One of the best selling and most influential bird books ever published was Lars Jonsson's "Birds of Europe with North Africa and the Middle East". It is an amalgamation of five books, first published in Swedish between 1976 and 1980.
Although widely acclaimed the one criticism that was regularly heard was that some of his birds were too round and cuddly. The Goldfinch on page 513 is in an almost identical pose to this one, taken this morning. The temperature was about zero and unlike the sleek streamlined Goldfinch of a summers day the bird is slightly fluffed up, using the duvet type quality of it's feathers. It really looks like a Lars Bird!
As well as the field Guide Lars has also written "Birds and Light" The Art of Lars Jonsson, one of my favourite books by a bird artist. The paintings, not just of birds, show the fantastic empathy the artist has for the environment he works in.
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