Bird Art Galley - Costa Rica Paintings

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Antony John's Painting Gallery, Costa Rican Art work as well

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Antony John is an organic farmer with a degree in wildlife biology. His farm is located in Sebringville, in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Antony and the farm he runs with his wife Tina, was the focus of a popular show about organic gardening called, The Manic Organic. The show was distributed to over 50 countries around the world, showing people how to treat their garden as an ecosystem, and how to cook delicious meals from the produce.

Antony's art is based on an underlying geometric structure, in the manner of the Rennaissance artists. In this way, Antony represents what he feels is an order to ecosytems, just as he orders the space on his farm to plant crops every year. Many of his paintings represent the balance between order and chaos that exists in every ecosytem, from the open fields of his farm, to the lush habitats of Costa Rica.

In The Mangroves 2010
21X34 in

In The Mangroves Working Drawing 2009
12X16 in

"Hothead" 2007
12x16 in
On my first visit to a tropical ecosystem, I was struck by its
complexity and biodiversity. I come from a very ordered environment
on the farm, and Carara was to me a completely different universe.
I realized I couldn't apply such a strict geometric schema to
the jungle, and still have it look realistic, so I
celebrated the apparent chaos instead. Life is competing everywhere
for light, so the painting is essentially about
light and shadow, chaos and order, the balancing point
between the two is, I feel, what life is about.

Canopy Fairy (White-Crested Coquette) 2009 8.5X11in[1]

"Canopy Fairy" 2009
8.5x11 in
Male White-crested Coquettes are canopy feeders,
and you rarely get close looks at them.
I wanted to take you up into the trees to get a
Coquettes view of its environment. I often like transporting
the viewer out of their normal point of view,
and putting them at animal level,
to try and get the viewer to see things differently.

"Barn Swallow and Airfield" 1993
15.25x24.25 in
This painting for me represents a failing of the devices we invent,
to sense what the bird is already aware of.
The calm before the storm. The wind sock has not
yet sensed the impending event, but the swallow is capitalizing on it to catch insects.

"Butcher Bird and Sickle Mower" 2007
16x22.5 in
The shrike is not equipped with talons to catch its prey,
which is often relatively large. Instead it impales
the prey on a thorn or branch, and 'butchers' it by tearing
it apart. It is a brilliantly adapted killer. The sickle
mower is also an efficient killer as it goes through
the meadow, however, its victims are killed without purpose.
I wanted to put the bird in a rather noble pose above the
viewer to emphasize the distinction between one who kills to eat,
and one who kills indiscriminantly.