James Fenwick Lansdowne (Order of Canada, Order of BC, Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts), was an internationally renowned wildlife artist and author. Born to British parent in Hong Kong in 1937, Lansdowne grew up in Victoria, BC and was taught to paint by his mother, an accomplished artist trained in Chinese watercolour painting. He began his artistic career at a young age presenting his first exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum at the age of nineteen. His work has been closely compared to the paintings of John James Audubon, as it often portrayed a specific bird species over a neutral coloured background. Lansdowne’s work however has been lauded for its life-like realism and ability to present birds in naturalistic poses. He studies his subjects in their natural habitat and paints them in gouache. In 1977, Lansdowne was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 1979, received an honourary Doctor of Laws from the University of Victoria. Lansdowne’s works have exhibited internationally at museums and galleries including Audubon House in New York, London’s Truon Galleries, and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. ARTIST INFO: Times Colonist Obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timescolonist/obituary.aspx?n=james-fenwick-lansdowne&pid=114495190 (Accessed January 9, 2017); CBC Obituary: http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/renowned-b-c-bird-artist-and-author-james-fenwick-lansdowne-dies-at-71-1.694563 (Accessed January 9, 2017); University of Victoria Collection Search Results: http://collection.legacy.uvic.ca/index.php?artist_id=2123&artist_action=get_art_w_bio (Accessed February 26, 2017)
