National Gallery Exhibit & General Electric

The National Gallery in Washington, DC is opening an exhibit on Audubon's Birds of America September 25 - April 2, 2006. Yesterday, I happened to be at the gallery and stumbled into the exhibit. I guess they have it up early as it seems ready to go and folks are looking at it. It is not to be missed! How wonderful to look at original prints in their glorius detail. The details on the feathers and the layers and creative washes of paint Audubonn instructed his colorists to use are incredible. There is also one oil painting that Audubon painted and owned until he died of an Osprey carrying a Weakfish. It gives me new respect for the plumage of the Turkey - the first print in the series and a new respect for the artist. This man knew birds on a level of detail that I can only describe as intimate. Check it out at --
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/upcoming.shtm#audubon

On a similar vein, looks like GE has bought permission to use a copy of Audubon's Short Billed Dowitchers or Red-Breasted Snipe in one of their ads. I'm very disappointed. You can see it here, and it is in the NY Times Magazine for Sunday, Sept. 18. http://www.ge.com/images/audubon1280.jpg
Note the airplane in the background and the latin name they use for the bird. Very disappointing. I hate greenwashing.

The picture next to this blog is a Stellar's Jay, I took the picture in Yosemite National Park 10 days ago. What a handsome fellow!

Denise Ryan
DC Audubon

Audubon Prints To Hibernate

The New York Times reports that after April 3, the New-York Historical Society will be packing up the 40 fragile Audubon watercolors that it has been displaying in its exhibition "Audubon's Aviary," lay them in flat cases on archival shelves and protect them from the depredations of daily life and light, by forcing them into hibernation for 10 years.

Source: New-York Historical Society
"Northern Bobwhite and the
Red-Shouldered Hawk," an
1825 watercolor, from
"Audubon's Aviary" at the
New-York Historical Society.

But an Audubonian migration is still going to become an annual ritual because the society's Audubon collection is the largest in the world. Every year another selection of the 435 life-size watercolors prepared for the naturalist's masterwork, "The Birds of America," will emerge briefly from their protective housing and be exposed to public view. Eventually, over the next 11 years the entire flock will have an opportunity to display their early-19th-century wings in early-21st-century air.