– reviewed by Hans Tammemagi –
Robert Bateman’s wizardry with a brush captures animals, birds and their natural landscapes in an evocative and realistic manner. Also a crusader for nature and conservation, he is probably Canada’s best-known and best-loved artist. Now, at the ripe age of 85 he has written his autobiography describing his rich and fascinating life. As an elder statesman, he also dispenses spiritual wisdom.
First off, the publisher, Simon & Schuster, has produced a magnificent book illustrated with numerous sketches and many colour plates showing Bateman’s life and art. It’s a keeper!
Bateman begins in Toronto and shows how even in his childhood he had a deep affection for nature and living things. From the outset he had prodigious talent in art and he developed an equally impressive knowledge of the biology of animals and especially birds.
Bateman loves travel and takes the reader along on many journeys, including when in 1957, at the age of 27, he made an epic trip in a Land Rover through Africa, India, Southeast Asia and Australia in 14 months studying the nature around him while sketching and painting. He also describes trips to the Antarctic, the Galapagos, the Great Bear Rain Forest and more. The memoir also highlights
Bateman’s love of family and his closeness to his children and grandchildren. In 1985, Bateman moved to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, where he lives with his second wife, Birgit Freybe Bateman.
We follow along as Bateman’s art grew to become immensely popular and much sought after. He received the Order of Canada and numerous other accolades. But there is a simmering controversy: Canada’s major public art galleries (including the Vancouver Art Gallery) will not display his art. Bateman tries to explain this inexplicable behaviour and, although one reads disappointment between the lines, he shows no rancor or bitterness.
Bateman feels the recently opened Robert Bateman Centre in Victoria is more than an art gallery – it also preaches environmental conservation and urges young people get outside into nature.
The memoir closes with Bateman and his wife taking their daily walk in the forest around his home. Then he returns to his studio and paints.
New Releases – Available at Tanner’s Books
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Not a Clue by Janet Brons (paperback fiction)
Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell (paperback fiction)
Pacific by Simon Winchester (hardcover non-fiction)
Robert Bateman: Life Sketches by Robert Bateman (hardcover non-fiction)
Victoria: A Life by A.N.Wilson (paperback non-fiction)
Don’t Panic by Gwynne Dyer (paperback non-fiction)
