Mirko Hanák A world of nature in watercolour

You would be forgiven for thinking that this is the work of an acclaimed Chinese brush artist.

Mirko Hanák was in fact born in 1921 in Martin, Slovakia and worked as a painter, graphic designer and illustrator.

He first studied Fine Art first in Zlin, after the 2nd World War the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. His specialties were animals, birds and landscapes that were full of vitality and fun. He enjoyed creating a lot of woodland animals.

He Illustrated a series of works of fiction with themes of the natural environment, was the author or co-author of calendars, posters, and other special-purpose prints, and achieved some notoriety for his work on the book Bambi (amongst a myriad of other books).

Mirko’s work has a beautiful sense of line, colour and texture. A watery quality that make the animals or birds look completely genuine and lifelike in their fur or feathery-ness.

His characterisation of these birds is amazing, I can almost hear that fat Cuckoo squawking for more food !

He also had a firm grasp on composition as his paintings are so well balanced despite his casual fluid line.

He was working on “Charlotte’s Web” the movie when he tragically died at the height of his career from leukemia in 1971 at the age of just 50.