April Indoor Meeting – Michael DiGiorgio – Illustrating the World of Birds

Join us as Michael DiGiorgio describes his journey from tracking and observing birds in the wild to learning how to express their beauty—and his feelings about them—in drawings and paintings. Along the way he meets the masters of bird art, finds his voice as an artist, and comes into his own as a nationally-recognized nature artist. The talk also will include discussions of sketching birds from life and becoming a field-guide artist. Michael currently lives in Madison, CT. His paintings and drawings have appeared in a variety of nature books and journals, such as Birds of Brazil Volumes 1 & 2, Birds of Honduras, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Breeding Bird Atlas of Connecticut, New York State Breeding Bird Atlas, Audubon Field Guide to Birds/Eastern and Western regions, and The Narrow Edge by Deborah Cramer. From 2007 to 2012, Mike was contracted by Houghton Mifflin to completely revise the artwork for the new edition of Peterson Field Guide to the Birds. In recognition of his bird illustration work, Mike received the first-ever Don Richard Eckelberry Endowment from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Mike’s paintings have been exhibited at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY; The Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI; The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA; and The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY. Mike currently is illustrating plates for Birds of South America Volume 3, with Robert Ridgley and Guy Tudor.