A National Geographic Must-See Exhibit

One recent cold January day I travelled an hour or so to see this rare bird. It was in a spot that I won't mention. Privacy is important. I'll just say this about the bird: It was a really nice bird... and it was small, brown and white. It probably should have been in California or Kansas, but lucky for me, it was here in Maryland. Ok, ok... fine. I'll give you a hint. This was the bird:So as I was saying... because of that bird's odd choice of migrational direction, I got to meet this birder and artist Jonathan Alderfer.

You just never know who might be right next to you at any given moment?
The person might be a locally somewhat-well-known musician from Annapolis?

Or, better yet...

The person standing next to you might have done the illustrations for THIS BOOK that sits on your nightstand? As it turns out, Mr. Alderfer has done a number of amazing things. And you should know about it.

So for starters, the National Geographic Museum invited him to show some of his paintings alongside the work of three of the twentieth century's greatest bird illustrators--Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Allen Brooks, and Walter Weber. The paintings on display by Fuertes, Brooks, and Weber were done for the National Geographic Magazine and have been held in their archives. This is the first time these paintings have ever been exhibited.

Jonathan's paintings represent work that he has done for field guides and other publications over the past twenty years. (Some of these paintings are available for purchase—please contact him for a price list if you're interested.) His web site is under construction (who's website isn't these days?), but in the coming months he will be putting up new pages with images of paintings, drawings, and prints.I hope you will be able to see the show--it's up until the end of May in the Museum's M Street gallery.

The Museum's events page has more information and directions. To learn more, click HERE

I heard rumors that there might be some other event taking place in Washington DC (uhmmmm) next week. Maybe you'll want to plan your visit for some time in February or March? In any case, it would be a really nice thing to do some winter afternoon. I'll see you there.

Oh yes... one last thing.

GO RAVENS!!!Photo courtesy of Bill Hubick.

Best,

Dan