Spirit of the Wedge-Tailed Eagle, the Art of Humphrey Price-Jones [Book Review]

2009·0.27 MB·English

by  Virgil Hubregtse

Book Reviews
Spirit ofthe Wedge-tailed Eagle
The Art ofHumphrey Price-Jones
Paintings and drawings by Humphrey Price-Jones; text by Penny Olsen
Publisher: CSIROPublishing, 2007. 90pages, hardcover;ISBN 9780643094338,
265 x 355 mm. RRP$50.00
This large-format, beautifully produced book Alfred North, Graham Pizzey, Peter Slater,
J
consists ofa collection ofpaintings and pencil and Penny’s own book Wedge-tailed Eagle. She
drawings of eagles, accompanied by pertinent has also added some explanatorypassages. The
quotationsfromscientificliterature.Asindicat- informative text covers many aspects of the
edbythetitle,thefocusismainlyonAustralia’s eagle’s physiology and life cycle, including eye-
largesttrueeagle, theWedge-tailed Eagle. sight, feathers, flight, hunting, prey and repro-
The artist, Welshman Humphrey Price-Jones, duction.
has studied and painted Wedge-tailed Eagles By the end ofthe book, you feel that you are
ever since he came to Australiafortyyears ago. getting to know these awesome birds and the
Heproduces life-sizeportraits oflive birds and challenges they face in order to survive. This
mm
theoriginalartworksareupto 1800 x 1200 book will appeal to raptor enthusiasts and
mm. Anyworksmallerthan life-size, he main- anyone interested in wildlife art, but everyone
tains, could not conveythe majesty and power should atleasthavealookat it.
ofthese birds. The reproductions in this book,
four ofwhich are double-page spreads, are of
necessitymuchsmaller,buttheystillconveythe Virgil Hubregtse
6SanikyStreet
—essential characters ofthese magnificent birds NottingHill,Victoria3168
their strength, noble appearance and bright,
keen eyes. The pictures of feathers, skulls and
eggs,however, suffer from beingshrunkin size
because they look too small to belong to such
largebirds.
Most of the paintings and drawings are
groupedintofoursections.Eaglesincludespor-
traits ofsix ofthe worlds 35 eagles: Verreauxs
Eagle (averyclose relative ofthe Wedge-tailed
Eagle), Eastern Imperial Eagle, Golden Eagle,
Wedge-tailedEagle,LittleEagleandWhite-bel-
lied (no longer‘White-breasted’ as stated) Sea-
Eagle. The latter three species live in Australia.
Wedge-tailed Eagle includes many portraits
of this species perched, shown from a variety
ofangles. Eagles in action depicts these eagles
flying, hunting, feeding and being harassed by
ravensandAustralian Magpies.Thereisalsoan
aerial view ofa bird gliding high over hills and
valleys. ‘Eaglet to eagle’ featurespairs ofbirds,
nest-building, and the development ofa chick
from hatchlingto adult.
Raptor expert Penny Olsen has carefully se-
lectedtheaccompanyingtextfromobservations
recorded in 15 books, mostly by well-known
ornithologistssuchasJohnGould, David Fleay,
Vol 126 (3) 2009 117