The wonderful architecture of the birds' nests, celebrated in a book of illustrations

    The wonderful architecture of the birds' nests, celebrated in a book of illustrations

    An English botanical illustrator has published a unique work that collects about 60 bird nests, painted in great detail

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    Susan Ogilvy, English botanical illustrator, began painting i bird nests almost by chance. Five years ago, the woman found she found a soggy finch nest in her garden after a storm. Having no idea what she was, she picked it up and placed it in the house on a sheet of newspaper, only to realize how surprised she was once it was dry. The illustrator was so impressed with her ingenious creation that she immediately wanted to immortalize it in a painting life size.





    Since then, that for nests has become a real passion and the woman has started looking for these small architectures in nature, observing and painting them. At the time Ogilvy knew nothing about nests and couldn't even find them illustrated publications to study them.

    Drawing them, he found that each species has its own preferences in terms of "construction materials" and chooses from twigs, roots, herbs, leaves, feathers, what he deems most appropriate to create unique and spectacular creations.

    Since, for not disturb the birds, the nests were painted by observing them in nature when they had already been abandoned, learning to distinguish them and to associate the right species with each construction required the help of Deon Warner. So Ogilvy learned that, for example, finches build round and perfectly symmetrical nests using mainly moss and cobwebs but, if it does not find these materials, it adapts to use lichens or what the environment offers, while maintaining the same geometry.

    About a year after his first encounter with the finch nest, Ogilvy decided to publish his works to pay homage to the nests and especially to the ingenious birds who build them and which deserve respect and admiration and who, above all, must not be disturbed in their nests.

    Today, four years later, his is about to come out new book "Nests" - nests - which collects the illustrations of about 60 nests of doves, sparrows, wrens and other birds, all painted down to the smallest detail.

    It is a collection which celebrates the beauty of nature but also of a work unique and important: there are in fact few modern books dedicated to the subject.



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    Sources of reference: Penguin / The Guardian

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