Hello! I’m Tara Kate, a bird artist and illustrator and the owner of the Bird Artist’s Cottage.

I am pursuing my dream of being an artist and expressing my love and passion for the natural world. I started in my mid-50’s without formal training and I’ve been a full-time artist for six years. Before I became an artist, I was a bird biologist and I studied how these amazing creatures live and behave.

As a professional natural history illustrator, my work has been published in scientific journals. Currently, I am illustrating a book on the birds of Oregon.

I am fascinated by bird behavior—how birds go about living their lives, the daily small dramas, the ordinary routines that make up what they experience every day. My background as a field biologist strongly influences my perspective. Because I spend so much time in their company, I feel a closeness to birds, an affinity. And it’s that affinity that I try to convey in my work. It’s a way of trying to communicate not just their physical appearance, but their personalities as well.

My work is strongly impacted by the region where I live: the Pacific Northwest. Primarily, I’m working in graphite; I enjoy the subtle shading, shadows, and value contrast that are possible in this medium. Part of what I love about drawing birds is showing them with biological accuracy. Graphite allows me to work in a more controlled and precise manner than I am able to do in other mediums. I also work in colored pencil, watercolor, and acrylics.

Small, tender details like the shadows of the bird’s claws on its perch make me happiest. I experience the same feelings when I’m watching the birds, seeing subtle features of feathers, bills, and behaviors. It’s capturing those often overlooked nuances that gives me the greatest fulfillment as an artist.

When people look at my artwork I hope they’ll begin to see birds in a new way. Perhaps they’ll start to pay more attention to a bird in their yard or flocks flying past. Maybe they’ll start to think of birds as individuals with dignity and beauty and who are deserving of attention and protection. I hope that somehow my work will make a small contribution to the conservation and protection of birds and their habitats.

Tara Kate

Bird artist & illustrator

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