Break Away from the Pack... In our digital, fast-paced world world, life can get pretty wild. How can you relax with so many things to do and so much clawing at your attention? How about taking a break to color? Coloring books make you stop and breath while putting your creative brain in gear. So grab your favorite colored pencils or markers and break from the herd to enjoy some creative coloring. With these 47 intricate and delightful drawings of our wild friends, you'll quickly find your body and mind unwinding as you let your colorist talents shine. All drawings are printed on one side and perforated for easy removal so once you've completed your creative break, you'll have a colorful print ready for framing and display.

Each year between 1819 and 1825, John Constable (1776-1837) submitted a monumental canvas to the Royal Academy of Arts in London for display in the annual Exhibition. These so-called six-footers vividly captured the life of the River Stour in Suffolk, where Constable grew up and where he returned to paint each year. The Leaping Horse, the last of these, now a major work in the Academy's collection, is the subject of this fascinating new book. Humphreys explores Constable's often avant-garde working methods, as well as his struggle to gain full acceptance within the art establishment of the early nineteenth century. With reproductions of his full-scale preliminary sketches as well as brand new photography of the painting itself, this book is the ideal companion for art lovers who seek a deeper appreciation of Constable's iconic depictions of the English countryside.

'Take a view', the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, is the brainchild of Charlie Waite, one of today's most respected landscape photographers. Together with AA Publishing, he created this prestigious competition and award with a total prize fund exceeding GBP20,000, plus an eight-week exhibition at the National Theatre. Britain's heritage is celebrated by people around the world and entries are welcome from everyone, whether resident in the UK or simply visiting, as long as the image is from the British Isles. This book showcases the best pictures from amateur and professional photographers alike, from the sixth annual competition. Following the recent announcement by Take A View that that the winner of the Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards 2012, David Byrne, has been disqualified, a decision based on the extent of the digital manipulation techniques used in his entry, AA Publishing would like to reassure readers of their commitment to responsible and quality publishing. The book: Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 6, which contains the winning entries from the 2012 awards, was published by AA Publishing on October 31st in the best of faith. Prepared by the publishers long before the winners were announced to the public, the book is produced to the highest quality standards. Due to the book being printed and distributed before the decision to change the overall winner was made by the judges, the current version of the hardback book on sale contains the former winning image by David Byrne, while the newly announced winning image by Simon Butterfield appears on page 127. The next print run of the hardback copy of Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 6 will include Simon Butterfield's image at the start of the book, replacing David Byrne's disqualified image. The eBook version of the book has already been corrected to include the new winning image. AA Publishing have posted information on both Amazon and on the AA Publishing website to inform buyers of the changes to this year's awards that has affected the content of the book as well as alerting the companies who handle the distribution of the books.

An engaging look at one of the central motifs in the work of the great 19th-century painter Widely considered Britain's greatest painter, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) is best known for his light-filled landscapes and seascapes. A relentless traveler, Turner often turned his artistic attention to the theme of modern and ancient ports. In the mid-1820s, Turner exhibited two monumental, and controversial, paintings of ports: Cologne and Dieppe. Shocking for their intense luminosity and yellow tonality, as well as for Turner's unorthodox handling of paint, these works marked a transition in the artist's career as he moved away from naturalism and toward a new, poetic topography. This in-depth study of these two seminal paintings also addresses a wide selection of Turner's works in both oil and watercolor from the 1820s, placing them in the context of radical changes in British social and economic structures taking place at the time. Drawing from period travel accounts, contemporary critical commentary, and new technical analyses of Turner's work, this magnificently illustrated book brings a fresh, new perspective to the pivotal middle years of Turner's career.

A stunning portrait of the nocturnal moths of Central and South America by famed American photographer Emmet Gowin American photographer Emmet Gowin (b. 1941) is best known for his portraits of his wife, Edith, and their family, as well as for his images documenting the impact of human activity upon landscapes around the world. For the past fifteen years, he has been engaged in an equally profound project on a different scale, capturing the exquisite beauty of more than one thousand species of nocturnal moths in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, and Panama. These stunning color portraits present the insects--many of which may never have been photographed as living specimens before, and some of which may not be seen again--arrayed in typologies of twenty-five per sheet. The moths are photographed alive, in natural positions and postures, and set against a variety of backgrounds taken from the natural world and images from art history. Throughout Gowin's distinguished career, his work has addressed urgent concerns. The arresting images of Mariposas Nocturnas extend this reach, as Gowin fosters awareness for a part of nature that is generally left unobserved and calls for a greater awareness of the biodiversity and value of the tropics as a universally shared natural treasure. An essay by Gowin provides a fascinating personal history of his work with biologists and introduces both the photographic and philosophical processes behind this extraordinary project. Essential reading for audiences both in photography and natural history, this lavishly illustrated volume reminds readers that, as Terry Tempest Williams writes in her foreword, "The world is saturated with loveliness, inhabited by others far more adept at living with uncertainty than we are."

Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno understands that today's busy world leaves little time or space for self-reflection, but that a garden-even in the most urban of spaces-can provide some respite. In his words, "The garden is a special spiritual place where the mind dwells." With this in mind, Masuno has designed scores of spectacular Japanese gardens and landscapes with the aim of helping people achieve a balanced life in the 21st century. This book explores Masuno's design process and ideas, which are integral to his daily Zen training and teachings. It features 15 unique gardens and contemplative landscapes completed in six countries over as many years-all thoughtfully described and documented in full-color photos and drawings. Readers will also find insights on Masuno's philosophy of garden design and a conversation between the designer and famed architect Terunobu Fujimori. Zen Garden Design provides an in-depth examination of Masuno's gardens and landscapes-not just as beautiful spaces, but as places for meditation and contemplation.

Since he first dreamed of a career in photography, Guy Gillette has traveled regularly to his wife's family's ranch, located outside the small town of Crockett, Texas. When Gillette first came to the Porter Place, as the ranch has always been known, he began to photograph the Porter family and their land. Thanks to Gillette's sense of composition, these wonderful black-and-white photographs, dating from the 1940s, led to his career as a magazine photographer. Collected here for the first time, they document small-town life in East Texas, where Guy Gillette's sons, the musical duo the Gillette Brothers, still run cattle. "A Family of the Land" offers a portrait of a community over a half century during which remarkably little has changed.
Midway between Dallas and Houston, the Porter Place is where the South meets the West. The pastures began as cotton fields carved out of piney woods, and the cowboys use southern curs to control the cattle. One of the photographs presented here, of a boy and his dog at the veterinarian's office, is said to have moved Museum of Modern Art curator Edward Steichen to tears. Gillette also captures cowboys at work and at play, branding and marketing their animals, enjoying a game of dominoes, driving trucks with "2-50" air conditioning--two windows down, fifty miles an hour.
"Though photography is often called art," says Gillette, "I have wanted to be artless: to be a documentarian, not an artist. . . . Telling a story was always the attraction of photography for me." The story ends with the outdoor wedding of Guy Porter, one of the Gillette Brothers, at the Porter Place. Family, labor, and land remain, inseparable.

Long before Hollywood brought the landscapes of the American West to movie screens, clever impresarios invented ways of simulating the experience of western travel and selling it to mass audiences. In 1851, entrepreneur John Wesley Jones hired artist William Quesenbury to join such a venture. Quesenbury and other artists traveled the overland trails through Nebraska Territory to sketch the "scenery, curiosities, and stupendous rocks" they encountered, and Jones used selected material for his "Pantoscope," a gigantic, scrolling panoramic painting. "Scenery, Curiosities, and Stupendous Rocks" gathers 71 of Quesenbury's sketches from the Jones expedition and a gold rush trip the year before. These works in pencil are illuminated by eyewitness accounts from the period, modern maps, contemporary photographs, and descriptive notes.

David Royce Murphy, Michael L. Tate, and Michael Farrell set Quesenbury's depictions, including Pikes Peak and Courthouse Rock, in historical context. Their insightful essays offer accounts of the artist's mid-century travels, the worlds of panoramic art and field exploration, and the contemporary conception of natural space. In exploring these topics, the book offers alternate conclusions about the purpose of the sketches. Jones's moving panorama opened in late 1852 under the title "Pantoscope of California, Nebraska & Kansas, Salt Lake & the Mormons" and was wildly popular on Boston and New York stages. Today, the Quesenbury sketches are all that remains of Jones's project. The sketches reproduced here, rare records of that ambitious enterprise as well as the sights en route to California gold, offer evidence of the way mid-nineteenth-century Americans envisioned the West.

