Arthur Bernard Singer; American wildlife artist primarily specialized in bird illustration. Born to a family of artists in New York City on 4 Dec. 1917; raised in mid-Manhattan. In 1939, he graduated from Cooper Union and subsequently worked as a printer in an advertising agency.... Influenced by Carl Rungius, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and Wilhelm Kuhnert he became a full-time illustrator and artist by 1955. He illustrated more than 20 books, including Field Guide to Birds of North America (by Bruun and Robbins), Field Guide to Birds of Europe, Birds of the World (by Oliver L. Austin), The Life of the Hummingbird, Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies (by Bond and Eckelberry), State Birds, Zoo Animals, Birds of Greenland, Cats, Wild Animals from Alligator to Zebra, British and European Birds in Color (by Bertel Bruun), The Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe, Book of Birds in Color (by Robert Porter Allen), Water and Marsh Birds of the World (by Oliver L. Austin) and Birds of the Caribbean. Singer's prints were also published in the magazine The American Home. He died of esophageal cancer in his home in Jericho, New York on 7 April 1990. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_B._Singer) ...a naturalist and painter whose watercolors of birds of the 50 states were affixed to letters mailed by hundreds of thousands of Americans in the 1980's... His paintings of state birds are probably the most widely known of his works because they appeared on US postage stamps featuring the birds and flowers of the 50 states, issued by the US Postal Service in 1982. The stamp series is believed to have been the largest-selling special issue in the history of US postage. ...He made friends of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, who was illustrated by a 15-year-old Singer with a portrait entirely made up of calligraphy that used the name of every piece... (http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/08/obituaries/arthur-b-singer-72-artist-dies-painted-50-state-birds-on-stamps.html) undefined

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