Watercolor artist Eric Peake displays a painting of Spix's macaws he donated to conservation of the bird.

IF A SNAPSHOT does not do your bird justice, consider having him immortalized in watercolor. Eric Peake will even find some beauty mark to differentiate Beaky from every other lookalike bird of his species.

Perhaps best of all, you will be helping to support a talented artist who has donated well over a quarter of a million dollars' worth of art to conservation. Can't beat that.

But be prepared to pay accordingly. Peake's smallest commissioned paintings, which measure 14 inches long by 11 inches wide, cost $750. The largest, which measure 24 X 17, run up to $8,000.

If a bird that looks very close to Beaky will do, you can have a Peake print for $40 to $75.

Budgie lover
Peake, a native of Great Britain, began a lifelong fascination with birds as a child when he received a budgie for a pet. He still loves budgies - he now owns a large collection of English budgerigars, the larger, beefier show cousin of the typical pet-store bird found in the U.S.

Peake began his art career painting castles and other interesting buildings. But once word got out that he painted pet birds, too, requests from owners began pouring in. In 1974, with the income from his portrait commissions growing difficult to ignore, Peake quit teaching in order to paint full time.

In the early 1980s Peake decided to concentrate on painting large parrots. The turning point came when he met Wolfgang Kiessling of Spain's Loro Parque Foundation, a conservation group that spearheads the effort to save the Spix's macaw.

Peake found himself wanting to help the Spix and other endangered parrots, whose vibrant hues lured his paintbrush. "I decided to put my money where my mouth was," he said.

Since then, Peake estimates he has raised over $375,000 for parrot conservation. His beneficiaries include the Loro Parque Foundation, the World Parrot Trust, the British Bird Council, the scarlet macaw project in Guatamala, and avian research at Liverpool University and the University of Georgia, not to mention countless bird clubs and societies.

Peake's most recent contribution to Loro Parque was a large-format limited-edition painting of a Spix’s macaw and its young, which sold for $23,500.

The problem of breeding
Along with his conservation efforts, Peake speaks to a dozen or so bird organizations around the world each year about the problem of overbreeding. Peake believes that breeding, the mantra of the avicultural world, especially in the 80s, now serves mostly to contribute to overpopulation and unwanted birds.

"It’s common sense that you’ll always have a problem at the end of it (breeding), which will need the rescue groups," he said.

Paradoxically, Peake's show budgies produce up to 250 babies a year. However, he does not see any conflict of interest. Why? "Budgies only live five to eight years," he points out.

Peake has never kept large parrots. "I can’t give them individual attention. I'm never home long enough to look after them."

Peake is also strongly opposed to allowing the public to buy unweaned birds, a practice common in the United States but outlawed in Europe. But Europe has its own problems, he says, including the continued importation of wild parrots.

A jigsaw puzzle
Peake works from a studio in North Wales that looks out over the sea and a bucolic countryside dotted with sheep and castles. He starts each painting with a light pencil sketch of ovals and triangles, moving them around until he is satisfied.

Peake schedules commissions a year ahead of time. However, a large painting measuring 17 inches wide by 21 inches long takes him only about three weeks to complete, working six hours a day.

Peake paints from a variety of resources, including photographs and his memory, which he says is photographic. However, most of the time he prefers to see his subject in person.

For some of his non-parrot paintings, about 25 percent of his work, he uses the birds in his own collection of Asiatic birds from Japan and India, kept in a large planted aviary. To study parrots, Peake goes to England's Chester Zoo and travels all over the world.

The results, richly detailed and lifelike depictions of parrots against leafy backgrounds, have been exhibited across Europe, Canada and the United States.

Peake relishes painting colorful species of endangered parrots, such as the St. Vincent Amazon. (Partial painting shown.)

Peake did not get to meet the princess, "but I got to be near her. She spoke to us as a group and shook some hands and said thank you."

Art for commoners
Fortunately for the rest of us, Peake also caters to bird owners who want something special to commemorate their feathered companions.

His clientele are "quite a cross section," he says. "They come from all walks of life. A guy called me from a restaurant recently and wanted a toco toucan. One lady in Belgium wanted me to paint a bird. I said, 'Could I see it?' She said, 'No, it's been dead for 10 years.' So she sent a photo and was delighted with the results." Peake also sells to the public at his one-man exhibitions.

Pet owners' firm belief that their bird looks different from all the rest sometimes makes Peake chuckle. In fact, they often "will see a print at one of my shows and say 'that's my bird'!" he relates.

Making customization even more challenging is the fact that Peake is a subject artist only. Although he once painted architecture, he does not surround his subjects with home furnishings or garden settings.

Still, Peake says he can always find a physical idiosyncrasy or two to identify a beloved pet.

"Sometimes the eyes are slightly different or there's a mark on the beak or the head," he said. "Color ranges might extend farther on some birds, or there might be a green feather in the middle of some yellow ones. Look around the eyes of a macaw. The markings are never the same."

Five years ago, Peake went into semi-retirement after suffering an eye injury. Rounding the corner of his home one day he banged his head on an open garage door and bruised a retina. The resulting "floaters" he now has in both eyes make it difficult for him to paint as much as he used to.

However, he still produces about 25 original pieces a year, including a few smaller-format paintings for charity. So far, Peake estimates he has produced about 1400 watercolor paintings in his career, now 27 years long.

The more exotic the better
Art has given Peake the opportunity to immerse himself in what he loves - birds - and the people who love them, too.

"I’ve managed to travel the world and paint the subjects I love. Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone have come to my shows. I met Paul McCartney and know his brother. He has parrots. His brother says he has a bunch."

What is Peake's favorite avian subject? He admires the endangered, multicolored St. Vincent Amazon, the most spectacular looking of all Amazons, usually predominantly green birds. But any bird blessed with vibrantly colored feathers will do.

"I just finished some golden conures I was very pleased with," he said.

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