A successfully executed work of botanical art is an exacting blend of scientific accuracy and aesthetic beauty. This lavishly illustrated volume offers practical, step-by-step instruction for creating professional quality colored pencil illustrations of flowers, foliage, fruits, and other botanical subjects. Colored pencils serve as an excellent alternative to the traditional practice of rendering botanical art in watercolors because pencils are far easier to use and control, yet can produce equally outstanding results. The author instructs in the use of both water-soluble and oil-based colored pencils, and presents progressive illustrations that demonstrate the rendering of an artwork from start to completion. She advises on choosing materials and offers guidelines for getting to know each flower or plant before starting an illustration. All aspects of working with colored pencils are covered, including underpainting, layering and burnishing, mixing and building up color, and adding those finishing touches that bring a botanical subject fully to life. She also presents works by other botanical artists to show students a wide range of styles. The book features approximately 200 beautiful and instructive color illustrations.

First published in the middle of the nineteenth century, following years of research and field study, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (its original title) became the outstanding illustrated work on American mammals of its time and is still considered by many to include the finest animal prints published in North America. The book included many frontier animals never depicted before and helped to increase appreciation of American nature around the world. This edition of Audubon's classic work has been directly reproduced from an original copy held by the Library of the Natural History Museum, London. All the mammals' current scientific names have been included in the reference section at the back of the book.

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 'Up Up and Away'. Nel Whatmore is a fine artist, well known for her floral paintings and abstracts. A contemporary colourist, her paintings are both expressionist and evocative. She seeks to constantly explore mediums and their ability to convey emotion. Her work is varied and encapsulates her interest in expressionist painting.

John James Audubon is arguably America's most widely recognized and collected artist. His Birds of America has been reproduced often, beginning with the double elephant folio printed by Havill in England, followed by a much smaller "Octavo" edition printed in Philadelphia and sold by subscription. After Audubon's death, his family arranged with the New York printer Julius Bien to produce another elephant folio edition, this time by the new chromolithographic process. It too would be sold by subscription, but the venture, begun in 1858, was brought to an abrupt end by the Civil War. Only 150 plates were produced, and the number remaining today is slight; they are among the rarest and most sought after Audubon prints. Bound in cloth with a full cloth slipcase, this beautifully produced book is the first complete reproduction of Bien chromolithographs and will become the centerpiece of any bird lover's library.

In pursuit of both knowledge and delight, the craft of botanical illustration has always required not only meticulous draftsmanship but also a rigorous scientific understanding. This new edition of a TASCHEN classic celebrates the botanical tradition and talents with a selection of outstanding works from the National Library of Vienna, including many new images. From Byzantine manuscripts right through to 19th-century masterpieces, through peonies, callas, and chrysanthemums, these exquisite reproductions dazzle in their accuracy and their aesthetics. Whether in gently furled leaves, precisely textured fruits, or the sheer beauty and variety of colors, we celebrate an art form as tender as it is precise, and ever more resonant amid our growing awareness of our ecological surroundings and the preciousness of natural flora. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

This connect-the-dots coloring book features images from around the home, in the garden, and from nature. Steve Duffendack has developed a unique approach to connecting the dots that allows for more diversity in how a page can be completed. Instead of only dots there are various shapes to connect. Find the same shapes, then connect the numbers within that group. After all the groups are connected, color the scene!

Featuring over 100 sketches, Drawn to the Edge gives a visual tour of the Outer Hebrides, one of the most remote parts of Scotland. Lewis and Harris are known for their harsh and stunning landscapes, and Barber has captured these simply and beautifully.

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

Just Draw Botanicals presents a collection of 90 beautiful botanical images by contemporary artists from around the world. Dip-in for advice or flick through the pages for inspiration. Each image is accompanied by a short introduction, information on the approaches, techniques and tools used, and useful tips. Advice covers composition, colour, painting techniques and tips for working with plants. This is the perfect guide for artists and art lovers alike.

Flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759-1840) devoted himself exclusively to capturing the diversity of flowering plants in watercolor paintings which were then published as copper engravings, with careful botanical descriptions. The darling of wealthy Parisian patrons including Napoleon's wife Josephine, he was dubbed "the Raphael of flowers," and is regarded to this day as a master of botanical illustration. This collection brings our best-selling XL-sized edition to a smaller, more convenient format, still gathering some of the finest color engravings from Redoute's illustrations of Roses, Lilies, and Choix des plus belles fleurs et quelques branches des plus beaux fruits (Selection of the Most Beautiful Blooms and Branches with the Finest Fruits). Offering a vibrant overview of Redoute's admixture of accuracy and beauty, it is also a privileged glimpse into the magnificent gardens and greenhouses of a bygone Paris. 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.