Robert Bateman

Robert McLellan Bateman (born 24 May 1930) is a Canadian naturalist and painter, born in Toronto, Ontario.

Career Bateman was always interested in art, but never intended to make a living from it. He was fascinated by the natural world in his childhood; he recorded the sightings of all of the birds in the area of his house in Toronto and created small paintings with birds in their habitats. He found inspiration from the Group of Seven; later, he became interested in making abstract paintings of nature, strongly influenced by the work of Franz Kline. It was not until the mid-1960s that he changed to his present style, realism. In 1954, he graduated with a degree in geography from the Victoria College in the University of Toronto. Afterwards, he attended Ontario College of Education. Starting in 1957, Bateman travelled around the world for 14 months in a Land Rover with his friend J. Bristol Foster. As they made their way through Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia, Bateman painted and sketched what he saw.

Bateman became a high school teacher of art and geography, and continued focusing his life on art and nature. In 1999, the Audubon Society of Canada declared Bateman one of the top 100 environmental proponents of the 20th century.

He is also a spokesman for several environmental and preservation issues, using his art to raise funds for these causes. The majority of Bateman's paintings are in acrylic on various media, and have been shown in solo exhibitions around the world. He has been the subject of several films and books including The Art of Robert Bateman (1981), The World of Robert Bateman (1985), An Artist in Nature (1990), Natural Worlds (1996), Thinking Like a Mountain (2000), Birds (2002), New Works, (2010), Life Sketches (2015), Bateman’s Canada (2017) as well as several children's books.

Robert Bateman Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Robert Bateman High School (currently closed) in Burlington, Ontario, and Robert Bateman Public School, Ottawa, Ontario are named for him. He is an Honorary Director of the North American Native Plant Society, and has received numerous honours and awards, including Officer of the Order of Canada and fourteen honorary doctorates from institutions such as the University of Victoria, University of Toronto, Royal Roads University, and McGill University.

At 95, Robert continues a schedule of painting daily and advocating for nature awareness and conservation.

Foundation Bateman set up a charity in 2012, the Bateman Foundation, to use artwork to promote a connection to nature and the environment.

Personal life In 1960, Robert Bateman married Suzanne Bowerman, having three children. He married again in 1975, and he and his wife Birgit Freybe Bateman had two children.

In the early 1980s, Bateman and Birgit moved to Salt Spring Island. The couple purchased a home located on Reginald Hill Road, looking out on Fulford Harbour, that was designed by Hank Schubart and originally built for actress Eileen Brennan. In the early 2000s, the Batemans moved from the Reginald Hill house to a house on a lake in Salt Spring.

Honours and awards Life Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, 1977 Officer of the Order of Canada, 1984 Member of Honour Award, World Wildlife Fund, 1985 (presented by the Prince Philip) Society of Animal Artists Award of Excellence 1979, 1980, 1981, 1986, 1990, 2008; Lifetime Achievement 2010 Lescarbot Award presented by the Canadian Government, 1992 Rachel Carson Award presented by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Washington D.C., 1996 Order of British Columbia, 2001 Rungius Medal presented by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, 2001 Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, 2002 Roland Michener Conservation Award presented by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, 2003 Ideas for Life Award, Canadian Environment Awards, 2006 Human Rights Defender Award presented by Amnesty International, 2007 Niagara Escarpment Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009 Royal Canadian Geographical Society Gold Medal, 2013 World Ecology Award, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2015. International Brandwein Medal, Brandwein Institute, 2017 Jay N. Ding Darling Award, The Wildlife Society, 2017

Books The Art of Robert Bateman. Biography by Ramsay Derry. Madison Press Books, 1981. (French ed. 1982, German ed. 1984) The World of Robert Bateman. Biography by Ramsay Derry. Madison Press Books, 1984 Robert Bateman: An Artist in Nature. Biography by Rick Archbold. Madison Press Books, 1990 Robert Bateman: Natural Worlds. Text by Rick Archbold. Madison Press Books, 1996 Safari. Robert Bateman and Rick Archibald. 1998 Thinking Like a Mountain. Robert Bateman and Rick Archbold. Penguin Books, 2000 Birds. Robert Bateman and Kathryn Dean. Madison Press Books, 2002 Backyard Birds. Robert Bateman with Ian Coutts. Madison Press Books, 2005 Birds of Prey. Robert Bateman with Nancy Kovacs. Madison Press Books, 2007 Polar Worlds. Robert Bateman with Nancy Kovacs. Madison Press Books, 2008 Vanishing Habitats. Robert Bateman with Nancy Kovacs. Madison Press Books, 2010 Bateman: New Works. Greystone Books, 2010 Hope & Wild Apples. Bateman Foundation, 2012 Sight Unseen. Paul Gilbert, Bateman Foundation, 2014 Life Sketches: A Memoir. Simon & Schuster, 2015 Robert Bateman's Canada. Simon & Schuster, 2017

Films “Down to Earth”, Zephyr Films, 2001 "Robert Bateman", Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1994 "A Day in the Life of Robert Bateman", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1985 "Robert Bateman - Artist/Naturalist", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Spectrum, 1984 (Donna Lu Wigmore, producer) "Robert Bateman - A Celebration of Nature", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Take 30, 1983 (Brigitte Berman, producer) "The Nature Art of Robert Bateman", Eco-Art Productions, 1981 (Norm Lightfoot, producer) "Images of the Wild: A Portrait of Robert Bateman", National Film Board of Canada, 1978 (Norm Lightfoot, director; Beryl Fox, producer) "Robert Bateman", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, This Land, 1972 (John Lucky, producer)