To celebrate Earth Day, the Chapin School is hosting ‘B is for Bird.’
By: Susan Van Dongen
Bird lovers don’t need to go to one of the nation’s large, famous sanctuaries to enjoy winged crea tures. Just look out the window to your back or front yard. Or watch the greenery around a shopping center for avian activity or even inside of a supermarket. If you’re a city resident, go to the park. Pay close attention to the ledges, nooks and crannies on urban buildings. There are even reports of hawks, falcons and eagles nesting at higher levels.
Or, you can visit the gallery at the Chapin School in Lawrence, where artist and birder Beatrice Bork has a number of her paintings on view through May 2. In conjunction with its Earth Day celebration in April, the Gallery at Chapin presents B is for Bird, a collection of Ms. Bork’s watercolors celebrating our feathered friends.
"I chose to focus on birds for this exhibit because they fascinate me more than almost any other animal," Ms. Bork says. "Maybe it’s the variety the physical form each has to suit what they need for survival, (whether they’re) flying or running or swimming. They come in all sizes and have very different beaks and feathers. They each seem to have their own personality, even within their species.
"Some travel great distances and some don’t," she continues. "They can exist anywhere, even in the harshest conditions, from the bitter cold of the Antarctic to the urban life of New York City and all around the globe. The raptors that live in the cities especially fascinate me, like the red-tailed hawk that has made a nest near Central Park. I think it’s raised about seven broods."
Ms. Bork spends a lot of time just observing avians before she begins a painting. She does gesture drawings quick sketches of shape and character. These capture the way the birds perch or if they sit on the ground, how they tilt their heads and other basic information.
"The drawings give me a lot of reminder info," Ms. Bork says. "Although sometimes I can just draw things from memory. I also use my own photography plus any resource material I can get my hands on, just to make sure my paintings are accurate exact color patterns, the amount of primary feathers, that kind of thing. But basically my ideas and composition start from a sketch."
Walking nature trails, visiting bodies of water where birds linger and just looking out her window are all ways to gather information about the creatures. In fact, it’s the observation that is probably Ms. Bork’s favorite part of the creative process.
"I remember growing up and not being able to put the crayons down," she says. "My favorite subject has always been animals, I’ve always loved them. My parents have an appreciation for nature I got the spark from them and took it from there.
"Part of me wanted to be a naturalist," Ms. Bork continues. "But I loved the art work so much I tried to figure out how to combine the two. It gives me an opportunity to enjoy the process of painting but I also get to spend time studying and observing nature. So it works out for me."
A Flemington resident, Ms. Bork grew up in Hunterdon County and started painting seriously in high school, where she was immediately drawn to wildlife art. Her family had moved from South Plainfield when she was a youngster and Ms. Bork says the relocation was a real eye-opener.
"There was wildlife everywhere," she says. "You could find box turtles and garter snakes and all kinds of birds. I kind of woke up when we moved here. And it’s still beautiful, especially compared to other parts of the state. I’ve really developed a passion for birds in the years I’ve been painting. It’s a never-ending cycle, because there are so many species. The more I study them, the more I want to paint them. The more I paint them, the more I want to study them."
Ms. Bork’s work has been published in several issues of Wildlife Art magazine and she has won numerous awards, including the 2004 Don Eckleberry Scholarship Award and the Niece Lumber Award. She’s exhibited locally many times, including a solo show at the Brodsky Gallery at ETS in Princeton. A graphic designer as well as a painter, Ms. Bork is hoping to try some teaching as well.
In 2005, she used the scholarship to travel to Trinidad, one of the world’s most spectacular places for viewing birds.
"It’s fantastic there were hummingbirds, parrots, toucans and something called a purple honeycreeper," Ms. Bork says. "The female is green with some subtle nuances in her plumage, but the male is this brilliant blue-purple color, with yellow legs and black wings. In the tropics, so many of the birds have striking colors. I kept a list when I was in Trinidad and I believe I counted about 100 species just in the 10 days I was there. Birders will come back to Trinidad just to try and see one species they haven’t seen before. Same with Costa Rica it’s also known for its birding.
"But I can get just as excited watching doves in my backyard, soaking in the sun and preening," she continues. "Watching the birds and observing nature is a nice getaway, a break from the hustle and bustle. It helps me refocus and brings me back to the realization that we’re part of this planet. It reconnects you to what’s important."
One of the wishes for the artist as well as curator Diana Russo and the educators at the Chapin School is that the students will understand that this pleasurable connection with nature is part of the reason Earth Day was founded in 1970. Stepping back and savoring what the Earth Mother has to give helps create concern for the planet, raises awareness of ways we can help preserve the environment.
"I’m bringing a variety of paintings, from places I’ve been to, near and far," Ms. Bork says. "I want to spark the children to just look around their own backyard a little more carefully. Or maybe I have a budding artist in the group. Sometimes art is too geared to abstraction but maybe some young artist who loves animals will look at my paintings and say, ‘Oh, I can draw them too.’
"If only a couple of kids come away with more interest in the environment, it will be well worth it," she continues. "You never know where a love for nature will lead in the future."
B is for Bird, watercolors by Beatrice Bork, is on view at the Gallery at Chapin, the Chapin School, 4101 Princeton Pike, Lawrence, through May 2. Gallery hours: by appointment during school hours, Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-3 p.m. For information, call (609) 924-7206. Beatrice Bork on the Web: beatricebork.artspan.com

