It's For The Birds

I visited the studio of my friend Ray Goins last Friday, and I found another book to add to my library. It's a 1967 work titled "Chinese Bird Paintings- Bird Paintings of the Ch'ien Lung Period, 1736-1796" with text written by J. Longridge. Ray had his copy so nicely displayed (see above) that I couldn't help but want one for myself. I had a heck of a time tracking down a copy of the book, but I finally managed to locate one in England, and as I write this post, it's in the hands of Royal Mail. The book is truly beautiful as it contains color plates of various painted birds including a Green Magpie and an Eclectus Parrot. And on a superficial note, the cover is also really striking, making it a nice addition to the stacks of books on my cocktail table.

The book also made me think of Ray's glorious hand painted screens that he did recently for the windows of Asprey. His work was featured last fall in both the New York and London stores. Each screen was a different color (green, gold, blue, red, etc.) and featured the tree of life motif replete with birds. Ray continued the tree theme by creating colorful miniature trees on which accessories were displayed. I certainly would not mind having one of these screens in my home...and perhaps one of those Asprey handbags as well.



Asprey London:






Asprey New York:








All images courtesy of Raymond Goins.