Frank Jarvis (1939-2002)

This newly updated site, which first started about 10 years ago, now includes the superb artwork of Frank Jarvis thanks to the generous support of his widow Jane. Frank was a British bird artist and illustrator whom I met in Singapore in the mid-1980’s. We collaborated on the production of the “Birds of Singapore”, and his European work adds much beauty to this website.

THE ART OF FRANK JARVIS

 Frank Jarvis (1939 -2002) was a British bird artist passionate about nature. He had a wonderful eye for detail, and an ability to capture the “essence” of a bird which was quite phenomenal. His talent showed at a very early age and he produced his first writings on “nature and animals” in home-made books, illustrated by his own paintings at the age of 8, and he soon followed it with others. Born in London (the day the War broke out he told me, but insisted it was not his fault!), at 16 he attended the Hornsey School of Art, and worked in several “routine” jobs, but all the time moving more and more into his real love - a full time career as a nature artist. He was an avid traveller and loved nothing better than to be confronted with a completely new avifauna in a foreign country.

In the early 80’s, whilst visiting relatives in Singapore he was invited to paint the plates for a book on the Birds of Bali. I was working in Singapore as an ornithologist at that time, and also thinking of my own book project. We were introduced and the result was a collaboration between us that saw the Birds of Singapore being published in 1987, and which was re-printed in paperback in 2018 (https://www.amazon.com/Birds-Singapore-Christopher-Hails/dp/9814794473). The Birds of Bali came out in 1989.

When he was in the field Frank always carried a sketch pad (usually “Bushey” brand) in his shoulder bag. He would sometimes stand with it folded back, resting on his arm, and make a lightening sketch and notes on a bird, especially if he was seeing it for the first time. He would then make further notes and sketches when he got home, and then turn these into more detailed studies, often in colour. Together these make a wonderful sequence of how this nature artist worked, and emphasise his meticulous approach to “getting things right”. You can see examples of all of these steps here on the species pages of Wildechoes. In 2017 and 2018 his wife, Jane Ironside, edited these diaries and studies, typed up his notes and published two wonderful volumes under the title “A Bird Guide to the Fields of Experience”, a title that Frank had played with in one diary entry.

You can read much more about Frank’s work and order these wonderful books at https://www.abirdguide.co.uk/