Born in Toronto, Ontario, Robert Bateman received a degree in geography from the University of Toronto. A keen artist and naturalist from his youth, in the early sixties he began to develop the realistic style that has made him one of the foremost artists depicting the world of nature.
His art reflects his commitments to ecology and preservation, and he has donated his work to help with efforts that have raised millions of dollars for worthy causes.
Bateman’s work is in many public and private collections. He has had numerous one-man museum shows throughout North America, including one at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He was made an officer of the Order of Canada and has received a number of awards, honours and honorary doctorates. He has also been the subject of three films. Two of his books, The Art of Robert Bateman and The World of Robert Bateman, have sold more than half a million copies.
Marbled Murrelets 40/75
Robert Bateman
Photoetching
9 x 12 in.
Value: $440.00
Rental per month: $9.00
In the summertime, for obscure camouflage reasons, marbled murrelets are a kind of brindled brown colour. In the winter, however, these robin-sized birds have a more elegant black and white plumage. Bateman says he not only finds their feather pattern pleasing, but he really enjoys their alert and perky expression, an expression one might expect from a little elf of the forest.
In the autumn of 1991, he was fortunate enough to observe a gathering of these birds between some islands near his home. Murrelets almost always occur in pairs. These two stayed close together even as he approached, showing their erect little bottoms as they swam away. At the last minute, instead of flying, they kicked up their tiny webbed feet and, with a quick flip, did an escape dive.
The marbled murrelet is losing its nesting habitat along the Pacific coast as it competes with the forest industry for the remaining ancient old-growth trees.
Four aluminum plates were photoetched from mylar overlays for the colours blue, grey, ochre and black. Hand-pulled by Stone Press Editions Inc. of Seattle. Image is 9” by 12” (23cm by 30 cm).