Robert Bateman: Natural Worlds

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Artist and naturalist Robert Bateman has few equals among wildlife
painters and printmakers. Each image presents a drama, an episode in the
life of animal or bird in its typical habitat, sometimes among others of
its species. The grandeur and subtlety of the environment are expertly
caught.

Bateman, like naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton nearly a century
earlier, grew up in Toronto, where he could observe native birds and
small animals in ravines and river valleys. After teaching art and
geography, traveling extensively, and experimenting with various styles,
the artist turned to realism, inspired by the work of American painter
Andrew Wyeth. Bateman now lives on Saltspring Island, off the B.C.
coast.

Rick Archbold, author of Robert Bateman: An Artist in Nature, here
speaks in the first person

in Bateman’s voice, giving the illusion that the artist is describing
his own life on the island with his family: “Now that I’ve become
acquainted with the subtleties of its seasons and explored its
remarkable physical and biological variety, it has become a part of
me.” Through Archbold’s clear and detailed text, which is obviously
the fruit of many interviews, Bateman comments on his activities, his
work habits, and his numerous trips all over the world to paint
wildlife. Natural Worlds presents some of Bateman’s best work.