The Clare Branch of Birdwatch Ireland will host a presentation by renowned wildlife and bird artist Killian Mullarney at the Templegate Hotel on Friday January 12th at 8pm.
Killian is famous for his artwork in the Collins Bird Guide-a project that took over 15 years to complete, his wildlife artwork on Irish postage stamps over a good number of years, artist in situ with Eamon de Buitléar on TG4, RTE and BBC programmes and leader of wildlife tours throughout Europe and beyond.
This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in art, bird watching or the great outdoors to see Killian in County Clare for the first time.
He is well known to audiences in Britain, Spain, Sweden etc. He was born in Dublin but now lives in Wexford and has a great grá for west Clare.
Killian’s presentation is titled “The Art of Bird Identification-a forty year perspective on birding and field guides”. His talk begins with a short account of how his interest in birds developed and was nurtured at a very young age, with references to key influences on him at that time. He takes us back in time when the only telescopes available were far inferior to what we have now. The limited information in field guides meant there was huge potential for personal discovery when the first real good telescopes appeared in the late 70s. This led to a ‘renaissance’ in bird identification knowledge which continues to this day.
There will be an opportunity to join in the conversation with a question and answer session forming part of his presentation.
He will have some copies of “The Collins Bird Guide” with him and these will be available to purchase and of course he will be happy to sign books old as well as new.
Local naturalist/birder and film-maker John Murphy will introduce Killian and some of his artworks will be on display.
It promises to be an entertaining evening. Everybody is welcome to attend. Anyone who posted a letter held Killian’s artwork in their hand at some time or other. A great way to begin 2018.