Raphael Dutra, a naturalist, resides in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

For most of his life, Raphael has been a bird lover, especially for soft bills. He spends considerable time in the field looking for the themes for his work and gains inspiration for his plates. He start to create his plates using field sketches in pencil and composes his backgrounds of plants, fruits and flowers of the natural habitat for each specie. To create the colors of birds he use the studies of museums collections of birds, when he feel in his hands the texture of each specie and its natural colors. After this he start the plates trying to show his feelings when he saw the bird in field. He work in watercolors, gouache and acrylics. In 1997 he started his career as a free lancing bird artist working with ornithologists of Brazil creating plates for scientific works, field guides and illustrations for large corporations. He ever try to show in his paintings the freshness of his natural country and he is committed to the preservation of nature. Raphael's work can be seen in many collections in Brazil. At the present time he's working on three books, one about tanagers, another about parrots and another a field guide for bird watchers in Brazil.