Marianne North was a remarkable Victorian traveller and painter, who traversed the globe recording the world's flora with her paintbrush and writing her experiences in her journal. In 1879 she offered her painting collection numbering over 800 to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at her own expense built a gallery to house them. Marianne stayed closely involved with the project, painting beautiful decorative motifs on the interior door panels and surrounds. For the first time, this unique and stunning book brings together all of Marianne North's Kew collection. The paintings are arranged geographically as they appear in the Gallery, and Marianne's original titles are included alongside each painting. With an introduction by Christopher Mills, former Head of Kew's Library, Art and Archives. This is a beautiful gift souvenir in celebration of a stunning body of work.

Insects have captivated artists for centuries, as shown in their re-creations of them in gold, canvas, fabric, marble, wood, and other media. This book displays 39 contemporary artists' insect-centric works, showing the extent to which insects fascinate twenty-first century artists and scientists. These American and international artists have many magical and discerning ways to approach their buggy subjects, which each artist explains in their own words. Nearly one million different described species of insects are known today. Now those colorful butterflies, iridescent beetles, little ladybugs, and lacy dragonflies can be with us permanently in many graceful arrangements and a variety of media!

Award-winning artist Harriet de Winton shows you how to create contemporary watercolour artworks to treasure and share. Through more than 30 step-by-step projects, discover how to paint individual flowers and foliage, as well as beautiful botanical compositions. Use your new skills to make art for your wall, unique cards, invitations, or simply paint for pleasure.

The man behind the paintings: the extraordinary life of J. M. W Turner, one of Britain's most admired, misunderstood and celebrated artists J. M. W. Turner is Britain's most famous landscape painter. Yet beyond his artistic achievements, little is known of the man himself and the events of his life: the tragic committal of his mother to a lunatic asylum, the personal sacrifices he made to effect his stratospheric rise, and the bizarre double life he chose to lead in the last years of his life. A near mythical figure in his own lifetime, Franny Moyle tells the story of the man who was considered visionary at best and ludicrous at worst. A resolute adventurer, he found new ways of revealing Britain to the British, astounding his audience with his invention and intelligence. Set against the backdrop of the finest homes in Britain, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, this is an astonishing portrait of one of the most important figures in Western art and a vivid evocation of Britain and Europe in flux.

German photographer Hildegard Theodora Monssen (b.1948) creates sensual flower portraits that are both expressive and mysterious. She captures her motifs with natural light in extreme close-ups and reveals the personality of wilting flowers in all their vulnerability. Her images make visible the beauty of transience and temporality. Her balanced works of art function as a reflective memento mori. --Rick Vercauteren, Director of the Museum van Bommel-Van Dam, Venlo, NL from 2005 - 2019.

When first-time author and artist Deborah Paris stepped into Lennox Woods, an old-growth southern hardwood forest in northeast Texas, she felt a disruption that was both spatial and temporal. Walking the remnants of an old wagon trail past ancient stands of pine, white oak, elm, hickory, sweetgum, maple, hornbeam, and red oak, she felt drawn into a reverie that took her back to 'the beginning, both physically and metaphorically.'Painting the Woods: Nature, Memory and Metaphor explores the experience of landscape through the lens of art and art-making. It is a place-based meditation on nature, art, memory, and time, grounded in Paris's experiences over the course of a year in Lennox Woods. Her account unfolds through the twin arcs of the changing seasons and her creative process as a landscape painter. In the tradition of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, narrative passages interweave with observations about the natural history of Lennox Woods, its flora and fauna, art history, the science of memory, Transcendentalist philosophy, the role of metaphor in creative work, and even loop quantum gravity theory. Each chapter explores a different aspect of the forest and a different step in the art-making process, illuminating our connection to the natural world through language, comprehension of time, and visual depictions of the landscape. The complex layers of the forest and Paris's journey through it emerge as metaphors for the larger themes of the book, just as the natural world underpins the art-making drawn from it. Like the trail that winds through Lennox Woods, memory and time intertwine to provide a path for understanding nature, art, and our relationship to both.

