Peter Trusler

Born 1954

Birds of Australian Gardens

With a background in both science and anatomy, Peter Trusler's work reflects his extraordinary eye for detail and his love and celebration of the natural world. 

Peter Trusler (born 1954) completed a science degree in 1974 at Monash University, majoring in zoology, and has worked as a freelance artist since graduating. He was the art director for the Simpson and Day 'Field Guide to the Birds of Australia', one of Australia's most successful field guides with over 500,000 copies sold. He has designed stamps for Australia Post, is arguably the finest palaeontological reconstruction artists of all time and recently completed a palaeontological PhD at Monash University. Peter has spent much of his career focused on recreating prehistoric animals for museums both here and overseas, working with scientists to illustrate specimens they had collected. He is one of only two Australian artists to be included in the English publication Twentieth Century Wildlife Artists,  (Nicholas Hammond, Viking Press, 1986).

Birds of Australian Gardens; Paintings by Peter Trusler, (Tess Kloot, Ellen McCulloch, Peter Trusler, Rigby Publishers, 1980).  "It is fair to say that Peter Trusler's paintings for the book Birds of Australian Gardens are revolutionary, and rank among the finest Australian natural history paintings ever done. He cleverly placed his subjects in urban, domestic and occasionally mundane environments, exactly where many of our native birds now live. The paintings were completed in 1978-1979. In Artist's Note (page 11) he says 'where possible I prefer to work from life. A number of the paintings are portraits of individual birds and all of the backgrounds and plants have been painted from actual specimens... The paintings for the plates were executed with transparent watercolour and gouache. While they were executed in a period of just over two years, the information needed has involved many more years of observation and study'." Andrew Isles 2022

Andrew, who met Peter at University notes; "Fellow students and I were all dazzled by his talent.  I spent plenty of time at his house talking birds and critiquing his paintings. I remember vividly, on the easel, his masterful painting of Red-rumped Parrots drinking at a makeshift trough".

We have joined forces with Andrew Isles Natural History Books in the promotion of these paintings which will be on view at our gallery and can also be seen at Andrew Isles book shop in Prahran by prior arrangement.


At Bridget McDonnell Gallery, 2022

Peter Trusler - Artist; view YouTube video
Biography from Twentieth Century Wildlife Artists , Nicholas Hammond, Viking Press, 1986, pp. 203-204
Refer Wikipedia for more