Botanical Art of William T. Cooper - Wendy Cooper

William T. Cooper was one of the world's most esteemed bird painters. In his paintings, birds nibble at plump red berries, they rest on twisted vines and branches covered with lichen, and they clutch forest fruits and leaves in their claws. These botanical details, the backdrops to his bird portraits, are the subject of this lavishly illustrated book written by his botanist wife, Wendy Cooper.

For the bird lover, William's lush, full-colour paintings, many from private collections, are reproduced here, alongside Wendy's notes and William's diary entries about bird feeding habits. For the nature lover, Wendy has included detailed botanical descriptions of each plant and personal notes about where a particular specimen was found. She takes the reader from rainforest to dry country, from swamps and beach forest to the jungles north of Australia. For the budding illustrator or artist, Cooper's annotated sketches, studies and paintings of plants, as well as many of his finished bird illustrations, give a unique insight into his artistic process.