Showing 1–12 of 55 results
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The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan
Artist/Author: Fullerton, Patricia$12.00 Add to cartEllis Rowan—painter, naturalist, writer and explorer—was an extraordinary woman for her era. Petite, plucky and always immaculately dressed, for almost 50 years she travelled to the remote parts of Australia, India, Europe, America and New Guinea in pursuit of exotic flowers and wildlife to paint. Over 3000 works testify to her prodigious output. For all her accolades however, Rowan’s reputation was contentious, even after her death. It is hoped that The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan will help establish her rightful place in Australian art. This catalogue was published for ‘The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan’ Exhibition held at the National Library of Australia from 24 October 2002 – 27 January 2003
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Botanical Revelation: European Encounters with Australian Plants Before Darwin
Artist/Author: Mabberley, David J.$90.00 Add to cartAcclaimed author David Mabberley provides a ground-breaking analysis of early European understanding of Australia’s flora.
Combining science, horticulture, art and economics, this lavishly illustrated book – with many neverbefore-published images – reveals the motives and complex networks that led to the international spread of knowledge and cultivation of hundreds of Australian plants in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Based on the superb Peter Crossing Collection, Botanical Revelation documents a revolutionary phase in the understanding of Australia’s flora and science more generally.
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A Tribute to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia and New Zealand
Artist/Author: The Australian Herpetological Society, Chris Williams (Editor), Chelsea Maier (Editor)$50.00 Add to cartA Tribute to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia and New Zealand showcases 125 of the best photography ever assembled of the countries’ most spectacular reptiles and frogs, from the Tuatara to the Cape York Graceful Tree Frog, and from the Amethystine Python to the Starred Gecko. Twenty-five of the best photographers specialising in herpetology each submitted five of their most awe-inspiring images, culminating in a unique and captivating publication.
The contributor accounts read like an adventurer’s diary, with tales of hardship, sacrifice, skill and plain old good luck that were needed in order to find and photograph these amazing beasts. Structured like a field guide, this beautiful book includes details of each species’ natural history and distribution. For each image, photographic technical specifications are highlighted, while the story behind the image takes you alongside the photographer for each shot.
Publication is timed to coincide with the World Congress of Herpetology taking place in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 5-10 January 2020.
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Ferdinand Bauer: The Australian Natural History Drawings
Artist/Author: Norst, Marlene F.$65.00 Read moreOUT OF PRINT. A biography of one of the pioneers of botanical and natural history art showcases Bauer’s drawings made on a historic 1801 voyage to Australia. His attention to detail gave scientists an excellent study of Australian plants and animals. Most of these drawings and watercolors have never before been published
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The Shirley Sherwood Collection: Botanical Art Over 30 Years
Artist/Author: Sherwood, Shirley$85.00 Add to cartThis book is a celebration of the Shirley Sherwood Collection of contemporary botanical art, made over a period of 30 years by Dr Shirley Sherwood and considered the most important private collection of its kind in the world. In 2018 the 1,000th painting was added to the collection, a pocket handkerchief tree by Coral Guest. Showcasing the beauty and diversity of the collection, this book features 265 botanical paintings by 144 artists from 36 countries.
The paintings are arranged in chapters by geographical origin of the artists, and each artwork is beautifully reproduced on a single page. Many of the artists are from the British Isles but there are also impressive and varied paintings from Japan, Thailand, Brazil, Australia, Russia, South Africa and the United States. The many ways used to create plant portraits are explored in watercolour, pen and ink, oils, diamond point etching on paper, vellum, glass and canvas. An additional chapter features the thousandth painting by Coral Guest, and how this was initiated and added to the collection. Biographies of all the artists featured are provided at the back of the book.
The Shirley Sherwood Collection is the most important contemporary botanical art collection in the world today, put together by a single, private individual, comprising over a thousand works (1,008) by 303 artists from 36 countries, amassed during 30 years of travel and study. The Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew is described as the focus of botanical art worldwide and has shown over 50 exhibitions since its inauguration in 2008 to well over a million visitors.
This book accompanies the exhibition of the same name showing in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew from November 2019 – March 2020.
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Pacific Journeys
Artist/Author: Hendrie, Peter$65.00 Add to cartPacific Journeys is a lavishly produced book of 330 color photographs of the island countries of Melanesia and Polynesia, from Papua New Guinea in the west to Easter Island in the east. Photographer Peter Hendrie made over 30 journeys over a period of sixteen years to capture the physical beauty and diverse cultures of these unique but isolated islands. The introduction by Brij V. Lal, renowned scholar and author on the Pacific Islands, eloquently reveals the fascinating history of this region.
Areas included are:
- Papua New Guinea
- Solomon Islands
- Vanuatu
- New Caledonia
- Fiji Islands
- New Zealand
- Kingdom of Tonga
- Samoa
- Cook Islands
- Tahiti and the Society Islands
- Marquesas Islands
- Hawai’i
- Easter Island.
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An Artistic Journey Among the Flowers of the Tropical South Pacific: A Collection of Watercolours
Artist/Author: South, Graham R$72.00 Add to cartThis book is a collection watercolours of plants Graham has seen, mainly in gardens, throughout the tropical South Pacific region. Each painting is accompanied by scientific text which aids identification. Included is a summary of flower names, origins and uses.
