Creative form drawing helps children develop hand to eye co-ordination, spatial orientation, observation skills, attention, confident movement, drawing skills and the foundation skills for handwriting. Originally developed by Rudolf Steiner, creative form drawing is used widely in Steiner and Waldorf Schools to enable healthy child development and learning. Form drawing can also be used for helping transform learning difficulties. This books covers the why, what and how of creative form drawing, providing a comprehensive, practical resource for teachers of children aged 6 to 12 years.

Angela Lord invites readers to develop their own colour insights with materials and techniques, exploring colours, painting rainbows, colour clashes, complementary colours, after-images, painting the colour circle and complementary colours, enhancing colours, a new colour circle, the interplay of light and dark, sunrise and sunset, colour dynamics and composition, an overview of colour through history, watercolour painting and the Steiner Waldorf curriculum, resources, glossary and references.

Creative form drawing is a fascinating and meaningful artistic activity for health and well-being. It is focusing and fun. It engages the right brain, by getting into the flow of colour, form and movement. It offers the space for personal creativity, with stunning colourful forms to stimulate originality. Creative form drawing can be both energising and relaxing, calming and enlivening, a valuable aid to harmonising body and soul. This first creative form drawing book for adults features fourfold patterns of increasing challenge. It references Celtic, Moorish, Native American and Buddhist patterns, and encourages the development of new forms. The forms have symmetry, a balance between left and right, above and below, connecting the centre with the periphery, providing stability and harmony. Some forms are rhythmical, having a pattern that moves in flowing rhythms and lines. Other forms are organic, as drawing organically inspired forms such as flowers helps experience nature's colours, and designs. Flowers provide inspiring ideas for colour combinations and for new forms. Drawing with line, form, colour and beauty is a balancing, healing and enlivening process. Originally developed by the educator Rudolf Steiner, creative form drawing is used widely in Steiner/Waldorf education to support healthy child development and learning.

Rudolf Steiner painted his Archetypal Plant watercolour in 1924, at a time when contemporary scientific methodologies were emerging and nature was being examined under the microscope. In contrast to the dissecting tendencies of natural science, however, Steiner's painting depicts the living, dynamic potential which stands behind the plant - lifting us out of the specific genus and providing an image of the growing and formative forces inherent within each individual plant. Researching Rudolf Steiner's painting of the Archetypal Plant can help reconnect our outer sense-perceptions with the inner realm of imaginative cognition, releasing us from the spell of matter. To support and enliven such research work and processes, Angela Lord surveys her subject-matter from various aspects, including the historical, evolutionary relationships we share with plants; the representation of plants in art and architecture; plant myths and legends; poetry inspired by flower imagery; cosmic aspects of nature, including earth's relationships to the sun, moon, planets and stars; formative, creative forces of colours and their relationships to plant forms; and finally, working artistically and painting the Archetypal Plant motif itself. In developing a broad overview, the author forms a deeper, more complete picture of the plant world, paying homage to its diverse characteristics, and stimulating new perceptions and perspectives. This book is richly illustrated with full-colour images.

Rudolf Steiner's watercolour painting 'The Archetypal Human-Animal' presents us with the enigmatic image of a strange creature apparently swimming in water. It has a human profile, showing a clearly outlined nose and slightly-opened mouth, with a mysterious eye, almost concealed in its greenish hair. It has appendages similar to hands and feet, and dark-blue plant-like forms float about in the water beneath the creature's bright red and yellow body. Only the title provides us with a clue to its meaning: it is an 'archetypal human-animal' form. But even this is enigmatic. What is this strange, unusual creature - this archetypal human-animal? We are presented with a perplexing image and a puzzling description. In this original work, illustrated throughout with full-colour paintings and images - many by the author herself - Angela Lord takes us on a journey of discovery to realizing the meaning of Rudolf Steiner's painting. From Goethe's theory of metamorphosis in nature, we are introduced to Steiner's ideas of human evolution, from the primal beginnings of the archetypal human-animal on 'Ancient Moon'. Lord recounts myths and legends from many cultures that tell of human-animal forms, and reflects on the meaning of the fish in Christianity. She takes us through a series of 'colour sequences' for repainting Steiner's human-animal motif, and includes appendices that summarize evolutionary phases of the earth and humanity from a spiritual-scientific perspective. The Archetypal Human-Animal is both a valuable workbook for painters and a fascinating insight into hidden aspects of human evolution.

There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt's stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find there a golden key... "And what is the key for?" the boy would ask. "What is it the key of? What will it open?" "That nobody knows," his aunt would reply. "He has to find that out." Now all that his great-aunt told the boy about the golden key would have been nonsense, had it not been that their little house stood on the borders of Fairyland. For it is perfectly well known that out of Fairyland nobody ever can find where the rainbow stands... George MacDonald's classic tale, full of imagination and dreamlike images, tells of a girl and boy, Tangle and Mossy, who venture on a mysterious and magical journey. First, Tangle encounters three Old Men - of the Sea, of the Earth and of Fire - and gains in wisdom and beauty through her adventures. Then, together with Mossy who has the golden key, they travel to the rainbow to discover what awaits them there... This new edition of The Golden Key is exquisitely illustrated with paintings by Angela Lord, who also provides an informative Afterword.

Rudolf Steiner's intuitive artistic knowledge enabled him to use colours in a unique way, giving expression to their individual natures. Together with his many lectures on art, Steiner's paintings provide artists with fresh ways of understanding colour, allowing for an entirely new creativity and aesthetics. In 1924, Steiner painted a watercolour of the Madonna and Child, giving it the title `New Life'. Through Steiner's depiction of Mary, mother of the Divine Child, this painting draws us to the feminine expression of spirituality. In this highly-illustrated, full-colour book Angela Lord studies this feminine principle, beginning with the very earliest stages of human evolution - the `Fall' from paradise and the pre-historic periods of Lemuria and Atlantis. From the Mysteries of Egypt and Greece to the development of Christian art, she offers insights to the myths and legends of female deities and goddesses. According to Rudolf Steiner, at the time of Jesus's birth humanity had entered a decadent phase of development. Small groups of initiated individuals, however, were preparing for a sacred birth: the descent of a heavenly being into earthly existence. The God of the Old Testament would be revealed `in flesh', born to a virgin mother. In the second part of New Life - Mother and Child, Angela Lord takes us on a journey through two thousand years of Christian art, covering Iconography, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We see how artistic images of Mary and her Child have changed, why these variations have occurred and how they reflect the changing consciousness of humanity. Finally, the `New Life' painting is considered from the interactive processes of colour and composition, illustrated with a series of artistic colour sequences.

In this innovative anthology, Angela Lord presents a unique series of commentaries on art, aesthetics and colour by three of western culture's greatest intellects. Her comparative study of the works of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Rudolf Steiner illustrates how each of these towering thinkers employed an individual and groundbreaking approach. Yet, remarkably, there are common threads that weave through their collective works that have previously been overlooked. By selecting and extracting specific quotations and arranging them in particular sequences, Lord throws light on texts that have often been restricted to theological and academic study. Through this exposure, she reveals their relevance to the Arts today, showing how their content can stimulate an enhanced awareness of truth, beauty and knowledge in our lives. Art Aesthetics and Colour also offers us the opportunity to reinterpret the works of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in the light of Rudolf Steiner's contemporary spiritual-scientific insights. In addition to the extensive quotations from the three historical figures, Lord provides brief biographies, an introduction, notes and a bibliography. The book is well-illustrated throughout and includes colour plates.