A survey of 21 contemporary artists who specialise in painting gardens. The artists come from the United Kingdom as well as Europe and the United States. They work in a wide range of media including watercolour, acrylics, oils and tempera. For each artist, there is a brief biographical thumbnail sketch, reproductions of a variety of their work, and comments from the artists on their painting styles and working practices. The result is a intriguing look at this fascinating subject. A beautiful book with a foreword by Sir Roy Strong.

Tommy Kane brings together, for the first time, a collection of contemporary vegan artists whose works grapple with one of the biggest issues of our century and confront our conflicted relationship with animals. With diverse contributions, Vegan Art combines a passion for art as a language with the rebellion against animal abuse and exploitation, with the belief that art should be a mechanism for social change. The complex visual language of the book is purposefully graphic and controversial. From utopian depictions of a world that vegans are fighting for, to dark dystopian impressions and brutal, bloody mutilations of non-human animals in industrial agriculture, the project tests the potential of our humanity and asks for equality for all species. With violent imagery and references to major food corporations - such as McDonalds - the project is unflinching in its advocation of veganism and animal rights. Vegan Art engenders a sense of humility with a shared view that art has the power to move people to be informed consumers. Featuring artworks by Tommy Kane, Andrew Tilsley, Milk DoNg Comics, Dan Piraro, Melinda Hegedus, Tommy Flynn and Cynical Coyote.

In the fourteen years since Sierra Club Books published Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner's groundbreaking anthology, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, the editors of this new volume--a practicing therapist and a teacher--have often been asked: Where can I find out more about the psyche-world connection? How can I do hands-on work in this area, amidst a culture largely blind to such connections? Ecotherapy was compiled to answer these and other urgent questions. Ecotherapy, or applied ecopsychology, encompasses a broad range of nature-based methods of psychological healing, grounded in the crucial facts that people are inseparable from the rest of nature and nurtured by healthy interaction with the Earth. Leaders in the field, including Robert Greenway, Mary Watkins, and Ralph Metzner, contribute essays that take into account the latest scientific understandings and the deepest indigenous wisdom. Other key thinkers, from Bill McKibben to Richard Louv to Joanna Macy, explore the links among ecotherapy, spiritual development, and restoring community. As mental-health professionals find themselves challenged to provide hard evidence that their practices actually work, and as costs for traditional modes of psychotherapy rise rapidly out of sight, this book offers practitioners and interested lay readers alike a spectrum of safe, effective alternative approaches backed by a growing body of research.

Beaches, marshes, mangroves; cliffs, deserts, forests; bays, deltas, estuaries - coastlines take many different forms and are put to very different uses. From deserted beaches to busy ports, from pretty fishing villages to a surfers' paradise, a salt marsh to a ship-breakers' yard, Coasts celebrates where the land meets the sea. From beautiful coastal paths to the shipwrecks left high and dry in the Aral Sea, from world famous locations such as Copacabana Beach in Brazil and Big Sur in California to the little explored coastlines of Yemen and Oman, from Algeria to Antarctica, the Amalfi Coast to the Dead Sea, the book celebrates a huge range in coastlines from all around the world. Including nature reserves and tourist resorts, rugged landscapes and desert island tranquility, fjords and fossils, eroding cliffs to whole towns lost to the waters, the book explores coastlines in all climates and conditions around the globe. Presented in a landscape format and with captions explaining the story behind each entry, Coasts is a stunning collection of images and stories.

Breathtaking Watercolor Seascapes for the Beginner Painter From ocean sunsets and enchanting woodland lakes to snow-speckled rivers and quiet villages reflected in a serene sea, this outstanding collection of paintings from Kolbie Blume teaches painters of all skill levels to master a range of brilliant waterscapes. Projects like Mountain of a Wave, Through the Fjord, Village by the Sea, Secret Falls and more build your confidence in painting water in all its wild and varied states. The chapters progress in difficulty, with skills building upon each other, helping you to develop and strengthen your abilities as you paint your way through the book. Providing you with all the tips and tricks you need to master the art of painting waterscapes, Kolbie's approachable step-by-step instructions and helpful hints will guide you from burgeoning beginner to pro painter.

