Western TanagerCharley Harper, often dismissed as an "illustrator," is a proficient artist. Wikipedia describes his as an "American Modernist artist."
Bright as a circus poster on a weatherbeaten barn, the Western Tanager looks like a highly embarrassed goldfinch. No tree-top Caruso, he sings for his own enjoyment, telling of far-flung solitudes and the carefree existence, while his wife does the chores. When he visits your fruit orchard, remember that he eats mostly insects, ornaments Christmas trees in July, commemorates in color the autumn leaf, and is what you can say something is not as yellow as.
[From Charley Harper Prints page: Captions and Puns]
Harper refines this "modernist" label as "minimal realism" as:
When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe.His "modernist" description is too vague, and what Harper was attempting was not "modernism" but a picture "without trimming or unutilized parts" where "the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."
His whimsical world captures, despite his best intentions I'm sure, some of that movement (chaos, as he calls it) of life, and especially the life of birds. We can see, and feel, his barn owl in flight, startled by something (Harper?) and ready to pounce on the small animal (a barn mouse?) that would feed him and his family. Or the barn swallow, preening and mocking (the barn owl?) in its gloriously red plumage, ignoring the poor, industrious insect above it for a later rendezvous for a meal. Or a blue jay furiously bathing in a calm stream with unperturbed fish which are more cautious of bathing hawks or eagles than neurotic blue birds. Harper's pictures are delightfully detailed, despite their apparent simplicity. And he is as fascinated with the mundane robin as with the exotic anhinga.
The Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) is:
...a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae).[2] The species's plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family.
Adults have pale stout pointed bills, yellow underparts and light wing bars. Adult males have a bright red face and a yellow nape, shoulder, and rump, with black upper back, wings, and tail; in non-breeding plumage the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge. Females have a yellow head and are olive on the back, with dark wings and tail.
The song of disconnected short phrases suggests an American Robin's but is hoarser and rather monotonous. The call is described as "pit-er-ick". [Source: Wikipedia]
Video of song of the Western Tanager
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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