Rivers can be enchanting or exciting, but are always absorbing. They provide a myriad of painting opportunities and challenges for the artist. Focusing on watercolour - one of the most direct of mediums - this practical book explains how to paint a river and capture its life, light, movement, colour and interest. With over 200 colour images, Rob Dudley shares his methods, techniques and ideas to make this beautiful book a must-have for all landscape and en plein-air artists.

This fun and easy-to-use nature drawing and watercolor guide is perfect for anyone inspired by nature to draw, doodle, ink, and paint colorful flora and fauna. Artist, author, and popular art instructor Peggy Dean presents this nature drawing guide that teaches you how to master drawing and watercolor techniques from sketching and shading to washes and blending. With Peggy's easy and energetic lessons, absolutely anyone--regardless of ability--can learn to draw the natural world. Beginning with delicate cherry blossoms, wildflowers, and lacy ferns, lessons build to composing stunning bouquets of flowers and majestic landscapes. You'll also discover how to draw animals such as colorful fish and birds in flight, as well as mammals like stoic camels and the mighty polar bear. Through the lessons on technique combined with clear, detailed instructions, you'll gain the expertise and confidence that will allow you to quickly build your skills, discover your own personal style, and achieve beautiful botanical and animal illustrations.

How do our senses help us to understand the world? This question, which preoccupied Enlightenment thinkers in Western Europe, also emerged as a key theme in depictions of animals in eighteenth-century art. This book examines the ways in which painters, sculptors, porcelain modelers, and other decorative designers portrayed animals as sensing subjects who physically confirmed the value of material experience. The independent agency of animals with their own right to free existence, a topic of growing urgency in our own era, emerges in striking and often surprising ways within this early nexus of artistic experimentation. The sensual style known today as the Rococo encouraged the proliferation of animals as exemplars of empirical inquiry in the eighteenth century, ranging from the popular subject of the monkey artist to the alchemical wonders of the life-sized porcelain animals created for the Saxon court. Examining writings on sensory knowledge by La Mettre, Condillac, Diderot and other philosophers side by side with depictions of the animal in art, Cohen argues that artists promoted the animal as a sensory, thinking subject while also validating the material basis of their own professional practice.

This is the story in pictures of Atlantic City, the iconic American shore resort, as it emerges from its latest crisis. The city of 40,000 people has been through many transformations in its history: 19th-Century health retreat, Prohibition-Era speakeasy, mid-century nightclub hub and East Coast gambling Mecca. The near-depression of the late 2000s and increasing competition from the spread of gambling across the country upended many schemes of casino impresarios and other developers. Many blocks of the city were leveled for casinos that never opened. The rate of defaults on home loans was the highest in the nation for a time. At the lowest point of the financial crisis the State of New Jersey took over the city's finances. Now it seems the tables may have begun to turn. These pictures are an attempt to capture the city and the people who live there.

Hokusai's series depicting Mount Fuji is widely considered to be the pinnacle of his career. This beautiful boxed accordion- fold edition comprises the full set of forty-six prints (the original thirty-six and ten more that were completed later) and features a luxurious silken binding along with a separate explanatory booklet. The book and booklet are packaged in an elegant slipcase. Devoted entirely to landscapes, Hokusai's series shows Mount Fuji from various viewpoints, framed in different ways. An indefatigable traveler who was passionate about nature, Hokusai explored every vantage point and season at the volcano. He presented it both as a solitary and majestic snow-capped peak and as a smaller object on a distant horizon. Hokusai also portrayed the mountain as an element in Japanese daily life and as an imposing force of nature that can be peaceful and beneficent, or ferocious and unforgiving. These impeccably reproduced prints invite readers to examine Hokusai's virtuosic use of color and composition, his talent for contrasting perspectives, and his interest in the dueling roles of man and nature. An exquisite objet d'art, this volume is the perfect vehicle for appreciating Hokusai's crowning achievement in all its lasting and subtle beauty.

Relax - take a moment to breathe. This delightful painting book will help make space for your mind to calm down. It's filled with exquisite scenes from the natural world that will help children - and adults - focus on the here and now and let go of worries. Simply brush water over the tranquil black and white designs to reveal an inspiring array of beautiful colours. Includes an introductory page with tips on mindfulness.

This fantastic book showcases the prestigious Embroiderers' Guild's huge collection of embroidered animals through the ages. Featuring photographs taken especially for the book, items are displayed in full along with detailed images that show off the stunning variety of creatures at their best. Dr Annette Collinge's informative extended captions for each of the pieces give information on the provenance where known, and evaluate the quality of, and variety in, each of the works from her expert perspective. Rarely exhibited in public, these beautiful and important embroideries that span the centuries are now available for everyone to see.