A garden is more than the sum of its parts--a garden can be anything one wants it to be. What's important is that it have a heart. Through ethereal illustrations, textile designer and artist Virginia Johnson takes the reader on her own garden journey, from blank slate to dreamscape. Over the years, she has transformed a small, narrow city lot into a garden that is personal, carefree, wild, and welcoming. It all began with a fence to allow her children to play freely but safely, and over the years has turned into a city-dweller's "secret garden." Hornbeams, with their elegant shape, are the heroes of her garden, and the overall palette reflects an artist's lens--peonies, hollyhocks, roses, and hydrangeas abound. Johnson explains her process with ease and clarity, bringing her ideas to life through words and illustrations so that readers can be encouraged and empowered to start their own garden journeys. The book is organized into clear chapters--Trees & Shrubs; Vines; Flowers; Seasons; Edibles; and more.

Trees are one of humanity's most constant and most varied companions. From India's sacred banyan tree to the fragrant cedar of Lebanon, they offer us sanctuary and inspiration - not to mention the raw materials for everything from aspirin to maple syrup. In Around the World in 80 Trees, expert Jonathan Drori uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life, from the romantic to the regrettable. Stops on the trip include the lime trees of Berlin's Unter den Linden boulevard, which intoxicate amorous Germans and hungry bees alike, the swankiest streets in nineteenth-century London, which were paved with Australian eucalyptus wood, and the redwood forests of California, where the secret to the trees' soaring heights can be found in the properties of the tiniest drops of water. Each of these strange and true tales - populated by self-mummifying monks, tree-climbing goats and ever-so-slightly radioactive nuts - is illustrated by Lucille Clerc, taking the reader on a journey that is as informative as it is beautiful.

In the era of the Anthropocene, artists and scientists are facing a new paradigm in their attempts to represent nature. Seven chapters, which focus on art from 1780 to the present that engages with Nordic landscapes, argue that a number of artists in this period work in the intersection between art, science, and media technologies to examine the human impact on these landscapes and question the blurred boundaries between nature and the human. Canadian artists such as Lawren Harris and Geronimo Inutiq are considered alongside artists from Scandinavia and Iceland such as J.C. Dahl, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Toril Johannessen, and Bjoerk.

Hokusai's series depicting Mount Fuji is widely considered to be the pinnacle of his career. This beautiful boxed accordion- fold edition comprises the full set of forty-six prints (the original thirty-six and ten more that were completed later) and features a luxurious silken binding along with a separate explanatory booklet. The book and booklet are packaged in an elegant slipcase. Devoted entirely to landscapes, Hokusai's series shows Mount Fuji from various viewpoints, framed in different ways. An indefatigable traveler who was passionate about nature, Hokusai explored every vantage point and season at the volcano. He presented it both as a solitary and majestic snow-capped peak and as a smaller object on a distant horizon. Hokusai also portrayed the mountain as an element in Japanese daily life and as an imposing force of nature that can be peaceful and beneficent, or ferocious and unforgiving. These impeccably reproduced prints invite readers to examine Hokusai's virtuosic use of color and composition, his talent for contrasting perspectives, and his interest in the dueling roles of man and nature. An exquisite objet d'art, this volume is the perfect vehicle for appreciating Hokusai's crowning achievement in all its lasting and subtle beauty.

Our relationship with trees is a lengthy, complex one. Since we first walked the earth we have, at various times, worshiped them, felled them and even talked to them. For many of us, though, our first memories of interacting with trees will be of climbing them. Exploring how tree climbers have been represented in literature and art in Europe and North America over the ages, The Tree Climbing Cure unpacks the curative value of tree climbing, examining when and why tree climbers climb, and what tree climbing can do for (and say about) the climber's mental health and wellbeing. Bringing together research into poetry, novels, and paintings with the science of wellbeing and mental health and engaging with myth, folklore, psychology and storytelling, Tree Climber also examines the close relationship between tree climbing and imagination, and questions some longstanding, problematic gendered injunctions about women climbing trees. Discussing, among others, the literary works of Margaret Atwood; Charlotte Bronte; Geoffrey Chaucer; Angela Carter; Kiran Desai; and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as work by artists such as Peter Doig; Paula Rego; and Goya, this book stands out as an almost encyclopedic examination of cultural representations of this quirky and ultimately restorative pastime.

