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Photos by Samantha Haacke |
Soon we were whisked away to a back room by the museum librarian, Tersia Perregil where we were first entertained by a talk given by resident orinthologist, Greg Davies (no relation to Claude), who told us the amazing and tragic tale of Claude Gibney Finch-Davies, a character possessed by his obsession for birds.
Then we were allowed to pore over about 30 exquisite original Claude Gibney Finch-Davies artworks which Tersia had carefully laid out for us.
The bird paintings are hard to describe - each an individual jewel - each one displaying a perfect balance of painted realism and stylization to best represent each bird's unique feathering and colouration. Just utter perfection!
It was wonderful to see such meticulous attention to detail, and it left us all awestruck, and wondering about his working methods and techniques.
Thanks to Gill Condy for arranging this rare treat, and for introducing us to CGFD, bird artist par excellence!
~ Samantha Haacke
Read more about Claude Gibney Finch-Davies:
- Wikipedia entry - click here!
- Click here to read the Getaway magazine article "The madness of a collector" by Don Pinnock (published in 2001)