In 1865, the American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church and his wife, Isabel, traveled to Jamaica on a sojourn of recovery after the tragic deaths of their two young children Herbert and Emma. A time to mourn and escape from the constant reminders found at their home, Olana, the Churches' trip to Jamaica also provided ample inspiration for Frederic.

The Olana Collection includes eight oil sketches, an ink drawing, and a pencil drawing Church made in Jamaica. Five of these oil sketches on paper Church chose to mount to canvas and frame for his and Isabel's enjoyment; over the years they have hung in different rooms at Olana. From these works, and others held by the Cooper-Hewitt, Church created two major studio oils, The Vale of St. Thomas, Jamaica, 1867 (the Wadsworth Atheneum) and The After Glow, 1867 (the Olana Collection). Within Church's oeuvre the studies of Jamaican sunsets, mountains, and foliage are particularly lovely. Church wrote of Jamaica: "The scenery is superb. . . . I have accomplished a great amount of work but there is so much to do that I am at a loss to decide day by day what to paint."

The 2010 exhibit at Olana will help explain Church's working process by showing Sunset Jamaica and the resulting studio work The After Glow together; it will include five works never before exhibited and reveal Church's interesting use of his photography collection both as an aide-memoire and as substrate for sketching. Fern Hunting among Picturesque Mountains includes forty-eight color illustrations, as well as essays by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser (on Church's Jamaica work) and Katherine Manthorne (about Church's friends and fellow artists who also traveled to Jamaica to paint)."

A celebration of the American painter's life and work in the region he loved best In 1883 American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) moved his studio from New York City to Prouts Neck, a slip of coastline just south of Portland, Maine. Here, over the course of twenty-five years, Homer produced his most celebrated and emotionally powerful paintings, which often depicted the dramatic views and storm-strewn skies around his home. Homer's influence and the Prouts Neck area would have a profound effect on the rise of a new American modernism, inspiring the artists who followed him. This beautifully illustrated catalogue celebrates Homer's legacy at Prouts Neck, and documents the Portland Museum of Art's six-year conservation project to preserve the Winslow Homer Studio, the former carriage house in which Homer lived and worked. Photographs of the studio and site, never before open to the public, highlight views that are recognizable as the subject of so many of Homer's paintings. Essays by leading scholars examine his iconic masterpieces; his artistic development in Prouts Neck; the architecture of his studio; his relationship to French painting; and the full range of his marine paintings.

Landscape is probably the most popular type of painting, but anyone who has ever been disappointed by vacation photographs knows how difficult it is to turn a view into a picture. This book shows how artists in past centuries translated outdoor space and light into paint, and how landscape imagery evolved from mere ornament into a visual metaphor of the human condition. The story is told from its beginnings in Roman mural decoration, through the Renaissance transformation of landscape into a vehicle for feelings and ideas, to the Impressionist revolution and beyond. The continuing relevance of art to how we see the world, and our place in it, is demonstrated through a practical discussion of optics of real and painted landscape, illustrated with works from the National Gallery, London.

This is the first-ever monograph dedicated to the theme of horses in works of art from the collection of the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. Home to a rich and diverse collection, the museum has embraced the long relationship between man and horse, as well as all the leading themes and genres of equine art. Generations of Russian artists have created an astounding variety of equine images. These works - encompassing painting, sculpture and graphic art - are stunning, lyrical representations of this noble animal. The gorgeous illustrations are accompanied by an introductory essay, as well as artists' biographies.

The best-selling, illustrated, week-to-view pocket diary from the RHS. The Royal Horticultural Society Diary 2021 brings together a beautiful selection of botanical illustrations by Rear-Admiral John Paul Wellington Furse, part of the collection held in the world-famous RHS Lindley Library. Furse retired from the Royal Navy in 1959 and made several trips to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Russia and Afghanistan collecting bulbs, many of which he brought back to RHS Wisley. Vice-Chairman of the RHS Lily group, he was also awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour. The illustrations featured this year's diary offer a tantalising insight into the wide range and variety of plants recorded and collected by Furse. A beautifully produced pocket diary illustrated in colour throughout, with a silk ribbon marker and internal storage pocket.

Rosie Sanders, often described as the best painter of the world's most famous fruit, has devoted years to researching this book and submitting the apples to hour upon hour of meticulous observation. In 144 beautifully detailed watercolours she depicts the unrivalled range of form, colour and texture which characterize such varieties as Beauty of Bath, Peasgood Nonsuch, Cox's Orange Pippin and Egremont Russet. Painted with their blossom, twig and leaf, Rosie offers detailed descriptions of each apple's aroma, flavour and season as well as something of the history of each variety. The book is enhanced by a practical essay on apple growing by Harry Baker, fruit officer for many years at the Royal Horticultural Society and one of Britain's foremost authorities on apple growing.

