IN SEARCH OF HARRIERS

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

By Donald Watson

Wildlife Art Series Volume 3

A brand new unread hardback in dust-wrapper BUT with small bump to corner of boards.

Publisher's price £38.00

Our price just £12.95 - 66% off!

2010 1st edition. Large 4to (257 x 312mm). Pp112. Colour illustrations and b/w sketches by the author throughout, patterned end-papers. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

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Volume 3 in the well-thought-of Wildlife Art Series from Langford Press.

"Donald Watson was born in Cranleigh, Surrey, in 1918. His father was an Aberdonian Scot who spent much of his life in Africa. His mother was from the south of England, and after his father's death in 1931 she moved with her three sons to live in Edinburgh, Scotland. Donald drew and watched birds from childhood, motivated by his brother Eric and influenced to some extent by his uncle Harry John Pearson, RBA, who was an architect-turned-artist and a gifted portrait painter, especially of women and children. Donald went to school at the Edinburgh Academy, where he won an Open Exhibition to St John's College, Oxford. From 1940-42 Donald had a varied career in the army, beginning as a private in the RAMC, followed by a short spell as a non-commissioned officer in the Army Education Corps, then from 1942 as a commissioned officer in the Royal Artillery. In 1944 he was posted to India, and he fought in Burma in 1944-45 with the 6th Medium Regiment RA. He had the good fortune to go to the Arakan front where a fellow Edinburgh Academical and noted ornithologist, General Sir Philip Christison, was the GOC. Although far from being a natural soldier, Donald found great inspiration for his love of sketching and painting in his spare moments, when he dreamed of becoming a professional bird artist after the war was over. The wildlife and countryside of the Arakan were inspirational. When he returned home to be demobilised in 1946, Donald was determined to try his luck as a professional bird painter and was rewarded by having some successful exhibitions of his work in many different locations, the first major one being in Edinburgh in 1949. As years went by he continued to have exhibitions in many cities, with the occasional disaster - for example, at Bristol in 1954, where he sold only one painting. In 1950 he had married a childhood playmate, Joan Moore. They spent most of that summer being captivated by the Outer Hebrides and in October Ian MacNicol put on a big exhibition, mostly of Hebridean subjects, at his Glasgow gallery. A steady flow of commissions followed. In those early days of his career as an artist Donald was deeply grateful to Arthur Duncan, later Sir Arthur, for his encouragement, hospitality and commissions for paintings. In 1962 Bruce Campbell invited him to illustrate the Oxford Book of Birds, which Bruce was writing. Donald painted 96 colour plates in less than two years, and in 1964 he became a founder member of the Society for Wildlife Artists. By then Donald and Joan had four children, three girls and a boy: all were supportive and became successful in their various careers in different parts of England and Scotland, with one in California. Donald first became interested in harriers when he saw the beautiful Pied and Pallid Harriers in Burma and India in 1944. In 1959 he found what was believed to be the first successful nest of the Hen Harrier in Galloway in the 20th century and he studied this bird throughout the rest of his life, writing and illustrating the Poyser monograph The Hen Harrier in 1977. In 1992 he was proud to be elected the first honorary member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. Donald finished writing the text of this book shortly before he died, in November 2005." (Publisher's blurb).