John Nichols fell in love with nature as a child when his father and grandfather, both naturalists, taught him the names of the flowers and trees, the herons and butterflies they encountered on walks in rural Long Island, New York. When Nichols moved to New Mexico as a young man, his passion for the natural world grew. He began photographing the land and critters observable just outside his kitchen window . . . and far beyond. In My Heart Belongs to Nature, Nichols records his forty-five-year connection to the Taos valley and its mountains, where he still lives. His engaging prose and striking photographs offer a tribute to his infinity in this grain of sand, replete with memories of wives, children, bighorn sheep and rattlesnakes, and high-altitude snowshoe excursions-all of it a paean to the biology that sustains us.

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.

The End of Landscape in Nineteenth-Century America examines the dissolution of landscape painting in the late nineteenth-century United States. Maggie M. Cao explores the pictorial practices that challenged, mourned, or revised the conventions of landscape painting, a major cultural project for nineteenth-century Americans. Through rich analysis of artworks at the genre's unsettling limits--landscapes that self-destruct, masquerade as currency, or even take flight--Cao shows that experiments in landscape played a crucial role in the American encounter with modernity. Landscape is the genre through which American art most urgently sought to come to terms with the modern world.

Nature provides the subject for the beautifully intricate patterns and graceful lines of the art of Charlie Burk. His subject is clearly grass, with a horizon line or a slice of sky visible in many of his works as he moves in his world of sumptuous colors and delicate patterns. In a complex play of call-and-response, one brushstroke calls for the next. ""What really interests me,"" he says, ""is the texture grass creates and the way it moves in space."" Another equally powerful pull is the visual beauty and the artistic journey it presents, that ever-fresh experience of dancing on the edge between abstract and representational art.

For her most recent series, Austrian artist Katharina Anna Loidl has reworked steel engravings of Swiss alpine landscapes, transforming the original nineteenth-century prints with an etching needle and burin. By carefully removing parts of the printer s ink, Loidl also removes portions of the landscapes. In their place, she introduces simple geometric shapes, deliberately lacking in distinguishing architectural detail so that viewers are encouraged to imagine the addition of structures of their choosing apartment blocks, industrial buildings, or sports facilities to the idyllic images. Landscape Engravings brings together fifty of Loidl s alpine landscapes. Vitus Weh;s essay examines the sublime and crystalline character of Loidl s art, and Paolo Bianchi looks at aspects of romanticism as a fund, landscape as a sensation, and the art of repetition. By introducing spatial interventions to the idyllic, perhaps idealized, images, Loidl asks the reader to consider the impact of residential and industrial encroachment on the natural world and the value we ought to place on its preservation. "

Listen to the sound of waves rolling onto a pristine beach. Explore the world's third-largest living coral reef. Glimpse the future at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science. Florida is more than a vacation, it is a whole new world. Experience the rich tapestry of Florida's natural beauty and culture through this collection of vibrant photographs. With endless sunshine, lively communities and lush parks, there is much to see. It is little wonder that this incredible state is so hard to leave.

About the "America" series:

As expansive as America itself, this outstanding series captures outstanding views of panoramic landscapes, brilliant city skylines, and picturesque communities. Each volume focuses on a city or state and features 96 pages and 70 stunning images by internationally renowned photographers, plus descriptive captions.

An unparalleled collection of the most beautiful yet scientific depictions of flora and fauna ever produced, these artworks document three centuries of exploration of the far reaches of the world a rich visual record harking back to a time when science relied upon painstaking human illustration as the only way to record exotic plants and unknown animals observed during voyages of discovery. All the artworks included here were depicted on vellum, a high-quality, long-lasting parchment that fell out of use around 1900 when it was supplanted by photography. France s national collection consists of over 7,000 such artworks and is among the world s finest. Flora and fauna from every corner of the globe are represented in precisely rendered colour and detail. Sadly, many of the species depicted in these masterful yet hauntingly accurate portraits are now endangered, threatened or in many cases, already extinct. This volume is both a celebration of the human quest for knowledge and an epitaph for a fast disappearing world as well as a feast for the eyes for anyone who loves birds or vintage natural history art. This exquisite and timeless book is beautifully presented in a jacketed volume within a slipcase and luxuriously packaged within an illustrated mailer with a handle for portability.

The book features retro style pen and ink illustrations by Joan Escandell (illustrator of "Captain Thunder," "He-Man," and Disney's "Cinderella "and "The Lion King"), who molded the image many youngsters in Europe have of literary figures like Robin Hood. The book gives free access to a library of downloadable high-resolution animal images.

