ROBERT BATEMAN - LIMITED EDITIONS & MORE

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tawny Owl in Beech

In this painting I wanted to capture the feeling of late afternoon, of being under the umbrella of the beech tree.The leaves of the beech form a kind of coppery tapestry, and the trunk is mottled with lichens. - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tembo

Elephants deserve the high stature they enjoy.We humans appreciate them not just for their impressive size, but also for their high order of intelligence and sophisticated social structure.  Unlike most animals, they care about each other's welfare.Most herds are composed of adult females and young.When the juvenile males start to take too much interest in "the girls," they are expelled form the herd and roam in loose bachelor groups that are much smaller in size than the family groups.  My family and I encountered one such bachelor group in a park in northeast Kenya.We were delighted and surprised to find several bulls with very large tusks.Frighteningly, this area is right within the range of organized gangs of poachers, particularly in Somalia. Although the park is patrolled against poaching, the rangers are too few in number and are usually out-gunned.Those tusks must be awfully tempting to the illicit ivory trade.We hoped the bulls we saw there would stay close to the tourist areas for safety.  We, however, got too close to this fellow.Though his tusks were large, he was young and feisty and presented us with an impressive false charge.He is "Tembo" in Swahili - a familiar term for elephant.I hope that he will live to a ripe old age and pass on his genes to future generations of elephants so future generations of humans can appreciate them. - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Thinking Like a Mountain

ROBERT BATEMAN
Thinking Like a Mountain - book

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tiger at Dawn

In a sense, this is a picture of grass.The striking vertical yellow and amber stalks with the intermittent shadows are as strong as the tiger's stripes.I wanted to set up a disturbing, electric tension between the shocking green sprig of grass near the center of the picture and the tiger's eyes - the only other green in the picture. - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tiger at Dusk

This painting was done as a fund-raiser for CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna).CITES' long-term objective is the rational and sustainable utilization of the Earth's living resources for human benefit by encouraging cooperation between all interested parties.  Although habitat destruction is the overwhelming reason for the extinction of species, trade in endangered animals and plants is literally the straw that breaks the camel's back.This combined with the power of Russian Mafia drug dealers, Chinese smugglers and professional well-armed poachers, makes a formidable force of doom facing the Siberian tiger.Many organizations including CITES are trying to stop this dreadful trade, but they are out-funded and out-gunned.In this painting, I have shown a young Siberian male gazing straight into your eyes.Do he and his kin have a future? - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tiger Portrait

This is a study of the head of one of the most magnificent cats in the world. I have tried to show the power and dignity, as well as the quiet sense of control and command, of this lordly beast. - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tree Swallow Over Pond

This painting was meant to be empty of any center interest.It was meant to be simply a view down into a pond, almost Zen-like. - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tropical Canopy - Scarlet Macaws

ROBERT BATEMAN
Trumpeter Swan Family

ROBERT BATEMAN
Trumpeter Swans and Aspen

In this painting, I included one of my favorite trees, the aspen. Because of their softwood, older aspens often lose branches in storms, giving the trees an oriental, bonsai look.I followed up with the theme of the Japanese screen by treating the whole picture in a flat delicate manner. - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Tsitka and Her Son

We heard the orcas before we saw them. On the boat's hydrophone their squeals, squeaks, whistles and sighs sounded as if they were echoing in a cavernous space.Finally the mist lifted a little and we saw a phalanx of black dorsal fins not too far off - a family pod.Then the mist swallowed them up again.  Perhaps one of the pods we glimpsed on that magical day of whale watching belonged to a whale that researchers have named Tsitika, an orca matriarch whose life history has given me a glimpse into the orca world.Tsitika and her family belong to the northern resident population of British Columbia killer whales.They have a remarkable social system that we are just beginning to understand.  - R. B.

ROBERT BATEMAN
Twilight - Siberian Tiger