Meet ArtMagenta

We wildlife enthusiasts spend a lot of time nourishing our left brains with data about taxonomy, habitats, ranges and the like.  If you are like me, you want to know everything possible about the species you see.  Sometimes these pursuits leave little opportunity for the right brain's imagination and creativity.  Even with wildlife photography we can get caught up in the technical details of a photo instead of stepping back to enjoy the "big picture."

How great it is to discover a wildlife blog that seems to be designed for the right brain.  Ulf Andersson is an illustrator in Sweden who goes by ArtMagenta on the internet.  He publishes the blog Bird of the Day.  Don't worry, you don't need to tala svenska to read it since his posts are in English.  For me, the drawings evoke a Japanese style of painting, simple, elegant and colorful.  Rather than portraying fine anatomical detail in his birds, he gives us wonderful caricatures that display their personalities.

I first discovered Ulf Andersson's drawings at Google+.  In addition to his blogs, he also posts them to Twitter in @ammagenta.  What a pleasure it is to come upon one of his drawings in my Twitter stream of science, technology and politics.  In another life, Ulf is a software developer who has been creating web applications since the earliest days of the internet.  No left brain deficit there.

Bird of the Day has been added to my blogroll here.  Check it out and see if you don't enjoy it as much as I do.

Illustrations by Ulf Andersson, ArtMagenta.com