*One of The Times Best Art Books of the Year* 'Looking to Sea is a remarkable and compelling book... I loved it.' Edmund de Waal 'In her first, transporting book, Lily Le Brun sweeps the beaches of the past century of British art, collecting treasures from sea, shingle and shore... A book to pack in your picnic basket for shivering dips, heatwave day trips and ice-cream Sundays' The Times An alternative history of modern Britain, Looking to Sea is an exquisite work of cultural, artistic and philosophical storytelling. Looking to Sea considers ten pivotal artworks, from Vanessa Bell's Studland Beach, one of the first modernist paintings in Britain, to Paul Nash's work bearing the scars of his experience in the trenches and Martin Parr's photographs of seaside resorts in the 1980s, which raised controversial questions of class. Each of the startlingly different pieces, created between 1912 and 2015, opens a window onto big ideas, from modernism and the sublime, the impact of the world wars and colonialism, to issues crucial to our world today like the environment and nationhood. In this astonishingly perceptive portrait of the twentieth century, art critic Lily Le Brun brings a fresh eye to a vast idea, offering readers an imaginative new way of seeing our island nation. 'Le Brun's writing is at once bold and delicate, far-reaching and fine-tuned. Her book explores the inexhaustible variety of human perception.' Alexandra Harris 'A smart and clear-eyed set of meditations on marine gaze, made with a painterly touch worthy of the chosen artists. Empathy and intelligence lift memoir into cultural history.' Iain Sinclair

Jarred by the 9/11 attacks, photographer Jack Spencer set out in 2003 "in hopes of making a few 'sketches' of America in order to gain some clarity on what it meant to be living in this nation at this moment in time." Across thirteen years, forty-eight states, and eighty thousand miles of driving, Spencer created a vast, encompassing portrait of the American landscape that is both contemporary and timeless. This Land presents some one hundred and forty photographs that span the nation, from Key West to Death Valley and Texas to Montana. From the monochromatic and distressed black-and-white images that began the series to the oversaturated color of more recent years, these photographs present a startlingly fresh perspective on America. The breadth of imagery in This Land brings to mind the works of such American masters as Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Mark Rothko, and Albert Bierstadt, while also evoking the sense of the open roads traveled by Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac. Spencer's pictorialist vision embraces the sweeping variety of American landscapes-coasts, deltas, forests, deserts, mountain ranges, and prairies-and iconic places such as Mount Rushmore and Wounded Knee. Jon Meacham writes in the foreword that Spencer's "most surprising images are of a country that I suspect many of us believed had disappeared. The fading churches, the roaming bison, the running horses: Spencer has found a mythical world, except it is real, and it is now, and it is ours."

Explore the beauty and diversity of the animal world through more than 300 captivating images from across time and from every corner of the globe

Animal: Exploring the Zoological World is a visually stunning and broad-ranging survey that explores and celebrates humankind's ongoing fascination with animals. Since our very first moments on Earth, we have been compelled to make images of the curious beasts around us - whether as sources of food, danger, wonder, power, scientific significance or companionship. This carefully curated selection of images, chosen by an international panel of experts, delves into our shared past to tell the story of animal life.

From the first cave paintings, extraordinary medieval bestiaries and exquisite scientific illustration, to iconic paintings, contemporary artworks and the incredible technological advancements that will shape our futures together, the huge range of works reflects the beauty and variety of animals themselves – including butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, frogs, tigers, dogs, jellyfish, spiders and elephants, to name a few.

Arranged in a curated and thought-provoking sequence, this engaging compilation includes iconic works by some of the great names in zoology, such as Conrad Gesner, Charles Darwin and John James Audubon, as well as celebrated artists and photographers, indigenous cultures and lesser-known figures who have made important contributions to the study and representation of animals throughout history.

The Baule people of the Ivory Coast are renowned for their refined sculptural work of masks and figures. This book is the first to focus exclusively on an antithetic aspect of Baule culture-rough zoomorphic sculptures representing monkeys. These awe-inspiring bowl-bearing figures evoke invisible powers and serve their communities through the mediation of diviners. Investigating the creation, forms, and usage of the sculptures, the authors shed light on the cultural and ritual contexts in which they operated. Beautifully illustrated with over 55 full-page color images of works in public and private collections, this important publication also includes many unpublished field photographs. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