At the young age of thirteen, Maria Sibylla Merian had already begun her systematic entomological research with a study of the silk worm, a description of which opens her second book, entitled Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung ...(The Caterpillar's Wondrous Metamorphosi...). Motivated by reports on the flora and fauna of Surinam published by missionaries of the pietistic Labadist church, which she joined in 1685, she undertook a perilous journey to the tropics. Following her return home, she had her insect studies - life-sized drawings of insects on parchment - engraved in copper, adding descriptions of each species and its habitat. Four editions of these large-format engravings were published between 1719 and 1771. The epochal accomplishment of the painter, engraver and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian is to be found in the artistic perfection of her presentation of the results of meticulous entomological research, decades before the appearance of Linne's Systema Naturae in 1735.Following the seminal studies by Elisabeth Rucker, this publication is the first comprehensive monograph on the work of Maria Sibylla Merian. It focuses not only on her artistic and scientific achievements but on her role as a publisher and entrepreneur as well. New material on the life and work of this extraordinary artist is provided in the form of unpublished letters and 40 previously unpublished water-colors from her St. Petersburg sketchbook.

In the natural world, it benefits to have a friend. Teamwork, or an unexpected partner, could make all the difference to survival - whether it's warding off predators, removing parasites or aiding reproduction. This beautifully illustrated title explores organisms that have learnt to adapt and co-exist in the wild. From the monarch butterfly that only exists on one type of plant, to the majestic bobtail squid that acquires its illuminating glow from bacteria that live on its skin, take a closer look at some of nature's most fascinating symbiotic relationships. Stunning illustrations by debut artist Georgina Taylor capture these astonishing moments in the wild. The ideal gift for nature lovers.

This volume is dedicated to Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780), grandson of Canaletto and protagonist of 18th century landscape painting. It explores the less investigated period of the Venetian painter's life, the one preceding the successful career undertaken in the European courts starting from 1747, the year in which he moved to Dresden. In the age of the Grand Tour, the eighteen year old Bellotto visited the great Italian art cities, leaving us with exceptional views that already reveal the peculiar characteristics and modernity of his painting. This book contains precious and rare works, among which are the ones related to the itinerary followed by the painter in Tuscany in 1740, and the series dedicated to the city of Lucca, coming from the British Library in London and the York Art Gallery, along with the views of Florence and Livorno. Edited by Bozena Anna Kowalczyk, one of the greatest scholars of Canaletto and Bellotto, the volume is divided into sections introduced by texts resulting from new and unpublished historical and archival research, and is completed by a documentary appendix, bibliography and indicies. Text in English and Italian.

Todd Forsgren (born 1981) creates intimate portraits of birds at the moment of their capture in mist nets as part of scientific surveys and ornithological research. This monograph serves as an effective and original critique of our impulse to name, classify and quantify wildlife.

This complete guide to the crisp, precise finish of botanical painting marries traditional technique with contemporary style and includes sections on colour, drawing, continuous tone, composition and dissection. Michael Lakin makes botanical art approachable with simple exercises and a variety of step-by-step instructional approaches, making this a fantastic guide for aspirational beginners.

Concise and beautifully illustrated, this guide provides invaluable instruction on the art of pencil drawing. It covers the basics of holding the pencil, applying different strokes, shading, perspective, and the rendering of different textures, as well as the finer points of pictorial composition and drawing from nature.
Based on the author's years of experience teaching art students at all levels, this book is ideal for home or class use. Its thirty-six evocative sketches range from English castles to American bridges, with a few detailed close-ups showing how to surmount some of the problems of depicting rocks, roofs, standing water, or leafy tree branches. The accompanying text describes how artists at every level of experience can develop their own pencil technique by employing fundamental rules.

Draw colorful subjects with bestselling author Lee Hammond. This book is loaded with fun lessons and projects from popular instructor Lee Hammond on drawing brightly colored nature subjects realistically--more easily than you ever thought possible! The book includes basic colored-pencil drawing instruction on materials, using a grid to transfer a preliminary drawing from a photo, values, color, shadows, blending, and other key lessons for beginners. Twenty+ demonstrations show how to draw subjects from three different viewpoints, and how to draw detail from far away to super close. It includes fruit, flowers, leaves, butterflies, and birds.