Roland J. Green ( 1896 - 1972)

English bird artist, who produced numerous bird studies in watercolours and oils. Green remained a bachelor throughout his life, making his home in a disused drainage mill at Hickling in Norfolk. He set many of his bird paintings in the Broads, capturing some of the wild beauty of this region in his distinctive style. Roland Green was born in Kent, the son of a taxidermist, who trained him in the skinning, stuffing and setting up birds, thereby instilling an extensive knowledge of anatomy and plumage. He showed an early aptitude for drawing and painting birds. Educated in Rochester and at the Regent Street Polytechnic, he was a skilled bird and mammal painter, holding annual exhibitions of his paintings and etchings. The subjects of his etchings were snipe, Canada geese, mallard and kingfishers. He also gave lectures on bird watching and the drawing of birds, with an emphasis on birds in flight. He spent a great deal of time in the reedbeds, creating the mistaken impression of being unsociable, but his talks to pupils at various schools dispelled that notion.