Birds Of Japan

True to its title, this is a collection of drawings by Nigel Peake in which a different avian species appears on each page. The sketches executed in dark pencil are true to nature but minimalist, consisting only of simple lines, cross-hatching, and shading. They were drawn in 2020, but inspired by a visit the artist made to a second-hand bookstore in Kamakura, nearby Tokyo, in early summer 2019. Translations of the birds’ names are purposefully not included, because “some things are more than their names”.