Despite the famously uncooperative Irish weather, John Hinde's postcards of Ireland featured bright sunshine and blue skies, a country seemingly peopled entirely with redheads, happy donkeys carrying turf, and charming cottages that appeared to grow upward from the earth itself. Cars and sweaters were in primary colours, and scarlet rhododendrons sprang up in the unlikeliest of places. John Hinde had a clear vision: 'We need to be uplifted rather than depressed. To me pictures should always convey a positive, good feeling, something which makes people happy, which makes them smile, which makes them appreciate some tenderness.' In these postcards, the world is a sunnier, less complicated and more colourful place. Join Paul Kelly as he returns to John Hinde's Ireland on a photographic pilgrimage, capturing some places that have changed forever, and some that are just the same.

An illustrated flight across the Southeast Birdlife invites readers into the lives of birds we often meet in the southeastern United States. Writer, scientist, and illustrator Todd Ballantine presents the habits and habitats, colorings, migratory paths, and songs of nearly one hundred birds of the Southeast that he has come to know so well. He wings us across diverse landscapes, along the coasts of states from Virginia to Texas, and in elds and forests in between, providing keen insights and tips for recognizing birds on the branch, on the beach, or in the air. Along the coast and estuaries, you will meet the double-crested cormorant and the herring gull; near marshes and wetlands, the American coot and the great blue heron; in elds and open areas, the killdeer and the savannah sparrow. In the brush and at the wood's edge, you will encounter the dark-eyed junco and the white-eyed vireo, and in the forest-if you are lucky-you might hear the evocative call of the nocturnal Chuckwill's-widow. Birdlife delights with Ballantine's own artistic and precise illustrations, hand-lettered text, easy-to-follow presentations, and memorable descriptions. His black-and-white bird renderings provide easy identi cation of shape and form. A unique book to enjoy in nature's habitats, high and low, Birdlife is a must-have companion for birding enthusiasts and anyone intrigued by the lives of birds.

Roses have a special place in both art and culture across the world. Published in Association with Kew Gardens, this stunning book teaches you how to capture their character, colour and form in watercolour, and showcases both historical images from the Kew archives and the author's own extensive collection of inspiring paintings. Guided by watercolour artist and rose enthusiast Trevor Waugh, this book begins with clear explanations of essential watercolour techniques followed by a short project that allows the reader to explore the nature of watercolour in a practical way. Particular emphasis is placed on mixing colours cleanly in order to reproduce the purity and variety of this much-loved family of flowers. This is followed by sections on how to gather reference material; how to compose your own paintings; and how to inject your paintings with colour and light. All are accompanied by three further step-by-step projects, each culminating in a stunning painting of your own.

WILLA Literary Award Winner in Creative Nonfiction 2022 Spur Award Winner 2022 Top Pick in Southwest Books of the Year New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Finalist in Cover Design Honorable Mention in the At-Large NFPW Communications Contest The Forgotten Botanist is the account of an extraordinary woman who, in 1870, was driven by ill health to leave the East Coast for a new life in the West-alone. At thirty-three, Sara Plummer relocated to Santa Barbara, where she taught herself botany and established the town's first library. Ten years later she married botanist John Gill Lemmon, and together the two discovered hundreds of new plant species, many of them illustrated by Sara, an accomplished artist. Although she became an acknowledged botanical expert and lecturer, Sara's considerable contributions to scientific knowledge were credited merely as "J.G. Lemmon & wife." The Forgotten Botanist chronicles Sara's remarkable life, in which she and JG found new plant species in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Mexico and traveled throughout the Southwest with such friends as John Muir and Clara Barton. Sara also found time to work as a journalist and as an activist in women's suffrage and forest conservation. The Forgotten Botanist is a timeless tale about a woman who discovered who she was by leaving everything behind. Her inspiring story is one of resilience, determination, and courage-and is as relevant to our nation today as it was in her own time.