The Photographed Cat presents readers with an examination of how human-cat relationships are depicted in early twentieth-century photography.

The `edges' that Harry Gruyaert, a pre-eminent member of the Magnum photo agency, explores in this incredibly lush, full-colour book, are the oceans, seas and rivers where humans meet the edge and the water begins. This unusual volume, which opens from the top up, takes the reader to Israel's Dead Sea, the Mali River in Niger, the North Sea of Iceland, South Korea and Biarritz, as Gruyaert's sensitive photos record the subtle chromatic vibrations of the edges of the Orient and the Occident. Gruyaert opposes the hustle of the city with a pared-down, yet intense, nature. His landscapes are never empty; they are inhabited places where light, colour, objects, people and situations weave a serene, sublime tableau. This beautifully produced photographic manifesto reveals the profoundly poetic character of Gruyaert's work, and the sensual elegance of his faultless compositions.

A unique illustrated book, focusing on the significance of the horse in ancient Greek culture Horses were revered in ancient Greece as symbols of wealth, power, and status. On stunning black- and red-figure vases, in sculpture, and in other media, Greek artists depicted the daily care of horses, chariot and horseback races, scenes of combat, and mythological horse-hybrids such as satyrs and the winged Pegasus. This richly illustrated and handsomely designed volume includes over 80 objects showing scenes of ancient equestrian life. Essays by notable scholars of ancient Greek art and archaeology explore the indelible presence and significance horses occupied in numerous facets of ancient Greek culture, including myth, war, sport, and competition, shedding new light on horsemanship from the 8th through the 4th century BCE.

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features Nel Whatmore's A Million Shades.

The revised second edition of this title includes new text to celebrate the 50th anniversary of America's Wilderness Act of 1964. Features 215 John Fielder photographs of 28 Colorado mountain ranges. Includes text of Fielder stories of life in the wilderness and text describing geologic origins of each range.

The only collection of photographs devoted to one of America's natural treasures, Shenandoah: Views of Our National Park documents one man's decades-long fascination with this uniquely beautiful region in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Hullihen Williams Moore has been visiting Shenandoah National Park since the mid-1960s, but it was after studying with Ansel Adams in 1979 that he began seriously photographing it. Through fifty-one black-and-white duotone photographic prints, Moore reveals the quiet beauty of Shenandoah National Park. From grand vistas and waterfalls to the delicate unfurling of new ferns, these photographs capture the singular appeal that attracts 1.7 million visitors to the park each year.

In two essays, Moore addresses the natural and human history of the park as well as his own personal experience of it, including the stories behind the individual images. The author has also included a helpful appendix of technical details regarding the photographs.

A limited edition accompanied by original photographic prints is available from the artist at www.hullihenmoorephotography.com

A fascinating exploration of the time Winslow Homer spent in England and how it influenced his art Winslow Homer (1836-1910) is widely regarded as the greatest American painter of the 19th century, but it is not well known that he spent a pivotal period of time on the other side of the Atlantic. The eighteen months Homer spent in England in 1881 and 1882-studying the work of masters such as J. M. W. Turner and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and exploring the landscape of coastal villages-irrevocably shaped his creative identity. This beautifully designed and produced publication explores Homer's time in England and how it influenced his art, as he attempted to reconcile his affinity for traditional subject matter with his increasingly modern aesthetic vision. Coming Away complicates our understanding of his work and convincingly argues that it has more cosmopolitan underpinnings than previously thought.

Flowers by Rosie Sanders is a large-format book that showcases over 80 of her finest flower paintings in exquisite detail. Often compared to the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, Rosie Sanders's botanical paintings lie at the extreme end of botanical art - they exude dynamism and sensuality in every brushstroke and their richness of colour sets her apart from her contemporaries. In this beautifully illustrated book, Rosie exhibits a selection of flowers, from tulips to orchids, roses to irises, anemones to amaryllis, and illuminates them with fascinating and skillful uses of perspective and light. This large-format book showcases her finest paintings in exquisite detail and they are accompanied by excellent and accessible scientific commentary. Also included is an introduction by renowned Swiss botanist Dr. Andreas Honegger. This book is perfect for artists want to get a closer look at a master's brushstrokes, textures and colour in paintings, or readers who are interested in contemporary botanical art. Chapters include: 1. Diversity in the Garden 2. Dark Flowers: the Magic of Night 3. A Fascination of Orchids 4. Lilies in Spring 5. Varieties of Belladonna 6. In Search of the Black Iris.

