From fine art paintings by such artists as Stubbs and Landseer to zoological illustrations and popular prints, a vast array of animal images was created in Britain during the century from 1750 to 1850. This highly original book investigates the rich meanings of these visual representations as well as the ways in which animals were actually used and abused. What Diana Donald discovers in this fascinating study is a deep and unresolved ambivalence that lies at the heart of human attitudes toward animals. The author brings to light dichotomies in human thinking about animals throughout this key period: awestruck with the beauty and spirit of wild animals, people nevertheless desired to capture and tame them; the belief that other species are inferior was firmly held, yet at the same time animals in stories and fables were given human attributes; though laws against animal cruelty were introduced, the overworking of horses and the allure of sport hunting persisted. Animals are central in cultural history, Donald concludes, and compelling questions about them-then and now-remain unanswered.

A farmer's son from Cheshire, British artist Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-79) won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1920. He went on to work in numerous mediums, his favored subject matter being Britain's native birds and other fauna, always depicted punctiliously and yet, unusually for the time, in their natural habitats. Renowned as the illustrator of the 1932 edition of Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter and numerous Brooke Bond tea cards (popular collector's items in Britain in the postwar period), Tunnicliffe lived on the Welsh island of Anglesey for more than 30 years. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1954. This handsome catalogue raisonne of his prints, over 430 in number, includes lavish illustrations and authoritative annotations by the printmaking authorities Robert Meyrick and Harry Heuser.

Overleaf is a delightful and thought provoking book dedicated to foliage. Susan Ogilvy's 74 delicate and delightful paintings are a study of that most obvious but smallest coherent part of a tree - the leaf. The paintings of both sides of the leaves of 37 trees found across the temperate regions of Europe and North America are uncluttered and beautiful portraits that will appear akin to everlasting pressing. Richard Ogilvy's thought provoking text reflects on the wonderful, detail complexity of our woodlands and forest. For each tree he has penned a concise portrait - how it relates to the environment, how big it grows, how fast it grows, where it grows, the dependent birds, insects and fungi, the mythology, and the uses we make of the timber.

The reptiles and amphibians surrounding us are more than 17,000 species of fascinating and beautiful wildlife that many of us usually ignore. In this colorfully illustrated book, 20 artists have taken those cold-blooded animals as inspiration and transformed them into pieces of art that change the way we perceive our world. The unusual shapes, glittering colors, and perfectly adapted bodies of chameleons, turtles, snakes, frogs, and even dinosaurs offer us new ways to see and be inspired, in media ranging from fiber to glass and from paper to gold.

Painted riverscapes such as Claude Monet's impressions of the Seine, Isaak Levitan's Volga views, or Thomas Cole's Hudson scenery became iconic not least because they embodied nationalist ideas about place and about culture. At a time when nationalism was taking root across Europe and the United States, the riverscape played an important role in transforming the abstract idea of the nation into a potent visual image. It not only offered a picture of the nation's physical character, but through aspects such as style, the figures portrayed, and the nature of the implied spectator, it presented a cultural ideal. In this highly original book, Tricia Cusak explores significance of painted riverscapes to the creation of national identities in nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe and America. Focusing on five rivers, the Hudson, the Volga, the Seine, the Thames, and the Shannon, the author outlines the history of the development of national landscapes, elaborating on the distinctive nature of riverscapes. Drawing on the symbolic potential of rivers to represent life and time, the riverscape provided a metaphor for the mythic stream of national history flowing unimpeded out of the past and into the future.

The great expanse of the Colorado Plateau reveals-to those who take a closer look-a colorful rock landscape rich with thousands of flowering plants, many of them endemic to the region. In this collection of color images, landscape photographer Larry Ulrich explores an astonishing spectrum of wildflowers, from deeply-etched canyons and intimate, shady niches to sunny rock gardens and lofty, wind-swept plateaus. Wildflowers in this high, arid region cope with daunting climate and topography. They are models of survival in a complex and challenging environment, and speak to each of us in nature's most eloquent voice. "Wildflowers of the Plateau and Canyon Country" includes a handy chart for locating 149 species of flowers (all of which have been photographed and reproduced in this guide) in twenty-three park and monument areas. Listed alphabetically, wildflower enthusiasts can look up flowers by their common and Latin names.

