Winifred Maria Louise Austen (12 July 1876– 1 November 1964) was an English illustrator, painter, etcher and aquatint engraver, particularly known for her detailed depictions of small mammals and birds.
Born in Ramsgate, Kent, in 1876, she attended the London County Council School of Arts and Crafts, where she was taught by Cuthbert Edmund Swan, an animal painter. Austen also took private lessions with the artist Louise Jopling.
Austen’s favorite subjects were wild animals and birds, and she received many commissions to illustrate magazines and books. Her etchings of animals and birds were popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Austen exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy in London, and the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers, and in 1922, she was elected a member of that society.
Austen painted many species of animals. She specialized in small mammals and aviaries. Being very precise in the details of her subjects, she was also very distinctive in the environment surrounding them. Going in depth on the colors of the leaves in the season she was inspired by adding in hundreds of buds to the tree that her subject was sitting in.
Her style of artwork varied drastically. She loved to watercolor, paint with oil-based paints, and etch. Her artwork can be seen in beautiful vibrant colors to detailed grayscale etches. Most of her artwork shows the animals in day-to-day life, in which they are seen as harvesting food, grouped together in a community, flying in the sky, or hunting for food. This is unique to most artists at that time because she created images of her subjects in motion, not in a stand-still position. This helps the subjects and the environment interact with each other and feel fluid.
Although reclusive, Austen became involved with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Havergate Island Bird Sanctuary in Suffolk. She worked hand in hand to try to protect hundreds of species of birds around the United Kingdom.
In 1926 Austen moved to a cottage in Suffolk where she remained for the rest of her life.
Born in Ramsgate, Kent, in 1876, she attended the London County Council School of Arts and Crafts, where she was taught by Cuthbert Edmund Swan, an animal painter. Austen also took private lessions with the artist Louise Jopling.
Austen’s favorite subjects were wild animals and birds, and she received many commissions to illustrate magazines and books. Her etchings of animals and birds were popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Austen exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy in London, and the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers, and in 1922, she was elected a member of that society.
Austen painted many species of animals. She specialized in small mammals and aviaries. Being very precise in the details of her subjects, she was also very distinctive in the environment surrounding them. Going in depth on the colors of the leaves in the season she was inspired by adding in hundreds of buds to the tree that her subject was sitting in.
Her style of artwork varied drastically. She loved to watercolor, paint with oil-based paints, and etch. Her artwork can be seen in beautiful vibrant colors to detailed grayscale etches. Most of her artwork shows the animals in day-to-day life, in which they are seen as harvesting food, grouped together in a community, flying in the sky, or hunting for food. This is unique to most artists at that time because she created images of her subjects in motion, not in a stand-still position. This helps the subjects and the environment interact with each other and feel fluid.
Although reclusive, Austen became involved with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Havergate Island Bird Sanctuary in Suffolk. She worked hand in hand to try to protect hundreds of species of birds around the United Kingdom.
In 1926 Austen moved to a cottage in Suffolk where she remained for the rest of her life.
Pied Wagtail 26 x 21
Blackcap and Ivy Berries 20 x 15 - SOLD
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