The Argus Pheasant is a lovely bird whose body alone can grow to 3 feet in length. The long secondary tail feathers contain "eye" spots throughout, and is the feature which gave the bird its name, after Argus of Greek mythology who had 100 eyes. As in the etching, the bird indeed has blue head and neck feathers, and body feathers with a rusty orange hue. Some sources say the species is officially "endangered," while others say only that the "numbers are dwendling." At the time Ms. Cohen created this etching, it is likely the species was indeed endangered, as she is known to have created etchings within the same time period, of other officially endangered species, such as the Bengal tiger. Such a subject would have been in keeping with the artist's interests, further evidenced by the fact that animal and environmental issues were fully awakening in the '60s.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: "Primarily a watercolorist, Lois Green is especially known for her paintings for projection at Griffith Observatory. She was born in Chicago and studied at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh and with Samuel Rosenberg. She worked in Pittsburgh as a fashion illustrator before moving to Los Angeles in 1938 and then studied at the Chouinard School and at UCLA. She worked as a motion picture illustrator and painted in her spare time. In 1945, she married Eugene Cohen and in 1973, began the Griffith Observatory project.

Her subject matter includes figures, landscapes, animals, and urban scenes. She was a member of the California Watercolor Society.

In '99 she was included in an exhibition called "This Side of Eden: Images of Steinbeck's California" by the Steinbeck Center.

Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940" Note from Denise Weatherwax" [biography courtesy of AskArt]