Canadian artist Rose Tanner dedicates her work almost entirely to birds. Using traditional oil painting techniques, she captures birds in flight, nesting, and going about their daytoday. The end result is uncannily lifelike, zooming in on the mysterious, magnification, lives of birds.
Some of her paintings include endangered birds, calling to mind the importance of protecting avian species. “Endangered birds are a gauge to the health of our environment,” Tanner writes on her website.
“By protecting the endangered we reassess our environment and our actions to come up with solutions for the species survival. It leads to growth, education, community and improves the environment, wouldn’t you say these are all great reasons to protect the endangered?”
Having studied illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and oil painting with Daniel Keys as well as several other contemporary master painters, Tanner now utilizes her talent to develop and promote the work of others, teaching and sharing her knowledge of classical oil painting.
But her work also includes a lot of research, as she studies her subjects outdoors. “One time I travelled 12,000 kilometers for a species,” she recalled in a piece posted on Artsy Shark. “Crazy, right?” According to Tanner, many people do not see birds because they are small and fleeting. “But with a long lens, I have witnessed extraordinary behaviour that inspires me deeply,” she explains.
