William Thomas Cooper

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William Thomas Cooper (born April 6, 1934 in Newcastle , New South Wales , † May 10, 2015 in Malanda , Queensland ) was an Australian landscape painter , animal painter and ornithologist .

Live and act

As a teenager, he worked as a taxidermist at the now-disused Carey Bay Zoo. After graduating from Newcastle Boys' High School, he worked as a manager in a men's clothing company. Influenced by his mentor William Dobell , he became a professional draftsman in 1964. While he was drawing a bird from a specimen in the Australian Museum , the ornithologist Keith Alfred Hindwood noticed him, who hired him as an illustrator for his book A Portfolio of Australian Birds , published in 1968 . His reputation as an excellent bird artist enabled Cooper to work with well-known ornithologists, including Joseph Michael Forshaw ( Parrots of the World , 1973), Clifford Brodie Frith and Bruce Beehler ( The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae , 1998). Almost all of the originals of his drawings were sold closed. The original drawings from Parrots of the World went to the National Library of Australia , from Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (1977) to the government of Papua New Guinea and the originals of the second edition of Australian Parrots (1981) and Kingfishers and Related Birds (1983–1994) went to a private collector. He also exhibited his pictures in one of the most renowned art exhibitions for animal painting, at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau , Wisconsin , USA. Cooper lived in the tropical rainforest in northern Queensland with his wife, Wendy, who often helped him with his work . Wendy Cooper wrote the text for Fruits of the Rainforest and with her botanical expertise she made an important scientific contribution to the works Cockatoos: A Portfolio of All Species (2001) and Turacos: A Natural History of the Musophagidae (2002). For these two books, the Coopers traveled to Africa in 1995 and through Australia and Singapore between 1998 and 1999 to draw the turacos and cockatoos in their natural habitat. Cooper continued to tour Japan , Malaysia and India .

In 1993, Cooper was the subject of the television documentary Portrait Painter to Birds by David Attenborough , who named him one of the best living scientific bird artists.

Honors

For his importance in nature painting, William Thomas Cooper received the gold medal of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1990 and for his services in art and ornithology he was awarded the Order of Australia in 1994.

Works (selection)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bird illustrator William Cooper dies at home in far north Queensland
  2. ↑ Parrots 6/2015, p. 185.
  3. ↑ Anita Beaumont: Bird artist William T. Cooper dies aged 81 In: The Herald of May 12, 2015.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cooper, William Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cooper, William T.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian landscape painter, animal painter and ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Newcastle , New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 2015
Place of death Malanda , Queensland