In Watercolour Landscapes for the Absolute Beginner, artist and teacher Matthew Palmer guides beginners through their first steps in watercolour and shows what incredible landscapes can be achieved in this exciting medium. Step-by-step exercises, mini projects and six longer projects help you to build essential skills and allow you to produce a range of landscapes you will be proud of. Vital drawing skills are explained and demonstrated, along with key techniques such as how to use resists; colour mixing; painting natural-looking foliage; using the dry-brush technique to create intricate detail, and using scratch-out techniques to add sparkle and movement to water. The exercises are ideal for beginners and the main projects will also build skills for improving artists. Matthew has an accessible style, with plenty of tips and tricks for beginners to make things easier. A huge wealth of finished paintings provide ideas and inspiration for your own future watercolour landscapes. Full-size pull-out outlines are provided for the final projects. Includes material previously published in Matthew Palmer's Step-by-Step Guide to Watercolour Painting (2018), but with the addition of three brilliant new projects, many new illustrations and extensive textual revisions.

This handsome boxed set of notecards features art based on the wild and edible seaweeds of Ireland. The set contains six stunning designs, two of each. Rich colors and bold graphic shapes give a modern edge to a classic subject with timeless naturalist appeal. The box top is textured to evoke the printmaking paper of the original art.

A groundbreaking insight into Gustave Courbet and his bold experiments in landscape painting Between 1862 and 1866 Gustave Courbet embarked on a series of sensuous landscape paintings that would later inspire the likes of Monet, Pissarro, and Cezanne. This series has long been neglected in favor of Courbet's paintings of rural French life. Courbet's Landscapes: The Origins of Modern Painting explores these astonishing paintings, staking a claim for their importance to Courbet's work and later developments in French modernism. Ranging from the grottoes of Courbet's native Franche-Comte to the beaches of Normandy, Paul Galvez follows the artist on his travels as he uses a palette-knife to transform the Romantic landscape of voyage into a direct, visceral confrontation with the material world. The Courbet he discovers is not the celebrated history painter of provincial life, but a committed landscapist whose view of nature aligns him with contemporary developments in geology, history, linguistics, and literature.

Artists can master a shorthand way to capture the movement and attitudes of birds--not always the most cooperative of models Birds have been featured in art for many thousands of years, but they pose a challenge to paint. By understanding their anatomy and recognizing their type, the artist can learn to capture movement and attitude. With technique and color mastered, style develops, and a special scene can be captured uniquely forever. This artists' resource explains bird types, and how identifying specific similarities can help the artist. It advises on painting in the field, using photographs, and working in the studio; describes how to paint plumage and birds in flight; and demonstrates how to compose a painting with emphasis on the birds' habitat. Thirty leading artists give their insights into painting birds, along with illustrations of their work, including John Busby--the author of "Drawing Birds"--Ontario's Robert Bateman, and Charles Tunnicliffe.

This notebook features a beautiful cover illustration by acclaimed nature artist Jane Smith. It contains 192 pages of lined paper, head-and-tail bans, a ribbon marker and band to keep it securely fastened.

Master artist and best-selling author David Bellamy shares with you his techniques, ideas and approach to painting his beloved landscape throughout the year. A revised and expanded edition of David Bellamy's Winter Landscapes in Watercolour, David looks at each season in detail and explores the challenges and surprises they present to the landscape artist. Also covered are learning techniques for seasonal effects such as rendering hoar frost on trees; misty and atmospheric effects; injecting rogue colours to add excitement to your work; how to tackle a variety of tree branches for different species; depicting light branches against dark backgrounds; altering the composition to suit your needs, and so much more.

Cats have been revered by artists since ancient times for their beauty, grace, independence and air of mystery. Domesticated, but with a touch of the wild about them, they share our homes and endlessly fascinate us. The Book of the Cat is a cool and quirky collection of feline art and illustration by artists from around the world. Interspersed through the illustrations are short texts about the artists and their subjects. Beautifully designed and packaged, the book will appeal to cat lovers of all ages.

The Story of Trees takes the reader on a visual journey from some of the earliest known tree species on our planet to the latest fruit cultivars.

The chosen trees have all had a profound effect on the planet and humankind. Starting with the Ginkgo biloba, fossils of which date back 270 million years, we learn about how trees came to be integral to the development of our species and how specific trees have become important religious, political and cultural symbols.

With beautiful illustrations by Thibaud Herem and fascinating botanical facts and figures, this book will appeal to tree lovers from all over the world.

