Margaret Mee’s Amazon. Diaries of an Artist Explorer

Margaret Mee

For thirty- two years, the artist Margaret Mee was enchanted by and lured back again and again to the massive, unpredictable and fertile rainforests of Amazonas. Her initial objective, to search out and illustrate the glorious flora growing in the tree canopies and along the innumerable waterways of the great rivers of the  Amazon basin, was later combined with a growing concern at the commercial plunder of the great forests.

Her first expedition to Amazonas was in 1956 and it was then that she began to keep the diaries that, along with her paintings, drawings and sketches, make up this book.

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319 pages/Hard cover/245mm x 310mm/ISBN 1-85149-454-5/RRP $49.95

Potted Histories. An artistic voyage through plant exploration.

Sandra Knapp

The history of garden plants is not only one of science, but also of adventure and human achievement, illustrated here from the treasure of original botanical art held in the collections of the National History Museum. Potted Histories is an enchanting voyage of discovery capturing the excitement and wonder of plant exploration through art. Through botanical paintings and insightful essays, Potted Histories examines the fascinating history of plants and flowers. Over 20 plant families are profiled, including cacti, daffodils, iris, magnolia, poppies, roses, tulips and waterlilies.

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336 pages/Hard cover/270mm x 290mm/ISBN 1-902686-28-4/RRP $150.00

How to Draw Plants. The techniques of botanical illustration.

Keith West

This comprehensive and authoritative handbook is for all those who want to portray plants and flowers with botanical accuracy. In it the author Keith West gives detailed advice on working in pencil, pen, scraper board, watercolour, acrylics and gouache; on building up a painting or drawing by stages; on taking measurements and understanding plant structure; on  collecting; handling and preserving plant material, and on the use of the hand lens and dissecting microscope.
Essential botanical terms and information are fully explained and illustrated, and there is a useful glossary. Highly illustrated, the book includes the work of well-known artists of the past as well as large number of diagrams and line drawings. All in all, it is the complete guide for anyone wishing to produce work of botanical accuracy.

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152 pages/Soft cover/245mm x 185mm/ ISBN0713670053/ RRP $ 39.95

George Caley- 19th Century Naturalist

Joan Webb

This biography is the first on George Caley to take a balanced approach to the life and work of a man who made a major contribution to 19th century scientific studies. Dr Webb takes the reader from Caley’s humble beginnings in a stable in Yorkshire to the settlement of Parramatta in New South Wales in 1800. It traces his journey through the colony, his encounters with Governor King, Governor Bligh and Reverend Samuel Marsden. His studies of the Australian flora and fauna are dealt with in detail. Research in London and Manchester as well as the Herbaria of a number of countries around the world has enabled the author to give the reader details of Caley’s early life and events after his return from New South Wales in 1810. Included are details of the fate of Caley’s extensive collections and the facts about those unwise decisions which led him to stagnate first in Manchester and then in the island of St Vincent.

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187 pages/Hard cover/215mm x 305mm/ISBN 0949324620/RRP $39.95

Fruit- an Illustrated History

Peter Blackburne-Maze

From the plum to the passionfruit and the strawberry to the lime, the history and evolution of fruit is a labyrinth. Cultivated for thousands of years, many species have spread throughout the world as humans migrated and explored far- flung places. Fruit charts the development of a vast range of crops, describing their history and cultivation as well as their place in popular culture, from ancient myths to more recent and sometimes bizarre medicinal beliefs. From the wild origins of fruit in Central Asia and China, we take a fascinating journey through the nurseries of ancient Greece and Rome, the monasteries and great houses of Europe, to the great era of European exploration and expansion into the Americas, finally arriving at the commercial and domestic fruit gardens of today. Exquisite images from the archive of the Royal Horticultural Society illustrate this unique volume. Notable not only for their historical value in charting the development of fruit, they are masterpieces in their own right.

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336 pages/Hard cover/280mm x 320mm/ISBN 1-902686-23-3/RRP $ 150.00

The Flower Seeker. A Painter’s Travels.

Judy Cuppaidge

Judy Cuppaidge’s search for unusual, rare or just beautiful flowers has taken her across the Pacific to remote islands, through mainland rainforests, to abandoned airfields, and to her own garden. This book is a highly personal, exquisitely rendered dedication to the wonders of nature with her tales of discovery, chance and mischance, as she travelled far and wide to record these most treasured blooms in ink and watercolours. Each painting is the product of intensive work and painstaking effort, sometimes uniquely layering fifteen applications of water colouring to obtain just the right nuance and shade.

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111 pages/ Hard cover/ 220mm x 180mm/ISBN 0-9751023-1-1/RRP $39.95 

The Flower Hunter

Ellis Rowan

Ellis Rowan - painter, naturalist, writer and explorer- was an extraordinary woman for her era. Petite, plucky and always dressed immaculately, for almost 50 years she travelled to the remote parts of Australia, India, Europe, America and New Guinea in pursuit of exotic flowers and wildelife to paint. Over 3000 works testify to her prodigious output. Unabashedly ambitious, throughout her life she used her social connections to promote her work which was internationally acclaimed and collected by royalty. For all her accolades however Rowan’s reputation was contentious, even after her death. It is hoped that The Flower Hunter will help establish her rightful place in Australian art.

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105 pages/ Soft cover/290mm x 235mm/ISBN 064210760-2/RRP $19.90

Contemporary Botanical Artists. The Shirley Sherwood Collection

Shirley Sherwood

Shirley Sherwood started collecting contemporary botanical art in 1990 when she became involved with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Since then she has toured the world in search of the very best practitioners of the art, and has brought them together in a collection that celebrates the renaissance of botanical painting the world over.
Over a hundred artists are represented here, with work that rivals- and in some cases surpasses- even the exquisite botanical studies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The career of each artist is examined in an illuminating essay accompanying their work. The result is a ravishin and important record of an enduringly popular art form.

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240 pages/ Soft cover/ 225mm x 290mm/ISBN 0-297-82270-5/ RRP $69.95

Flower Drawings

David Scrase

This handbook illustrates a selection of drawings of flowers from the collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum. The book is arranged chronologically and ranges from the fifteenth century to the present day. Beginning with illustrations in the borders and backgrounds of illuminated manuscripts, the selection traces the genre through attempts at accurate delineation of form in the Renaissance and the more scientific approach of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It concludes with contemporary examples to show that the tradition continues. The illustrations bring out the stunning detail and colour of the originals.

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135 pages/Soft cover/240mm x 170mm/ISBN 0-521-58578-3/RRP $49.95

An Illustrated History of the Garden Flower - Flora

Brent Elliot

For hundreds of years, as Europe explored the world beyond its shores, intrepid adventures, botanists and plant hunters sent back seeds and specimens of the thousands of flowers they came across on their travels. In Britain in particular, many nurserymen and aristocratic garden lovers set about experimenting with each new influx of botanical material, to create the garden flowers we know today. Flora tells the fascinating story of this evolution, drawing on the superb archive of the Royal Horticultural Society. The exquisite illustrations within are notable not only for their historical value in charting the fascinating development of garden flowers, but also for their beauty, including works by the great names in botanical art.

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336 pages/Hard cover/325mm x 280mm/ISBN1-902686-14-4/RRP $150.00