Craig Williams is an Australian artist who combines his passion for wildlife and art by creating exquisite bird paintings on vintage book pages. He uses acrylic paint to depict realistic portraits of various bird species, such as sparrows, hawks, and parrots. He chooses the book pages carefully, so that the text and illustrations complement his paintings and create a visual harmony. Some of the pages are from field guides, atlases, textbooks, and other reference books that relate to the birds or their habitats.
Williams says that he aims to create a connection between his art and the history of the books, which often show signs of wear and tear. He also leaves some parts of the paintings, such as the branches, in the underpainting stage, to allow the text to be visible and to highlight the birds. Williams has a background in zoology and has worked in museums and wildlife parks. He draws inspiration from his own observations of birds and from photographs. Williams’ bird paintings are a unique and beautiful way of celebrating the diversity and beauty of nature.
The use of vintage book pages as the substrate brings an underlying story to the piece through the history of the books themselves which is often evident in the imperfect nature of the paper with blemishes, marks, creases, and wear. While the birds in some works can have an easily identifiable, even a direct link to the page content (as an example depicting a bird using the identification page from a field guide) others can have more discrete and even an intangible relationship to the page contents. Often the branch on which the bird is perched is left in the underpainting stage with no further details [and allows] the text on the page to remain visible and [help] to both tie the bird to the page text while also lifting the bird prominently off the page.
Craig Williams
More info: Website, Instagram (h/t: My Modern Met).
