The Birds of America
However, Newsom’s oeuvre is not only inspired by the thoughts and musings of Charles Darwin, but also by the artwork of the early French-American watercolorist John James Audubon. The momentous color-plate book by Audubon, "The Birds of America", (1827 – 1839) features detailed studies of birds in their habitats, and promoted the discipline of ornithology throughout the United States. Equally so, Newsom is concerned with what the art critic Robert C. Morgan called "veritable exegesis on survival and pathology."