Annette Bonnier traveled throughout India over a 3 year period photographing the lives of domesticated and wild elephants. These photographs are a cultural documentation of this complex and majestic animal, with its intelligence, intricte social hierarchy, and highly evolved communication skills, and is caught in a changing world between the past and the future.

Designing a captivating creature simply for it to exist against a white background and going no further is a purely academic exercise. Designing a creature that can survive in a world, interact with its own and other species, and go on to make an impact, is designing with intent the end goal of creature design and what you'll witness in this latest book from industry veteran Terryl Whitlach. With decades of experience in the entertainment industry, developing creatures for Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace and Beowulf, among other projects, she offers valuable advice on how to develop otherworldly beings that are not just stunning in appearance, but also possess qualities that will endear viewers to them, or repulse, if that's the intent. For Whitlatch, there's no limit to what can be imagined with an open mind, though the journey may not always be an easy one. It's what she calls "chasing the unicorn." We will surely enjoy joining her on her journey, filled with creatures that are so vivid, whimsical, and elaborate that we will wish or wonder if they are real."

Bernad creates projects to express his keen eye and spirit. Despite his having explored American spaces and cities in Japan and Europe, Bernad has always maintained his focus on Spain, attentive to the evolution of its landscape and the dcor of its interiors that is linked to very different worlds. He casts an amusing look at the details that only he is able to see and makes them distinct. His images turn reality into a theatre set. The boundaries between the real and the unlikely become blurred. Beyond Bernad's vision of the superficial world and his form of satire, one is given a glimpse of his inspired personality on this guided tour of the 20th-century playwrights who have brought the senseless and the ridiculous to the stage, even the grotesque, as embodied in the writings of Cervantes and the paintings of Goya. And behind this cumulus of symbols, there is the depiction of absurdity.

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Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German-born biologist, naturalist, evolutionist, artist, philosopher, and doctor who spent his life researching flora and fauna from the highest mountaintops to the deepest ocean. A vociferous supporter and developer of Darwin's theories of evolution, he denounced religious dogma, authored philosophical treatises, gained a doctorate in zoology, and coined scientific terms which have passed into common usage, including ecology, phylum, and stem cell. At the heart of Haeckel's colossal legacy was the motivation not only to discover but also to explain. To do this, he created hundreds of detailed drawings, watercolors, and sketches of his findings which he published in successive volumes, including several marine organism collections and the majestic Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature), which could serve as the cornerstone of Haeckel's entire life project. Like a meticulous visual encyclopedia of living things, Haeckel's work was as remarkable for its graphic precision and meticulous shading as for its understanding of organic evolution. From bats to the box jellyfish, lizards to lichen, and spider legs to sea anemones, Haeckel emphasized the essential symmetries and order of nature, and found biological beauty in even the most unlikely of creatures. In this book, we celebrate the scientific, artistic, and environmental importance of Haeckel's work, with a collection of 300 of his finest prints from several of his most important tomes, including Die Radiolarien, Monographie der Medusen, Die Kalkschwamme, and Kunstformen der Natur. At a time when biodiversity is increasingly threatened by human activities, the book is at once a visual masterwork, an underwater exploration, and a vivid reminder of the precious variety of life. About the series TASCHEN turns 40 this year! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. In 2020, we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

In the year 2000, world-renowned wildlife photographer Frans Lanting set out on a personal journey to photograph the evolution of life on Earth. He made pilgrimages to true time capsules, like a remote lagoon in Western Australia, spent time in research collections photographing forms of microscopic life, and even found ways to create visual parallels between the growth of organs in the human body and the patterns seen on the surface of the earth. The resulting volume is a glorious picture book of Planet Earth, depicting the amazing biodiversity that surrounds us all. Lanting's true gift lies beyond his technical mastery: it is his eye for geometry in the beautiful chaos of nature that allows him to show us the world as it has never been seen before. From crabs to jellyfish, diatoms to vast geological formations, jungles to flowers, monkeys to human embryos, LIFE is a testament to the magical beauty of life in all its forms and is one of Lanting's most remarkable achievements.

Capture the Rich Textures of Nature, Step by StepCapture nature's beauty as you never have before. Beloved artist and teacher Claudia Nice leads you on an inspired journey through the great outdoors. With paints in hand, she shares with you her best techniques for creating landscapes that come alive with richness, depth and textured detail. Open this guide and start painting right away. As you follow engaging, step-by-step demonstrations and exercises, you'll learn to recreate the textural elements of a range of terrains and landscapes. Chapters include: Creative clouds and skies Majestic mountains, hills and mesas Texturing trees, trunks and foliage Rugged rocks and gritty gravel Transparent textures for rivers, falls and lakes Flowers of the field In a special section, Claudia covers basic texturing techniques with mini demos using lines, dots, bruising, scribbling, spattering, blotting, printing, stamping and more. From paints and pens to sponges, leaves and facial tissue, you'll explore all kinds of fun and inventive ways to create amazing textures. And to help you put it all together, Claudia includes her masterful advice for creating compositions using reference photos, field sketches and your own creative license. Each demonstration features a large image of the completed landscape, so you can see exactly how Claudia's methods work - from start to finish.