For all time, artists have maintained a close relationship with the animal world, which has proved an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The animal and its wild beauty are comprehended here through works of art from Albrecht Durer, Pieter Brueghel, Leonardo da Vinci, Eugene Delacroix, Henri Rousseau, and Paul Klee."

Allen Staley's book The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape ignited a revival of interest in Pre-Raphaelite painting nearly three decades ago. Reintroducing the small group of young English artists who in 1848 founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, this landmark book helped to attract both scholars and a new generation of admirers to the brilliant and audacious work of the Pre-Raphaelites. In this completely revised and updated second edition, Staley takes into account important artworks that have recently come to light as well as current understandings of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and its legacy. This lovely volume is greatly enhanced by more than 150 luminous color illustrations.

Ranging widely in this volume, Staley offers a comprehensive account of the formation of the Brotherhood, the artists' theoretical concerns about depictions of the natural world, and the emergence and impact of a school of Pre-Raphaelite landscape painting. Staley also discusses all the figures important to Pre-Raphaelitism: the artists (among them John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt), their associates (Ford Madox Brown, William Dyce), the landscape specialists they influenced (Thomas Seddon, George Price Boyce), and their most articulate supporter, John Ruskin.

In response to conquests in mid-18th-century wars, Britons developed a keen interest in how their colonies actually looked. Artistic representations of these faraway places, claiming topographic accuracy from being "drawn on the spot," became increasingly frequent as the British Empire extended its reach during and after the Seven Years War. This is the first book to examine the country's early imperial landscape art from a broad comparative perspective. Chapters on the West Indies, Canada, the United States, the Pacific, Australia, and India show how British artists linked colonial territories with their homeland. This is both a ravishingly beautiful art book and a historical analysis of how British visual culture entwined with the politics of colonization.

Heath has a passion for the landscape of the Grand Canyon, from its dramatic vistas to its subtle beauties. This collection of inspiring photographs captures the Park's human history?pictographs made by ancient tribes, paths of early explorers, relics of old mining settlements ?as well as its natural history, which inspired the establishment of the Park in 1919, and earned it the title of one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Rankafu showcases for the first time an exceptional set of orchid woodblock prints from early 20th century Japan. Considered masterworks of botanical art, the Rankafu prints are visually stunning and reproduced here in full colour, showcasing the fine details of this spectacular art form. Accompanying these stunning prints, the authors tell the story of Shotaro Kaga, a pioneering horticulturist whose orchid collection and breeding programme started a craze in Japan that continues to this day. Kaga and his gifted orchid gardener, Kenkichi Goto were highly skilled orchid growers and developed hundreds of spectacular orchid hybrids. Kaga's interest in orchids was sparked by his visit to Kew in 1910 where he first saw tropical orchids in the extensive greenhouses, and visited many famous orchid nurseries such as Sander & Sons, from whom he would buy hundreds of plants over the coming decades. This book is the most comprehensive work to date on Rankafu and is unrivalled in its breadth of information and research. It is a beautiful book that will appeal to orchid fanatics and lovers of botanical art, as well as those with an interest in 20th century Japan and the artistic process of making Japanese woodblock prints. With a foreword by Phillip Cribb, leading orchid expert and author of many orchid books.

Rich, full-color landscape photographs made all around Washington's Olympic National Park make this an excellent souvenir or remembrance. Rainforest, Pacific beaches and their creatures, misty landscapes, rushing cascades - Randklev's camera has captured it all.

Birds pervaded the ancient world, impressing their physical presence on the daily experience and imaginations of ordinary people and figuring prominently in literature and art. They provided a fertile source of symbols and stories in myths and folklore and were central to the ancient rituals of augury and divination. Jeremy Mynott's Birds in the Ancient World illustrates the many different roles birds played in culture: as indicators of time, weather and the seasons; as a resource for hunting, eating, medicine and farming; as domestic pets and entertainments; and as omens and intermediaries between the gods and humankind. We learn how birds were perceived - through quotations from well over a hundred classical Greek and Roman authors, all of them translated freshly into English, through nearly 100 illustrations from ancient wall-paintings, pottery and mosaics, and through selections from early scientific writings, and many anecdotes and descriptions from works of history, geography and travel. Jeremy Mynott acts as a stimulating guide to this rich and fascinating material, using birds as a prism through which to explore both the similarities and the often surprising differences between ancient conceptions of the natural world and our own. His book is an original contribution to the flourishing interest in the cultural history of birds and to our understanding of the ancient cultures in which birds played such a prominent part.

