Hans Peeters is a scientist, author, and artist.
One of Hans’s scientific research articles is in my California condor bibliography. While that article concerns golden eagles, his findings lead him to an important recommendation concerning condors.
But this post is about Hans’s wonderful paintings of the California condor, including art that appeared in 2 books, on a postage stamp, and on the label of a wine bottle. My collection now includes both those books, the postage stamp, and a print of the painting for the postage stamp. Hans was kind enough to share digital images of his other condor paintings, and some of the back story, for this post.
This pair of paintings was created in 1974 for the notable condor-enthusiast Ed Harrison. Both show important condor behaviors:
Next is an illustration from a 1997 field guide edited by Jack Griggs:
Here is another pair of illustrations, both from the excellent guide to California’s raptors by Hans and Pam Peeters:
This is the art for a 2009 Mexican postage stamp:
At the invitation of the Mexican postal service, Hans participated in the ceremonies marking the first cancellation of this stamp.
A wine bottle label created for the 2015 conference of the Raptor Research Foundation featured a close-up:
Finally, this recently-completed painting, titled “The Revenant”, shows a California condor in the “sun-worship stance”:
Whenever I look at that last painting I feel like I have been carried thousands of years back in time.
To see more of Hans Peeters’s fine wildlife art, visit his website.
The postage stamp featuring Hans’s painting is shown in a previous post on this blog: Postage stamps from around the world. For more on the condors’ “sun-worship stance”, see the posts More on art from Cooper Ornithological Club publications and Short scientific articles.
Peeters, H J. Suspected poisoning of golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos by chlorophacinone. In Raptor Conservation Today. B-U Meyburg and R D Chancellor, editors. Helm. 1994.
Griggs, Jack L, editor. All the birds of North America: American Bird Conservancy’s field guide. HarperPerennial. 1997.
Peeters, Hans, and Pam Peeters. Raptors of California. University of California Press. 2005.
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