Ching’s beautiful birds

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 19

Ching’s beautiful birds

Now Zeeland Birds: An Artist's Fluid diUDRM. Of n9Jrfr9Qf9Q len&lgr Methuen, 1986. 232 pp. $125.

(Reviewed by

David Brokenshire)

From prehistory, as soon as people had time to observe and wonder, birds and flight captivated attention. Among cave drawings birds are depicted and they featured prominently throughout the Egyptian civilisation. Doser to our own time, Audubon’s “The Birds of America,” first published in 1826, set a high standard. The beauty of his drawings and the vividness of his prose revealed the excitement engendered by the birds of the New World. In New Zealand generations have enjoyed Buller’s “Birds of New Zealand," first published in 1888. Now, one of the world’s most celebrated “bird painters” has given us a new study of New Zealand birds. Let it be stated, at once, that this is a sumptuously beautiful book. There are 69 paintings in water colour or oils, 78 pencil studies, and all are supported by an accurate yet informal and highly entertaining text The pencil field studies have a charm of their own — movement frozen by the flickering pencil captures many

characteristic gestures — and are a worthy addition to the book. It is the studies in water colour or oils that are the major feature, and they are superb. The kingfisher on tf double page. Is an outstanding example. The bird Is placed high in the righthand corner, sitting on a tangle of seaweed and driftwood which sprawls across the paper. The,,, background is almost monochromatic • in sepia, yet one can feel the heat of’7 the bleaching summer sun and hear the overlapping waves on the sand, , just out of sight. The bird, jewel-like in ■■ colour tensely waits for the slighted movement of fish in the water. t -'<. All the studies are of this standard with background suggested yet allowing the viewer’s imagination and experience to fully round out the picture. Birds obviously excite - Raymond Ching, yet his delight in the ' various media — pencil, water colour and oils — adds immeasurably to the ; value of the studies. Ido not think that Buller’s “Birds of ' New Zealand” will be replaced in our / affections with this new study, but side-by-side these books form a magnificent complementary image of our native birds.