This fantastic book showcases the prestigious Embroiderers' Guild's huge collection of embroidered birds through the ages. Featuring photographs taken especially for the book, items are shown in full along with detailed images that show off the stunning birds at their best.

On December 15, 1868, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794-1868), Professor of Botany at the University of Munich and director of the Royal Botanic Garden, was carried to his grave in a coffin covered with fresh palm leaves. These were a reference to his groundbreaking Historia naturalis palmarum: opus tripartitum (Natural History of Palms: a work in three volumes), published between 1823 and 1853. At the time, this encyclopedic treasury contained the sum of human knowledge on the topic, and included 240 exquisite chromolithographic illustrations, including landscape views of palm habitats and botanical dissections. This epic folio was based on von Martius's expedition to Brazil and Peru with zoologist Johann Baptist von Spix, sponsored by King Maximilian I of Bavaria, to investigate natural history and native tribes. From 1817 to 1820 the pair traveled over 2,250 km (1,400 miles) throughout the Amazon basin, the most species-rich palm region in the world, collecting and sketching specimens. On their return both men were awarded knighthoods and lifetime pensions. In his epic work, von Martius outlined the modern classification of palm, produced the first maps of palm biogeography, described all the palms of Brazil, and collated the sum of all known genera of the palm family. Apart from his own collection of specimens and notes, von Martius also wrote about the findings of others. Von Martius's folio is unusual in its inclusion of cross-sectioned diagrams, conveying the architecture of these mighty trees, which central Europeans would have found hard to imagine accurately. Equally remarkable are the color landscapes showing various palms-often standing alone-which have a simple and elegant beauty. This famous work is an unrivaled landmark in botanic illustration and taxonomy.

Individuals from all walks of life have devoted their time, energy, and money to restoring the state's lost wetlands. Clare Howard and David Zalaznik take readers into the marshes, bogs, waterways, and swamps brought back to life by these wetland pioneers. Howard's storytelling introduces grassroots conservators dedicated to learning through trial and error, persistence, and listening to the lessons taught by wetlands. They undertake hard work inspired by ever-increasing floods and nutrient runoff, and they reconnect the Earth's natural rhythms. Zalaznik's stunning black and white photos illuminate changes in the land and the people themselves. Seeds sprout after lying dormant for one hundred years. Water winds through ancient channels. Animals and native plants return. As the forgiving spirit of a wetland emerges, it nurtures a renewed landscape that alters our view of the environment and the planet. An inspiring document of passion and advocacy, In the Spirit of Wetlands reveals the transformative power of restoration.

Claire is not your everyday practitioner of "urbex," the modern underground passion for "urban exploration" that lures 21st-century adventurers into the hidden labyrinths and decaying chambers of disused buildings and urban spaces. Claire is, you see, a bull terrier. And with her photographer companion, Alice Van Kempen, she has created the canine expression of the art . . . "furbex." Furbex is a dazzling photographic record of Claire's adventures among the abandoned spaces of Europe. It captures her ghostly presence in ruined hotels and grand houses; crumbling castles and palaces; forgotten theaters and cinemas. Fascinated by shadows and light, past and present, and the mysterious, dark worlds of abandoned places, Alice van Kempen uses thrift shop props and long exposures to create photographs with the air of Old Master paintings; while Claire's tragi-comic presence imbues every image with the pathos and comedy of a silent movie. The result is a haunting and hilarious gift book of unique photographs, which will appeal to urban explorers, dog lovers (most particularly the cult following of the bull terrier breed), and all lovers of the Gothic, the mysterious and the absurd.

'Think of this atlas as the beginning of a journey and a kind of island guidebook, a rough guide to far-flung places, a Baedeker of make-believe, and a new page waiting to be filled. The cycle of Crusoes continues' Huw Lewis-Jones A new atlas of imaginary islands conjured up by an international gathering of illustrators, including work by Coralie Bickford-Smith, Bill Bragg, Marion Deuchars, Chris Riddell, Maisie Paradise Shearring, Herve Tullet, Ausra Kiudulaite and more. Islomania is a recognized affliction. But what is it about islands that is so alluring, and why do so many people find these self-contained worlds completely irresistible? Utopia and Atlantis were islands, and islands have captured the imaginations of writers and artists for centuries. Venetian sailors were the first to make collections of them by drawing maps of those they visited in their isolari - literally the 'island books'. Then in 1719 Daniel Defoe published his tale of a castaway on a desert island, Robinson Crusoe, one of the first great novels in the history of literature and an instant bestseller. Defoe's tale combined the real and the imagined and transformed them into a compelling creative landscape, establishing a whole literary genre and unleashing the power of an island for storytelling. To celebrate the tercentenary of Robinson Crusoe's publication, a truly international range of leading illustrators imagine they too have been washed up on their own remote island. In a specially created map they visualize what it looks like, what it's called and what can be found on its mythical shores. In a panoply of astonishingly creative and often surprising responses, we are invited to explore a curious and fabulous archipelago of islands of invention that will beguile illustrators, cartographers and dreamers alike.

