16 of George Bennett’s finest paintings of Fijian Wildlife are now available as Greeting Cards for any occasion.
NatureFiji-MareqetiViti’s conservation work is set to benefit from the generosity of Elsa and David Miller who have produced two sets of Greetings Cards featuring some of the finest Fiji wildlife paintings by the late George Bennett from their collection.
These are on sale from the NFMV office and will be in retail outlets elsewhere in the near future.
The first set comprises six assorted wildlife paintings including the critically endangered Red-throated Lorikeet in a beautiful painting with it feeding on the blossom of Kavika.
Also featured is the little known but spectacularly adorned Pink-billed Parrotfinch, a seriously threatened species.
One of our less common migrant waders, the Whimbrel is captured in characteristic pose. A charming portrait of a female Many-coloured Fruit Dove complements a resting Black Duck, while the last card of the series features a Masked Shining Parrot – the ‘town-crier’ of Viti Levu’s forests.
The second set of 10 cards comprises a selection of George Bennett’s internationally recognized illustrations of Fijian palms which were produced for “The Palms of the Fiji Islands” published in 2005.
Among these are three wonderful paintings of fan palms, two of the Lauan Fan Palm which in the wild is restricted to a few islets in the Lau group, and the more common Fiji Fan Palm which is now a common ornamental around the world.
The entire leaves of the emerging Bouma Palm will only otherwise be seen by a walk in the forests of Bouma, Taveuni during which one may be lucky enough to encounter another Taveuni palm featured, the endemic Vetchia sessilifolia.