A lavishly illustrated look at how evolution plays out in selective breeding Unnatural Selection is a stunningly illustrated book about selective breeding-the ongoing transformation of animals at the hand of man. More important, it's a book about selective breeding on a far, far grander scale-a scale that encompasses all life on Earth. We'd call it evolution. A unique fusion of art, science, and history, this book is intended as a tribute to what Charles Darwin might have achieved had he possessed that elusive missing piece to the evolutionary puzzle-the knowledge of how individual traits are passed from one generation to the next. With the benefit of a century and a half of hindsight, Katrina van Grouw explains evolution by building on the analogy that Darwin himself used-comparing the selective breeding process with natural selection in the wild, and, like Darwin, featuring a multitude of fascinating examples. This is more than just a book about pets and livestock, however. The revelation of Unnatural Selection is that identical traits can occur in all animals, wild and domesticated, and both are governed by the same evolutionary principles. As van Grouw shows, animals are plastic things, constantly changing. In wild animals, the changes are usually too slow to see-species appear to stay the same. When it comes to domesticated animals, however, change happens fast, making them the perfect model of evolution in action. Featuring more than four hundred breathtaking illustrations of living animals, skeletons, and historical specimens, Unnatural Selection will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in natural history and the history of evolutionary thinking.

"Swiss explorer and photographer Stefan Forster admits that he is no stranger to dodging alligators and hiking for weeks in pursuit of the perfect photo. And an impressive new photobook shows that his efforts pay off handsomely." - Sarah Holt, Mail Online "This tome is a potential classic in the making and a masterclass in how straightforward landscape imagery should be done." - Amateur Photographer "Stunning pictures...luminous images..." - Examiner "Unbelievable...just amazing..." - WGN TV Chicago Captured in vivid colour and magnificent quality, the unique moments that photographer Stefan Forster discovers in out-of-the-way places in nature take place on adventurous backcountry trips far from civilisation, with Forster lugging up to 80 pounds in camera gear and camping equipment. With enormous enthusiasm and prepared for anything, he often hikes through remote areas for weeks at a time on his search for the extraordinary. He has taken long solo kayak expeditions along Greenland's west coast, hopped from island to island in Micronesia, and slogged through the swamps of Louisiana and Texas to find the area's most beautiful cypress trees, dodging alligators all the while. The results are unique and fascinating photos. This book presents this young photographer's most beautiful experiences to date, including everything from rare rainstorms in the world's driest desert and the Northern Lights shimmering through icebergs to spectacular shots of the Rocky Mountains. Forster was one of the first photographers to use state-of-the-art quadcopter drones, giving his pictures fresh, new perspectives. Stefan Forster published some of these aerial shots for the first time in Above the World - Earth Through a Drone's Eye, released by teNeues in September 2016. The following locations are included in the book: Switzerland Iceland Greenland Antarctica Peninsula Utah Colorado South Dakota Louisiana Washington Namibia Westcoast, Scotland Uganda New Zealand Seychelles La Gomera Tasmania Philippines Australia Indonesia Text in English, French and German.

The image of the horse is so popular and appears in so many forms that there are literally millions of fascinating equine collectibles to seek out, accumulate, and admire. Collecting them is a passion for thousands of people; this wonderful new second edition was put together with them in mind. With over 500 examples, it covers major toy manufacturers like Breyer, Hartland Plastics, Hagen-Renaker, Marx, Hasbro-My Little Pony, and North Lights, plus a wide range of horse collectibles in a variety of materials and forms, gathered from around the world. All of these have newly revised pricing information to reflect today's market. Horse collecting is a hobby suited to any budget. It's not hard to find horses to buy, and many of them are priced very reasonably, even in antique shops. With the wonderful color photographs and its current price guide, this book will be a useful delight for horse enthusiasts.

The role of the visual arts in the assertion of European colonial power has been the subject of much recent investigation and redefinition. This book takes as a ground for discussion the representation of Indian scenery and architecture by British artists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Rivers can be enchanting or exciting, but are always absorbing. They provide a myriad of painting opportunities and challenges for the artist. Focusing on watercolour - one of the most direct of mediums - this practical book explains how to paint a river and capture its life, light, movement, colour and interest. With over 200 colour images, Rob Dudley shares his methods, techniques and ideas to make this beautiful book a must-have for all landscape and en plein-air artists.