Find Your Way to the Most Beautiful Waterfalls Waterfalls create a feeling of serenity, a sense of restrained power. Their grandeur takes our breath away. Their gentle sounds complement periods of meditation. Let professional photographer and West Virginia resident Randall Sanger guide you to the top-ranked waterfalls of Virginia and West Virginia. Your bucket list should include these 174 gorgeous locales that decorate the landscape. The informative guidebook pairs professional photographs of every waterfall with all the information you need, including directions, distance, hike difficulty, and more. The waterfalls are organized geographically and ranked by beauty. Start with the ones nearby, then get away to discover those further afield. These natural wonders prove that Virginia and West Virginia are home to some of the most picturesque waterfalls in America. From Dark Hollow Falls in Shenandoah National Park to the Falls of Hills Creek in the Monongahela National Forest, experience them all with Waterfalls of Virginia & West Virginia!

In this superbly illustrated book, Charles Watkins explores the myth and magic of arboreal art. Enter the groves of the classical world, from Daphne's metamorphosis into a laurel tree to the gardens of Pompeii. The tree in sacred art is represented in master works by Botticelli and Michelangelo. The oak as a symbol of nationhood and liberty across Europe is revealed. The mystery and drama of forest interiors, the formal beauty of avenues of trees, the representation of forestry over the ages and the world of `more than real' trees in the fantastic and surreal art of Arcimboldo, William Blake, Arthur Rackham and Salvador Dali are each illuminated in fascinating detail, coming right up to date with Giuseppe Penone and Ai Wei Wei. Watkins also elucidates the practice of genius in how artists learned to draw trees. Each thematic chapter takes a breathtaking journey through centuries of artists' engagement and fascination with a natural form that seems to allegorize or mirror the human journey through life. Drawing on the author's deep knowledge of the history and ecology of trees, Trees in Art shows that we can learn much about ourselves from the art of trees.

Im Mittelpunkt dieser Untersuchung steht die umfassende Analyse der Seebilder Jacob van Ruisdaels. Dabei wird die kunstlerische Leistung Ruisdaels unter dem Einfluss sowohl der Natur- und Kunstauffassung als auch der gesellschaftspolitischen Entwicklungen des Goldenen Jahrhunderts (der Niederlande des 17. Jh.) berucksichtigt. Gleichzeitig bietet diese Betrachtung einen Loesungsansatz fur die Interpretation bestimmter Bildmotive auf feste Sinnbilder, die in den Meereslandschaften anzutreffen sind. Die Gemalde enthalten emblematische Motive, ahnlich einem Gleichnis, so dass die Bildinhalte und ihre Bedeutung auf vielfaltige Weise interpretiert werden koennen. Daruber hinaus werden weitere spezifische Charakteristika der ruisdaelschen Marinen an den Gemalden selbst exemplarisch herausgearbeitet.

The first book by wildlife photographer and writer Larry Laverty, Power and Majesty features extraordinary images and informative text that capture the life of African elephants. The book focuses on these majestic animals and features stunning photographs from the most remote corners of Africa, from the savannahs and deserts to the rivers and jungles. The text introduces various elephant habitats, explores the magical qualities of elephants, and underscores the immense challenges they face for survival in a world dominated by humans. The photographs and information showcased in this book will help increase our appreciation and understanding of the African elephant's significant place in the animal kingdom, and Larry Laverty will be donating all of his profits to this worthy cause. Their abilities to love, to remember, to function as families, and to survive under some of the harshest conditions will change the way we think about elephants, with the hope that this knowledge will encourage more people to help save those who remain in the wild.

The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth-Century French Literature traces the evolution of the relationship between artists and animals in fiction from the Second Empire to the fin de siecle. This book examines examples of visual literature, inspired by the struggles of artists such as Edouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt's Manette Salomon (1867), Emile Zola's Therese Raquin (1867), Jules Laforgue's "At the Berlin Aquarium" (1895) and "Impressionism" (1883), Octave Mirbeau's In the Sky (1892-1893) and Rachilde's L'Animale (1893) depict vanguard painters and performers as being like animals, whose unique vision revolted against stifling traditions. Juxtaposing these literary works with contemporary animal theory (McHugh, Deleuze, Guattari and Derrida), zoo studies (Berger, Rothfels and Lippit) and feminism (Donovan, Adams and Haraway), Claire Nettleton explores the extent to which the nineteenth-century dissolution of the human subject contributed to a radical, modern aesthetic. Utilizing these interdisciplinary methodologies, Nettleton argues that while inducing anxiety regarding traditional humanist structures, the "artist-animal," an embodiment of artistic liberation within an urban setting, is, at the same time, a paradigmatic trope of modernity.

