Birds Inspire Artists

Color and Movement Take Wing

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

With their aerial acrobatics and colorful plumage, birds are a welcome sight to sailors and surfers looking out to the horizon. They’re also an inspiration to artists.

Surf and beach artists Heather Brown, William R. Beebe and Ron Croci often include birds in their seascapes.

Depicted in a variety of styles, artists from Vincent Van Gogh to Pablo Picasso have made birds the subjects of their paintings.

Marc Chagall, Frida Kahlo, Hiroge…

Andrew Wyeth and Andy Warhol have all succumbed to their spell.

One of Claude Monet’s most famous paintings The Magpie makes the tiny bird perched on a gate in a snowy landscape the focal point and helped to launch the Impressionist period.

The most well-known bird artist of all, John James Audubon (1785-1851), brought attention to the vast number of bird species in America. His detailed, lifelike paintings of birds in their natural habitats showed viewers birds they had never seen before.

Sometimes even the birds themselves are inspired to paint – like Zeppy this salmon-crested cockatoo at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

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Lacoste Crocodile Takes Vacation

Promotes Save Our Species Campaign

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

French polo shirt maker Lacoste is giving up its iconic crocodile logo temporarily to save endangered animals. Its new Save Our Species campaign is the start of a three-year partnership between Lacoste and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

 

Swapping the well-known crocodile logo that’s adorned its shirts for 85 years, Lacoste is spotlighting the plight of 10 endangered species by featuring each one as the logo on a line of limited-edition polo shirts.

The number of shirts produced – 1,775 in all – represents the total number of animals left in the 10 species, with a shirt for each animal. So, there are just 30 Vaquita shirts in the line – one for each of the world’s remaining Vaquitas, a small porpoise that inhabits the Gulf of California.

 

Other animals in the lineup include the Burmese Roofed Turtle, Northern Sportive Lemur, Javan Rhino, Cao-vit Gibbon, Kakapoo, California Condor, Saola, Sumatran Tiger, and Anagada Ground Iguana.

Lacoste hopes that these new animal logos will draw the world’s attention to the need to protect endangered species.

 

The crocodile itself is an homage to the company’s founder 1920s/30s tennis player René Lacoste, who was called “The Crocodile” because of his competitiveness on the tennis court, winning seven Grand Slam titles.

Designed by Lacoste himself, the green embroidered crocodile was the first brand label to appear on the outside of clothing.

To find out more about the Vaquita, the world’s most rare marine animal, see SurfWriter Girls story. Just click on Vaquita

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Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.