The fascination birds evoke in us continues unabated. Australian artist and photographer Christian Spencer, living in the vicinity of the Brazilian rainforest since 2001, has surrendered to it as well. "The camera is my brush," is how he describes his style. His photographs truly capture the poetry of nature, letting its beauty speak for itself - which is why he forgoes any image editing. He was the first to capture the breathtakingly fast beating of hummingbirds' wings in the sunlight, which forms a rainbow in the air. The world of birds unfolds before his lens in all its colourful glory and elegance: in reflections on the water, between blossoms and trees, and high above the treetops. Text in English and German.

This book is a celebration of cyclamen, a genus of only 23 species popular amongst gardeners, growers, botanists and enthusiasts alike. Native to parts of Europe, western Asia and parts of North Africa; cyclamen are also highly cultivated plants. Genus Cyclamen covers the botany of all taxa, including taxonomic description, flowering period, distribution and habitat based on scientific studies and fieldwork by cyclamen experts. Information is provided on cyclamen cultivation and propagation, with dedicated sections on cultivation in North America, Japan and Australasia. Other chapters cover the history of cyclamen, including a review of its use in botanical art from 1st Century AD to present, cyclamen in literature, and the use of cyclamen in ceramics, pottery, glassware, stamps, jewellery and postcards.

Award-winning and hugely popular artist Rosie Sanders showcases the beauty of the rose in her follow up to Rosie Sanders Flowers. Over 80 stunning paintings and sketches are shown for the first time. The artist writes a personal letter on each of her rose paintings (to be given unopened to the final recipient or buyer of the painting). Many of these personal letters sit alongside the paintings, as they explain the creative and emotional process she went through to create it. The book is a revealing insight into the artist's muse and the author's sketches and drawings are also included to show the full artistic process. The book is introduced by an extended essay on the resonance of the rose - all across the world - in our art, literature, poetry, folklore and gardens. The rose emblem is timeless and this book not only celebrates its beauty in art but tells the story of the rose as one of nature's most powerful motifs.

From the lazy, fiddling grasshopper to the sneaky Big Bad Wolf, children's stories and fables enchant us with their portrayals of animals who act like people. But the comparisons run both ways, as metaphors, stories, and images--as well as scientific theories--throughout history remind us that humans often act like animals, and that the line separating them is not as clear as we'd like to pretend.
Here Martin Kemp explores a stunning range of images and ideas to demonstrate just how deeply these underappreciated links between humans and other fauna are embedded in our culture. Tracing those interconnections among art, science, and literature, Kemp leads us on a dazzling tour of Western thought, from Aristotelian physiognomy and its influence on phrenology to the Great Chain of Being and Darwinian evolution. We learn about the racist anthropology underlying a familiar Degas sculpture, see paintings of a remarkably simian Judas, and watch Mowgli, the man-child from Kipling's "The Jungle Book," exhibit the behaviors of the beasts who raised him. Like a kaleidoscope, Kemp uses these stories to refract, reconfigure, and echo the essential truth that the way we think about animals inevitably inflects how we think about people, and vice versa.
Loaded with vivid illustrations and drawing on sources from Hesiod to La Fontaine, Leonardo to P. T. Barnum, "The Human Animal in Western Art and Science" is a fascinating, eye-opening reminder of our deep affinities with our fellow members of the animal kingdom.

Introducing the first collection of art books with detachable prints to decorate your walls. Everything you need to create your own private gallery at home!

Each book contains a curated selection of twenty-one high-quality reproductions that can be easily removed from the book, framed in a standard-size frame, and displayed in the home. Step-by-step tips for grouping the works to create a harmonious gallery add an interior designer’s touch to the ensemble. Graphic, colourful, or abstract; paintings, engravings, or drawings―each work of art is explained on the back of the print. Interesting details about the style of painting, the particular work of art, and biographical information about the artist are accompanied by a “frameable fact” that helps you understand the context of that particular work in the history of art. In addition, suggestions for where you can go to see additional examples of the artists’ works allow the reader to expand their experience and learning.

A collection of landscapes and representations of nature from the tropical paradise of Le Douanier Rousseau’s jungle to Monet’s water lilies. Artists include: Hokusai, Georgia O’Keeffe, Gustav Klimt, Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Edward Hopper.

Works by Prosek and others are juxtaposed with natural objects in an illuminating interrogation of the artificial boundaries we create between art and nature Award-winning artist, writer, and naturalist James Prosek (b. 1975) has gained a worldwide following for his deep connection with the natural world, which serves as the basis for his art and numerous popular books. In this cross-disciplinary catalogue, Prosek poses the question, What is art and what is artifact-and to what extent do these distinctions matter? Drawing on the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Prosek places man- and nature-made objects on equal footing aesthetically, suggesting that the distinction between them is not as vast as we may believe. In more than 150 full-color plates, objects such as a bird's nest, dinosaur head, and cuneiform tablet are juxtaposed with Asian handscrolls, an African headdress, modern masterpieces, and more. Artists featured include Albrecht Durer, Helen Frankenthaler, Vincent van Gogh, Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollack, as well as Prosek himself, whose works depict fish, birds, and endangered wildlife. Also included are an incisive essay by Edith Devaney and texts by Prosek that explore the magnificent productions of our wondrous interconnected world.