Biographical entry Cooper, William Thomas (1934 - )

Summary

William Thomas Cooper lives in the tropical rainforests of north Queensland. He is an internationally acclaimed bird artist who paints birds and wildlife in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Details

Born Newcastle, NSW 1934. AO 1995. Display manager, menswear firm until he became a full-time painter at 30. Mentor was William Dobell. While painting a bird from a mounted specimen in the Australian Museum in 1968 he was noticed by Keith Hindwood (qv), who asked him to illustrate a book, A portfolio of Australian birds (published 1968), which made his reputation Other works he has illustrated include Kingfishers and Related Birds (6 volumes), Australian Parrots (1969) and Parrots of the World (1978), all by Joseph Forshaw (qv), and The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaedae (1998, by C B Frith (qv) and B M Beehler). His series of 60 paintings of bower birds and birds of paradise were reproduced as prints, with the originals being bought by the Government of Papua New Guinea. Gold Medal for distinction in natural history art, American Academy of Natural Sciences 1994.

Published resources

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Cooper, William T', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-459267. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2001, 492 pp. Details