With the imagination of a writer and the eye of an artist, Michael Korda doodled on the backs of old manuscripts in his tackroom while his wife, Margaret, was out riding. They loved and acquired cats-a habit written about previously in their book, Cat People-and the few in residence at this time would serve as inspiration for the drawings. These are no ordinary cat illustrations, though. Korda's cats read newspapers and books; go ice skating in the small country town where they live; comfort Margaret's horse, Monty, after a stressful vet visit; sell fried mice at the Farmer's Market, and undertake (on paper, at least) whatever fanciful endeavours their keeper conjures up. The result is a collection of magical pieces, filled with joy, that represent a year in the life of a couple in love with one another, and certainly with their cats.

Wild and Precious documents the road trips that American photographer Jesse Burke (born 1972) takes with his daughter to explore the natural world. Burke's landscapes and portraits investigate the complex relationship humans have with nature, as well as a father's love for his child.

Across cultures and centuries, the forest has occupied a unique place in our collective imagination. Sylvania, by Brooklyn-based photographer Anna Beeke (born 1984), explores the intersection of nature, imagination and myth in the American woodlands, from Washington to Vermont to Louisiana.

Enter the surreal world of Yuko Higuchi, where cats resemble ogres and foxes become astronauts. This stunning collection of twenty-four artworks created by the cult Japanese illustrator is a must for lovers of all things fantastical and bizarre.

British flower painting has its own unique, if relatively recent, history, but it can only be judged in the light of the wider history of the subject and by comparison with other, particularly European, countries. The first chapter of "A History and Dictionary of British Flower Painters", therefore, sets the scene with a brief introduction to floral art world wide before the next four chapters concentrate on British flower painting in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Over ninety colour plates illustrate these five chapters. The Dictionary gives the biographical details of more than 970 British flower painters from 1650-1950 including their specialities, awards, exhibitions an bibliographical details. The work of many is illustrated in black and white.

Longleaf forests once covered 92 million acres from Texas to Maryland to Florida. These grand old-growth pines were the ""alpha tree"" of the largest forest ecosystem in North America and have come to define the southern forest. But logging, suppression of fire, deliberate destruction by landowners, and a complex web of other factors reduced those forests so that longleaf is now found only on 3 million acres. Fortunately, the stately tree is enjoying a resurgence of interest, and longleaf forests are once again spreading across the South. Blending a compelling narrative by writers Bill Finch, Rhett Johnson, and John C. Hall with Beth Maynor Young's breathtaking photography, Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See invites readers to experience the astounding beauty and significance of the majestic longleaf ecosystem. The authors explore the interactions of longleaf with other species, the development of longleaf forests prior to human contact, and the influence of the longleaf on southern culture, as well as ongoing efforts to restore these forests. Part natural history, part conservation advocacy, and part cultural exploration, this book highlights the special nature of longleaf forests and proposes ways to conserve and expand them.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is one of Scotland's most visited tourist attractions and has been cultivating and studying plants for over three centuries. Across its four garden sites, the Royal Botanic Garden's living plant collection contains over 13,500 species from 156 countries, including some that are extinct in the wild and others new to science. The ever-growing Herbarium currently contains over three million dried specimens and the Library houses Scotland's national collection of botanical and horticultural literature, including manuscripts dating back to the fifteenth century. The highlights illustrated in this book provide a personal insight into one of the world's greatest botanic gardens and reveals the invaluable contribution that it makes to the ongoing documentation and conservation of the world's diverse plant life.

At the end of the nineteenth century, American artists demonstrated a preference for gardens as artistic motifs as well as a growing appreciation of the art of gardening itself. The range of color and the variation in form and silhouette made the garden a compelling subject for a large number of painters inclined toward the Impressionist style. Early twentieth-century America witnessed a mania for the garden, and the interest in the art of gardening dominated many aspects of domestic life. Publications and articles offered gardening advice for Americans, while also asserting that the art of gardening paralleled the art of painting.
The exhibition catalog "The American Impressionists in the Garden" explores the theme of the garden in American art and society of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. May Brawley Hill's essay discusses a range of themes, including the Impressionist fascination for gardens, the history of garden design, comparisons between European and American garden paintings, images of women, and the art colony movement, as well as providing detailed readings of the specific gardens painted and cultivated by these artists.
Besides the forty-four color plates depicting European and American gardens by American artists, the catalog includes some historic photographs of artists in garden settings. These allow the reader to examine the relationship between the garden as photographed and the garden as painted. The catalog looks at garden paintings from Holland, France, Italy, and England and from different regions in the United States, including the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West Coast. Garden sculpture was an essential element of garden design, and the catalog also features images of a number of small-scale bronzes and other statuary for garden environments.
This book has been developed to accompany a 2010 exhibition at Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art.