These 580+ juicy images capture the fact that throughout history, artists and artisans have depicted vegetables in remarkable ways. Still lifes, photographs, amusing antique postcards, seed packet art-all sorts of vegetable illustrations have been created to arouse physical and aesthetic appetites, and they are displayed here together with interesting botanical and historical insights. This wealth of vegetable art includes paintings by American artists like Lily Martin Spencer, Ernest Lawson, and Charles Demuth; engravings and lithographs by major printmaking companies like Louis Prang and Company; botanical illustrations; and commercial images drawn from vintage catalogs and seed packets. Vegetables are represented in colorful glory, from the hundreds we appreciate daily-like tomatoes, potatoes, peas, and carrots-to less-familiar vegetables like sea kale, cardoon, and walking onions.

In Geninne's Art: Birds in Watercolor, Collage, and Ink, popular Santa Fe artist Geninne Zlatkis presents a personal field guide to how she creates her charming paintings and collages of birds and nature. Brimming with inspiring examples of the artist's work, this beautiful book takes you inside Geninne's studio for an in-depth look at how she creates. You will discover, step by step, how this devoted artist spends time photographing nature, selecting her materials, and developing her personal imagery. Explore: How her studio is set up, how she works, and what materials and tools she uses How she captures nature with both a camera and phone for reference Her artistic process through the step-by-step creation of 5 watercolor paintings, 5 collages, and 5 ink drawings, with notes on each medium and technique As a special bonus, the book includes 32 pages of collage papers, painted and selected by Geninne, for you to use as you explore and develop your own artistic voice. Vibrant, detailed, and richly imaginative, Geninne's interpretation of the birds she has observed so closely will inspire you to use the natural world as fodder for your paintings, drawings, and collages.

Be amazed at how easily you can paint beautiful flowers in simple steps. Artist Becky Amelia shares her easy-to-follow approach to painting, with a range of beautiful flowers in her distinctive and contemporary style. Using only a few brushes and a small collection of watercolour and gouache paints, this book will inspire you with 25 stunning step-by-step projects to paint, including single flowers, leaves, wreaths and bouquets. Learn to paint sunflowers, tulips, poppies, lilies, wildflower arrangements, dried flowers and many more pretty stem arrangements. Feel inspired by Becky's intricate and delicate style and create beautiful floral paintings that you too could turn into gorgeous notecards, stationery, gifts or to keep as lovely, framed paintings.

A look at the painting traditions of northwestern India in the eighteenth century, and what they reveal about the political and artistic changes of the era In the long eighteenth century, artists from Udaipur, a city of lakes in northwestern India, specialized in depicting the vivid sensory ambience of its historic palaces, reservoirs, temples, bazaars, and durbars. As Mughal imperial authority weakened by the late 1600s and the British colonial economy became paramount by the 1830s, new patrons and mobile professionals reshaped urban cultures and artistic genres across early modern India. The Place of Many Moods explores how Udaipur's artworks-monumental court paintings, royal portraits, Jain letter scrolls, devotional manuscripts, cartographic artifacts, and architectural drawings-represent the period's major aesthetic, intellectual, and political shifts. Dipti Khera shows that these immersive objects powerfully convey the bhava-the feel, emotion, and mood-of specific places, revealing visions of pleasure, plenitude, and praise. These memorialized moods confront the ways colonial histories have recounted Oriental decadence, shaping how a culture and time are perceived. Illuminating the close relationship between painting and poetry, and the ties among art, architecture, literature, politics, ecology, trade, and religion, Khera examines how Udaipur's painters aesthetically enticed audiences of courtly connoisseurs, itinerant monks, and mercantile collectives to forge bonds of belonging to real locales in the present and to long for idealized futures. Their pioneering pictures sought to stir such emotions as love, awe, abundance, and wonder, emphasizing the senses, spaces, and sociability essential to the efficacy of objects and expressions of territoriality. The Place of Many Moods uncovers an influential creative legacy of evocative beauty that raises broader questions about how emotions and artifacts operate in constituting history and subjectivity, politics and place.

Cartoonists and animators have given animals human characteristics for so long that audiences are now accustomed to seeing Bugs Bunny singing opera and Mickey Mouse walking his dog Pluto. The Animated Bestiary critically evaluates the depiction of animals in cartoons and animation more generally. Paul Wells argues that artists use animals to engage with issues that would be more difficult to address directly because of political, religious, or social taboos. Consequently, and principally through anthropomorphism, animation uses animals to play out a performance of gender, sex and sexuality, racial and national traits, and shifting identity, often challenging how we think about ourselves. Wells draws on a wide range of examples, from the original King Kong to Nick Park's Chicken Run to Disney cartoons such as Tarzan, The Jungle Book, and Brother Bear to reflect on people by looking at the ways in which they respond to animals in cartoons and films.