeds, the History of British Birds, the Cries of London  (images of street criers),  Aesop's Fables, and the Poetry of Robert Burns.

His images of animals are not only correct, but portraits of individual personalities. Looking at the scope of Bewick's work, it's clear that he observed wildlife with a very keen eye. His settings and backdrops are equally elegant. Notice how grass overlaps the boundary of the sod above, and how Bewick brings life to the rat by having its tail overlap the sod as well.

Bewick's most popular work was the History of British Birds. Scores of birds were depicted with accuracy and in his inimitable style. The bark on the tree above, and its shadowing, are typical of Bewick's illustrations.

Bewick's fame spread (John James Audubon was just one who called on him), and as demand for his work grew work, Bewick taught and employed other wood engravers to assist him.

 Illustrations from Aesop's Fables

I want to point your attention to this ad for the druggist J. Garnett. It was probably a lesser job for Bewick, but look at the beauty and care with which it's done. Smaller, delicate marks achieve a sense of distance, and the illusion of a reflection on the water is very convincing.

I'll end with this handsome frontispiece by Thomas Bewick. It has all the earmarks of his genius — stylized and densely detailed foliage; an elegant allusion to simpler, genteel times; a beautiful animal captured in a natural moment; and perfect shadowing executed in a completely black and white line format.

Thomas Bewick's work was so popular that he revitalized the art form of wood engraving for six decades beyond his death. A host of engravers closely imitated him, including his talented employees, and therefore it's not always easy to know authorship. I've carefully selected these images from a book of Bewick's work, believing them by sheer virtuosity to be the "real deal."

P. S. This posting's header is a detail of this beautiful woodcut. Be sure to read my blogging friend Rosemary's comment below, which gives some interesting backgound on this image.

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