This Tuesday, January 4, the daily documentary show for young teenagers ‘Het Klokhuis’ will broadcast an item about the discovery of Terra Ultima on Dutch television.

For two days last summer, a filmcrew swarmed in and around Deleo’s studio. It was exciting and exhausting at the same time. But above all their professional approach and the final result were very impressive!

The program starts at 18:48h at NPO3 and can be viewed here.

The show is divided in three parts that are devoted to the art of Deleo:

Part 1: 0’00”- 2’58”
Part 2: 5’47”- 9’40”
Part 3: 12’00”- 14’27”

The Jan Wolkers Prize is awarded annually for the best book about nature published in the Netherlands. The book ‘Terra Ultima’ has been been nominated by the jury and placed on a shortlist among 4 other publications.

The jury wrote the following about ‘Terra Ultima’:

“The book is a rare and beautiful report full of newcomers to the animal kingdom captured by the hand of a master….With his skilled drawing pen, Deleo playfully and intelligently refers to his colleagues from history, such as John James Audubon, John Gould and Charles Darwin…Terra Ultima is not only a new authoritative guide, but also a celebration of wonder and imagination.”

In radio show “Vroege Vogels” Deleo was interviewed by Rob Buiter in nature reserve the Biesbosch, together with his colleague and archivist Noah J. Stern.

The interview can be heard here.

Fully deserved, The magnificent book by Hans Mulder entitled “De ontdekking van de natuur” was eventually awarded best book of the year.

Finally! Almost two decades after Deleo started his quest for the mysterious and miraculous landmass of Terra Ultima, a book is compiled of the first three major expeditions to this unknown continent.

Especially for this book, compiler and colleague explorer Noah J. Stern was granted access to Deleo’s impressive collection of drawings, objects and travel logs. He transformed the enormous amount of material into a comprehensible account of a discovery with unparalleled natural historic value.
Publisher Lannoo, in close consultation with Deleo, managed to create and design a book that pleases the eye and in the meantime will satisfy the cry for in-depth information about this remote and uncharted region of the earth. The book will become available on the 20th of April, 2021. For now, it is published in the Dutch language only, but translations might become available in the near future.

‘Terra Ultima, de ontdekking van een onbekend continent’
Archive and artwork by Raoul Deleo
Compiled by Noah J. Stern
Hardcover, 80 pages
Size: 38 cm x 28 cm / 15” x 11”
Published by Lannoo
Language: Dutch

Five years ago, late 2014, Raoul Deleo was contacted by Barclay Crenshaw (alias Claude VonStroke), the founder of Dirtybird Records. The record company would be celebrating their 10 year anniversary in 2015 and asked Deleo to be their “artist in residence” for that year.

Deleo felt honored, but had then just recently traced back the location of the forlorn continent of Terra Ultima and was preparing his first expedition to the mystic landmass. So the two, Crenshaw and Deleo, decided that the upcoming releases of Dirtybird would be the first to introduce the newly discovered species encountered during the primary expedition to Terra Ultima.

Now, five years on, Dirtybird is celebrating their fifteenth anniversary and two days ago, on February 18th, they organized an art show in Los Angeles, USA, to honor all the artists working for them the past 15 years.

Deleo was asked to ship a few prints and one original painting for the art show. Fortunately all arrived in mint condition and just in time. Although not be able to visit the show himself, reports on the internet and social media reassured Deleo the show was a success.