Seashells are tiny treasures, each one completely unlike any other. Their variety of shapes, colors, and sizes makes collecting-and even searching for-seashells a favorite pastime of avid and occasional beachcombers alike. As she did for the ocean's other jewels in Sea Glass and Sea Glass Seeker, photographer Cindy Bilbao captures the ridges, striations, and hues of delicate shells everywhere she finds them. Displaying sun- bleached fragments, glittering, cantaloupe- colored nacre, and scallop shells washed by the tides, Bilbao's photographs embody magic and mystery. From weathered quahogs and mussels on the cooler shores of New England to a rich, chestnut-colored Florida Fighting Conch shell nestled in the sands of its namesake state, she describes in intricate detail how these shells are formed and why they look the way they do. Complete with Bilbao's expert tips for finding the most unique shells and enjoying the hunt, Seashells is the perfect gift for any anyone who loves the beach.

This is a fascinating volume that uses illustrated manuscripts to gain a unique insight into the gardens of the Renaissance. Whether part of a grand villa or an extension of a common kitchen, gardens in the Renaissance were planted and treasured in all reaches of society. Illuminated manuscripts of the period offer a glimpse into how people at the time pictured, used, and enjoyed these idyllic green spaces. Drawn from a wide range of works in the Getty Museum's permanent collection, this gorgeously illustrated volume explores gardens on many levels, from the literary Garden of Love and the biblical Garden of Eden to courtly gardens of the nobility, and reports on the many activities - both reputable and scandalous - that took place there.

Just as painters create immortal pieces with their brushes, ikebana artists use nature's palette to express themselves. Ikebana Inspired by Emotions demonstrates the eloquence of ikebana and its power to capture and transfer emotions. Ikebana is sometimes accused of being hermetic; difficult to understand or appreciate for outsiders. It is claimed that it is an art which merely involves applying strict, imposed rules and that a lack of spontaneity and frivolity makes it a style of flower arranging that is difficult to enjoy. This beautiful new book demonstrates the opposite. Eight carefully selected black and white photos of strong, universal emotions are the source of inspiration for this publication. Many international artists interpret these visuals and translate them into designs that stir the senses and touch the heart. Ikebana Inspired by Emotions shows how ikebana arrangements can pull at the heartstrings and evoke emotions that are recognisable to everyone.

These instructional drawing books have a highly visual and practical approach. With the aid of step-by-step drawings, the authors - all professional artists or teachers - explain clearly and concisely how to use pencil, pen and ink, Conte and charcoal. The series covers a comprehensive range of popular subjects and each title contains sections on materials, composition, perspective and different drawing techniques - both traditional and innovative.

In any game of word association the term 'bird sculptor' is most likely to prompt the name Guy Taplin. But Britain's most successful avian image maker is also in a field of his own - with a story like no other in the art world. A beautiful and revelatory new book about the Taplin life and work charts a riveting journey from the wartime East End to the wilds of the Essex coast. En route the self-taught artist, hurtling through many careers before finding his feet and pouring his spirit into sculpture, has meandered as far as the driftwood he turns into magical art. Written by "East Anglian" author Ian Collins, a close friend of Guy Taplin for the past decade, the book will trace the obsessions and adventures in a very creative life. It features interviews with many artists, writers and collectors and a foreword by Michael Palin.

During the Ming Dynasty numerous new animal themes were created to convey political and ethical messages current at court. As the result a sophisticated language of Chinese animal painting was developed, employing both the animals' symbolic associations and homonymic puns. Hou-mei Sung's exciting rediscovery of some of these lost meanings has led to a full-scale investigation of the evolving history of Chinese animal painting. Distinct symbolic meanings were associated with individual motifs, but all animals were assigned a place in the universe according to the Chinese concept of nature. From the very early yin/yang cosmology to later developments of Daoist and Confucian philosophies and ethics, Chinese animals gained new meanings related to their historical contexts. This book explores these new findings, using the colorful animal images and their rich and evolving symbolic meanings to gain insight into unique aspects of Chinese art, as well as Chinese culture and history.