A distinctly Indigenous form of landscape representation is emerging among contemporary Indigenous artists from North America. For centuries, landscape painting in European art typically used representational strategies such as single-point perspective to lure viewers-and settlers-into the territories of the old and new worlds. In the twentieth century, abstract expressionism transformed painting to encompass something beyond the visual world, and, later, minimalism and the Land Art movement broadened the genre of landscape art to include sculptural forms and site-specific installations. In Shifting Grounds, art historian Kate Morris argues that Indigenous artists are expanding and reconceptualizing the forms of the genre, expressing Indigenous attitudes toward land and belonging even as they draw upon mainstream art practices. The resulting works evoke all five senses: from the overt sensuality of Kay WalkingStick's tactile paintings to the eerie soundscapes of Alan Michelson's videos to the immersive environments of Kent Monkman's dioramas, this art resonates with a fully embodied and embedded subjectivity. Shifting Grounds explores themes of presence and absence, survival and vulnerability, memory and commemoration, and power and resistance, illuminating the artists' engagement not only with land and landscape but also with the history of representation itself.

A book that debunks the popular myth that William Wordsworth was, first and foremost, a poet of daffodils, Wordsworth's Gardens and Flowers: The Spirit of Paradise provides a vivid account of Wordsworth as a gardening poet who not only wrote about gardens and flowers but also designed - and physically worked in - his gardens. Wordsworth's Gardens and Flowers: The Spirit of Paradise is a book of two halves. The first section focuses on the gardens that Wordsworth made at Grasmere and Rydal in the English Lake District, and also in Leicestershire, at Coleorton. The gardens are explored via his poetry and prose and the journals of his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth. In the second half of the book, the reader learns more of Wordsworth's use of flowers in his poetry, exploring the vital importance of British flowers and other 'unassuming things' to his work, as well as their wider cultural, religious and political meaning. Throughout, the engaging, accessible text is woven around illustrations that bring Wordsworth's gardens and flowers to life, including rare botanical prints, many reproduced here for the first time in several decades.

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.

A beautiful book that argues artists were fascinated by still life painting considerably earlier than previously thought This eloquent and generously illustrated book asserts that artists were fascinated by and extremely skilled at still life significantly earlier than previously thought. Instead of the genre beginning in the early 17th century, noted scholar David Ekserdjian explores its origins in classical antiquity and the gradual re-emergence of still life in Renaissance painting. The author presents a visual anthology of finely executed flowers, fruit, food, household objects, and furnishings seen in the background of paintings. Paintings are reproduced in full and paired with detailed close-ups of still-life elements within the work. Ekserdjian further examines both the artistic and symbolic significance of a chosen detail, as well as information about each artist's career. Featured works include radiant paintings from Renaissance greats such as Da Vinci, Durer, Holbein, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Van Eyck, as well as the work of less-celebrated masters Barthelemy d'Eyck and Ortolano.

Pebble-hunting is a pleasant hobby that makes little demand upon one's patience and still less upon one's physical energy. (You may even enjoy the hunt from the luxurious sloth of a deck chair). One of the true delights of the pebble-seeker is to read the stories in the stones - to determine whence and by what means they came to be there. We must always bear in mind that a pebble is a transient thing. It is in the half-way stage of a long existence . . .

This is a spirited guide to the simple pleasure of pebble spotting. Clarence Ellis is a charming, knowledgeable and witty guide to everything you didn't know there was to know about pebbles. He ruminates on what a pebble actually is, before showing us how they are formed, advising on the best pebble-spotting grounds in the UK, helping to identify individual stones, and giving tips onthe necessary kit. You'll know your chert from your schist, your onyx from your agate and will be on your guard for artificial intruders before you know it. Understanding the humble pebble makes a trip to the beach, lake-side or river bank simply that little bit more fascinating.

A handy illustrated guide to identifying pebbles is included on the reverse of the book jacket.

The photographs in Home Fires, Volume I: The Past were taken during the height of a crippling drought in the state of California. Bruce Haley, known for his hard-hitting war and documentary work, turns his camera homeward, to the agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley where he spent his childhood. The resulting images, haunting and melancholy, play out against the larger framework of contentious water politics and land use issues. The writer Kirsten Rian provides the accompanying text.