JOHN AUDUBON

1785-1851

John Audubon was a French-American ornithologst, naturalist, hunter and painter. A study of his art tied in beautifully with our bird study in Jeannie Fulbright's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day".

We have always enjoyed watching birds and even though the birds he painted were not native to our country we thoroughly enjoyed our time studying his life and art. Our library also had a fair amount of bird books with pictures painted of our native feathered friends which we checked out and enjoyed too!

"Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment. Cares I knew not, and cared naught about them." John Audubon

We found an abundance of resources to explore with this study, but enjoyed an Audubon Calendar and Dover Art Cards to study his art.

Audubon Birds Calendar The wonderful thing about calendars is that the pictures are large and more often than not a really good quality print. You can also enjoy pictures year round when you are done with your study.

Dover Publications has a wonderful series of art cards in postcard form that are a wonderful addition to any art study. We display them on a little stand in a prominent place in the house while we are studying various artists.

Audubon's Birds of America Postcards Dover Postcards are great for little hands, and also when you have limited space. My children love choosing their favourite ones to add to their art files.

My children each picked their favourite postcard and took five minutes to look at them and study them. After five minutes, I took the cards and they each got a turn to narrate what they had seen- I am always surprised at the details they picked up on and most times I have to turn the card over to make sure they are right (which they normally are!) I typed up their narrations for them, and we added them to their art files.

They also picked their favourite picture from our John Audubon Calendar and they had a go and doing a watercolour of the one they chose. I think the cardinal was almost a sure choice as we seem to have a thing for cardinals ever since we did the book Albert by Donna Jo Napoli!

"I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds." John James Audubon

Audubon spent hours and hours outdoors studying, observing, sketching and looking for answers to his many questions. We read some lovely books about his life which give a glimpse of his passion and enthusiasm for the outdoors and more specifically birds and their behaviour.

BOOK RESOURCES

Audubon Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier A wonderful account about the life of this very passionate man. The author used Audubon's own journals as her primary resource and includes some fascinating adventures! Beautiful watercolour illustrations!

The Boy Who Drew Birds This book reveals how the youthful Audubon pioneered a technique essential to our understanding of birds. Capturing the early passion of America's greatest painter of birds, this story will leave young readers listening intently for the call of birds large and small near their own homes. It has lovely pictures of his sketches and collections.

OTHER FUN ACTIVITIES

This is a great time to start a nature journal or a nature table with your child!

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