Nelson Hammer exhibiting at Dover Library

Nelson Hammer, a Needham landscape architect and watercolorist, will have 30 of his paintings on display at the Dover Town Library from now through Friday, November 24. Since resuming work in watercolors in 2014 after a 50-year hiatus, birds have been the subject of 43 of the 48 paintings he has produced since then. He strives for avian accuracy in each of his pieces, such that anyone with a passing knowledge of birds should be able to easily identify the species.

Sources for his paintings are photographs taken by family, friends, and in many cases, himself. The contributor of more than half of the photographic source material for the Library exhibit is Brenda Robert, his daughter’s mother-in-law, who lives on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. Brenda is an extremely talented amateur wildlife photographer who has been instrumental in providing the highly detailed closeups Nelson needs to capture the intricacies of his subjects.

Two of the subjects at the library, the peregrine falcon with the broken wing, and the red tailed hawk, were based on photos Nelson took indoors during an Audubon Society demonstration, with the birds tethered to the gloved hand of an Audubon Society naturalist while he was presenting information about the birds being showcased.