Local Franklin artist and illustrator John Sill credits the wildness of his Aunt Della’s yard for fostering his penchant for birds.

Della, he said, was ahead of her time when it came to wildlife friendly landscaping. She accomplished it by simply letting things grow. As a youngster exploring the wilds of Aunt Della’s yard, he got the impression that catbirds liked him because they would allow him so near. Looking back, Sill figures the catbirds were probably just protecting their nesting territory. Still, those memories have made a lasting connection.

Sill grew up near his Aunt Della in the small town of St. Pauls, N.C. His father was an artist but did whatever it took to pay the bills. Sill combined his interest in birds and art at a very early age. He has a church bulletin from St. Pauls from when he was 5 that has a picture on it of a cardinal he drew. Sill doesn’t remember the cardinal, but he does remember that the first subjects he sat down to paint were birds.

Sill’s mother passed away when he was in the eighth grade. Later, when both he and his older brother, Ben, were at North Carolina State University, his father moved to Franklin. His father grew up in Atlanta and used to visit relatives in the Western North Carolina mountains. The mountains held more promise for his father’s artistic pursuits.

Sill was a wildlife major at N.C. State. During his junior and senior years, wildlife art and wildlife artists such as Guy Coheleach and Arthur Singer were beginning to garner national attention. Sill entered a wildlife art show in Raleigh and won first place in watercolor. Although the competition wasn’t fierce, the experience was encouraging.

He began to consider career choices. It was becoming obvious that a career in wildlife would mean leaving the mountains - the same mountains he loved and loved to paint.

Sill decided that capturing the essence of wild things on canvas was more personally rewarding than counting rat pellets or getting bogged down in the statistical science of wildlife management. He moved to Franklin, and with his father and two other artists, opened the Art Gum Gallery in the early 1970s.

Sill’s break came in 1978. Peter Holden, leading tours for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, asked if he could refer people looking for illustrators to Sill. Three weeks later, Sill was illustrating a bird identification calendar for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. The calendar is still an annual project.

Sill said the calendar and the contacts he made from it led to a great number of illustrating jobs. He is currently working on his fourth set of illustrations for Academic Press. While illustrating is surely art and pays the bills, Sill’s passion is still doing birds in watercolor.

“What I enjoy most is painting for myself,” Sill said. His paintings generally come from first-hand observations, although he doesn’t do much sketching in the field. Instead, Sill relies heavily on his memory.

Once he has the idea of the bird and the scene he wants to paint, he then consults other materials such as field guides, magazines, photos, etc., to get all the particulars. He relies on his formal education in avian anatomy and topography to create authentic, life-like paintings.

His passion for authenticity is also reflected in the scenes surrounding the birds. The flora and setting are also represented in the same detailed manner. “As much as I have control, I want everything in its place,” Sill said.

His paintings have appeared on the cover of magazines like Birders Digest, and he has been profiled in Birder’s World. Sill’s paintings have also been selected for display in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s “Birds in Art” series.

A serious artist and avid birder, Sill is also not above poking a little fun at himself and other birders who occasionally suffer from tunnel vision. He and his brother, Ben, and wife, Cathryn, have produced a series of three tongue- in -cheek field guides titled A Field Guide To Little -Known & Seldom Seen Birds Of North America, Another Field Guide To Little-Known & Seldom Seen Birds Of North America and Beyond Birdwatching.

The books, with detailed drawings and descriptions, describe non-existent birds and birding paraphernalia that is completely imaginary.

When Natural History magazine ran an April Fool’s article reviewing A Field Guide To Little-Known & Seldom Seen Birds Of North America in a straight forward, non-apologetic manner, Sill said the magazine’s editors were besieged by irate readers.

He believes some readers may have, “gotten caught, then gotten embarrassed, then gotten mad.”
He was, however, a little apprehensive when he presented the same type of slide show at a Midwest Birding Symposium, where Roger Tory Peterson, artist and creator of the Peterson Field Guide, was in attendance. To Sill’s relief, Peterson enjoyed the presentation.

Sill and his father bought the old Pendergrass building in downtown Franklin and operated their gallery out of it for eight to 10 years. His father passed away in 1986, and in 1989 Sill sold the building to the Macon County Historical Society.

He has been working from his home since. About four years ago, he and his wife Cathryn moved to 10 wooded acres outside of town. Their yard list for birds is over 80 species. They feed everything from crows to hummingbirds and keep plenty of standing dead trees for nesting sites.

One of Sill’s favorite jobs is a joint collaboration with his wife, an elementary school teacher. Cathryn Sill became frustrated because she couldn’t find accurate nature books for young children. She decided to create her own. John illustrates them for her. They have published five guides so far and number six is in the making. John works as meticulously on these illustrations as the ones he does for Academic Press.

It’s important, he says, “because children see things exactly the way adults see them.”

The passion for birds carries over into other aspects of his life. For the last eight years, he, his brother, his wife and the occasional guest have been doing a “big day” to raise money for his church. A big day is 24 hours of birding, trying to record as many species as possible. Church members agree to donate so much per species. The Sills have averaged about $1,000 in donations over the past eight years.

Sill has also aided area naturalist George Ellison in surveying birds along the Little Tennessee River for the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT). He will be on hand May 12 to lead birding trips along the Little Tennessee for LTLT in celebration of International Migratory Bird Day.

Sill would be the first to tell you that he is fortunate to be able to follow his passion. He would also be the first to tell you that the path requires an equal mix of perspiration and inspiration, and if not divine intervention, at least a little luck.

 

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