HorseLife defines what it is to love horses and how that appreciation influences everyday life. You may not own a horse or even live close to one, but anyone who has taken the reins before knows the transcendent calm that comes from something as simple as watching the setting sun on horseback or a nuzzling velvet nose on your palm when you return to the stable. Artful photography and heartfelt passages make this book the perfect gift for the horse lover in your herd. Ride softly, listen carefully & love completely.

Botanical and scientific illustration share many common themes - the meticulous observation, the crucial composition, the precision of rendering and the accuracy of colour are all intrinsic to this niche genre of art. In this beautiful book, Sarah Jane Humphrey explains the techniques of the botanical artist but also introduces ideas for scientific illustration, so that the illustrator has a fuller understanding when rendering the natural world. Detailed instruction on all aspects of illustration is given, from application and materials to research and field trips. There is practical advice on using monochrome and colour theory to bring your illustration to life. Illustrated with over 200 of the author's exquisite illustrations, it is an invaluable companion for both beginners and experienced artists, as well as a source of inspiration and joy.

In thirteenth-century China, a Daoist monk named Gao Daokuan (1195-1277) composed a series of illustrated poems and accompanying verse commentary known as the Daoist Horse Taming Pictures. In this annotated translation and study, Louis Komjathy argues that this virtually unknown text offers unique insights into the transformative effects of Daoist contemplative practice. Taming the Wild Horse examines Gao's illustrated poems in terms of monasticism and contemplative practice, as well as the multivalent meaning of the "horse" in traditional Chinese culture and the consequences for both human and nonhuman animals. The Horse Taming Pictures consist of twelve poems, ten of which are equine-centered. They develop the metaphor of a "wild" or "untamed" horse to represent ordinary consciousness, which must be reined in and harnessed through sustained self-cultivation, especially meditation. The compositions describe stages on the Daoist contemplative path. Komjathy provides opportunities for reflection on contemplative practice in general and Daoist meditation in particular, which may lead to a transpersonal way of perceiving and being.

For years now, certain places on the planet have rivaled one another in their almost obscene levels of extravagance, gaudiness, and environmental irresponsibility, all fueled by petrodollars. The perspective of Roger Grasas on these new urban centers and their unbridled development is from a slightly different vantage point: from the outskirts, the edges, the periphery, or from the dead-end street. Each and every one of the images in this book indicates or reflects, to a greater or lesser extent, a point of no return, an alteration that has annihilated not only certain landscape vistas but, much more importantly, certain ways of life.

Magnificent compendium of the finely detailed plant images from the Victorian era-all identified with Latin and common names and arranged alphabetically by family. Hundreds of plant species-from lilies, lichens, poppies and palms to mushrooms, mosses, marigolds and maples-supplemented by specialized appendices on edible foods, medicinal herbs, plants used in decoration and in graphic design. Indispensable source of inspiration and copyright-free graphics for designers and artists; a captivating compendium for botanists, gardeners, and collectors of old engravings.

Nabil Anani is one of the most prominent Palestinian artists working today. A painter, ceramicist and sculptor, he has built an impressive catalogue of outstanding, innovative and unique art over the past five decades, pioneering the use of local media such as leather, henna, natural dyes, papier-mache, wood, beads and copper. Considered by many as a key founder of the contemporary Palestinian art movement, Anani's development as an artist has run in parallel with major events in recent Palestinian history. His work reflects the lived Palestinian experience, exhibiting distinctive responses to issues of exile, dislocation, conflict, memory and loss. Anani's artistic vision restores and celebrates a denied and often-forgotten reality, his work re-igniting memory. Bringing together more than 150 of Nabil Anani's works, this monograph also includes contributions from acclaimed Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti as well as from leading Middle Eastern art historians, Rana Anani, Lara Khaldi, Bashir Makhoul, Nada Shabout, Housni Alkhateeb Shehadeh and Tina Sherwell.

Harley Crossley was one of Britain's foremost marine artists and his work hangs aboard many prestigious cruise ships as well as in many shipping company boardrooms. In this book, he demonstrates his style of painting and takes the reader on a journey through the decades as he illustrates the finest ocean liners and cruise ships in his unique style. He covers the entire world of passenger shipping, from 1890s Atlantic liners to modern-day cruise ships and Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, for which he was commissioned to paint the official ship's portrait. A wonderful tribute to an artist of international reputation, this book features a foreword by Harley's widow Barbara and informative text describing the vessels featured in the paintings.