Fascinated with nature from an early age, Graham as a teenager in Norfolk, U.K. became an avid birdwatcher, and it was then that he met Richard Richardson, who was Britain’s most acclaimed British bird artist at that time. He was inspired watching Richard as he sketched birds in the field and witnessed his uncanny recall of details. Later, drawing played an important role in his University research in botany, and the importance of good illustrations would follow him throughout his career. During a two-year stay in New Zealand in the early seventies Graham met, worked with and was mentored by the late Nancy Adams of the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, when she was New Zealand’s National Botanical Artist. Graham was inspired by Nancy’s brilliant watercolour illustrations of New Zealand’s alpine flora, and New Zealand seaweeds, in which they shared a common interest. He began his painting career when he took up landscape painting in oils in earnest. returning to his then home in Newfoundland, Canada . He continued painting in Newfoundland, specialising in oil paintings of landscapes and of lichens. Since 1989, living in the Pacific Islands and Australia he began painting watercolours of tropical plants; this brought together his fascination with plants and using them as challenging subjects in his work. Graham is a member if the Botanical Art Society of Australia and lives in North Queensland.
All books signed by the author/artist.
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Blooms and Brushstrokes: A Floral History of Australian Art
Artist/Author: Curtin, Penelope, Tansy Curtin$65.00 Add to cartBlooms and Brushstrokes takes you on a unique journey through the history of Australian art, one flower at a time, examining the blooms depicted in still lifes, floral portraits, decorative interiors and botanical illustrations by a long line of Australian artists. Mother-and-daughter team Penelope and Tansy Curtin start this fascinating journey in the late eighteenth century, when the traditions adhering to the Western art canon were transplanted into the newly colonised Australia. They follow it through the rapidly developing artistic styles of the early twentieth century, to the new media of the contemporary period.
These works of art also shine a light on the role and importance of plants and flowers in everyday life. They illustrate changing floral fashions, as well as highlighting flowers in their various forms – cut flowers, pot plants and gardens. And along the way you’ll encounter many of Australia’s most significant artists, including John Glover, Arthur Streeton, Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, John Brack and Margaret Olley, as well as some of Australia’s most beautiful, and sometimes intriguing, native flora, such as the waratah and Sturt’s desert pea, not to mention perennial garden favourites like roses, sweet peas and daisies.
Spectacular, intimate, engaging and meticulously researched – and full of interesting and quirky facts about the flowers and the artists themselves, Blooms and Brushstrokes is a book for art, flower and history lovers alike.
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Mr Guilfoyle’s Honeymoon: The Gardens of Europe & Great Britain
Artist/Author: Hill, Diana E, Edmée Cudmore (Editors)$45.00 Add to cartExplore the grand gardens and forests of Europe and Britain with esteemed landscape designer William Guilfoyle, as he did with his wife on their honeymoon. The Guilfoyles took their Grand Tour honeymoon in 1890, at the height of William’s reputation as the architect of one of the world’s great botanical masterpieces, Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. His visits to impressive landscapes-as diverse as Kew Gardens, Versailles and the wild gardens of England-inspired a series of illustrated articles, which were published to great acclaim on his return to Australia.A celebration of William Guilfoyle – botanist, landscape designer, tourist and writer.
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Mr Guilfoyle’s Shakespearian Botany
Artist/Author: Hill, Diana, Edmée Cudmore (Editors)$45.00 Add to cartThe great William Guilfoyle, credited as the architect of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic gardens, was an eminent landscape designer, botanist and writer. Here are his collected writings on the dozens of plants, fruits and flowers William Shakespeare referred to in his plays and poems. Each entry is accompanied by Basilius Besler’s groundbreaking illustrations and delicate watercolours by Jacques le Morgues.
‘What’s in a name? That which we call a Rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.’
William ShakespeareAn extraordinary mix of Shakespearian references, Guilfoyle’s botanical lore, and lush botanical illustrations
Shakespearian Botany is a feast for those who love the bard, gardens and art.
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Mr Guilfoyle’s South Sea Islands Adventure on HMS Challenger
Artist/Author: Hill, Diana E, Edmée Cudmore (Editors)$45.00 Add to cartDiscover the inspiration for the famed redesign of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. It was the young William Guilfoyle’s botanical tour of the South Sea Islands in 1868 that provided his vision for the one of the world’s great public parks.
Share his excitement of discovering and collecting tropical plants, giving the local cannibals a very wide berth and being an eyewitness to an uprising in Fiji. Here is an unprecedented armchair view of the riches of this region by an emerging botanist who would later transform our understanding of garden design.
Mr Guilfoyle’s South Sea Islands Adventure on HMS Challenger is Guilfoyle’s detailed account of the four months he spent exploring Samoa, the Friendly Islands, Fiji, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. It is the final book of a glorious trilogy- Mr Guilfoyle’s Shakespearian Botany and Mr Guilfoyle’s Honeymoon, The Gardens of Europe & Great Britain – which illuminates the extraordinary genius of William Guilfoyle, botanist, landscape designer, artist and writer.
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The Tree
Artist/Author: Richard Woldendorp AM$48.00 Add to cartTrees are the biggest plants on earth, and its longest living species. In this spectacular volume, acclaimed landscape photographer Richard Woldendorp AM, explores Australian trees of all shapes and sizes. From abstract close-ups to aerials, Woldendorp’s images reveal the beauty and wonder of trees.
Richard Woldendorp AM was born in Utrecht, Holland, in 1927. He has lived in Australia since 1951. He was named Australian Photographer of the Year for his landscape photography and now specialises in photographing the Australian landscape from the air which has led to extensive travels throughout the country. His photographs have been exhibited in Australia and overseas. He was made a State Living Treasure for his contribution to the Arts
