Safari Sketchbook – a bird- painter`s African odyssey
Safari Sketchbook - a bird- painter`s African odyssey is the title of a new book by Martin Woodcock, to be published in spring 2010. It is a beautiful and evocative collection of studies and sketches from some of the field trips Martin made while researching for The Birds of Africa illustrations, with a text based on his journals.
Much of the material comes from several lengthy trips to Tanzania and Kenya, on some of which mist-netting enabled forest birds to be studied and drawn in the hand, and there are also accounts of visits to Uganda, Cameroon and Ethiopia. Many of the sketch-pages show birds as you see them in the field; they flit or stalk through the pages in a way that will bring vivid recollections for anyone who has experienced Africa`s wonderful wildlife.
There is also a generous selection of landscape and habitat studies to heighten the sense of atmosphere and place. In the lively text, anecdotes, `incidents of the route`, descriptive passages with a little poetry and some history enhance the underlying ornithological research.
Hardback, with a dust jacket, the book measures 12x10 inches, with 176 pages in colour, and a foreword by Field Marshal Sir John Chapple.
Published by The Esker Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-9564016-0-1.
£45, post-free in the UK only.
Click here to go to Martin Woodcock's website, or to order a copy of the book.
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