This is a book about flowers and about painters. The author has chosen forty of her favourite flower paintings and as she is both expert gardener and art historian, she has all manner of fascinating things to say about the flowers, the artists and the contexts of the paintings. Manet's Still Life with Rose and Brioche may still hold secrets but it certainly records the arrival of the new hybrid tea rose in all its perfection. Vanessa Bell's Red Hot Pokers and Artichoke came in the wake of Roger Fry's Post-Impressionist exhibitions in London and at a time when Bell had found refuge and creative energy with Duncan Grant at Charleston. The paintings are not always the most obvious - Van Gogh is here represented by a ravishing branch of almond blossom. But Monet has his waterlilies and Rennie Mackintosh his delicate fritillaries and there is a feast of glorious Dutch bouquets. There is old and new, known and unknown in this wonderful collection. Each painting has been chosen both to delight the eye and to offer a source of lively stories and intriguing facts.

This visually stunning book will be a revelation to admirers of Northwest visionary artist Morris Graves (b. 1910) who know him chiefly through his profoundly original, metaphysically charged paintings of chalices, birds, snakes, and other small creatures. Graves’s national reputation began with the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibitions "Americans 1942--18 Artists from 9 States." Throughout his long career as one of America’s most highly regarded painters of the transcendental, Graves has been less well known for his later flower paintings, represented here in more than fifty full-page color plates encompassing selected works from 1938 through 1992. A number of these paintings first captures public attention in 1983-84, during the course of a retrospective, " Morris Graves, Vision of the Inner Eye," organized by the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., which travelled to six major American museums. In the past decade, Graves’s flower paintings have continued to command increasing critical and public acclaim. In the view of noted art critic Theodore Wolff, whose superb analysis informs this presentation, Graves has created several dozen of the finest American flower paintings of the century. A product of Graves’s later years, these serene and radiantly beautiful paintings show distinct compositional parallels with a significant number of his early symbolic and metaphoric works. At the same time, they incorporate the dramatic shift in emphasis that took place in his art during the 1970s, when flowers and light began to embody his evolving sense of what color could be and could do. To a very real degree, notes Wolff, the flower paintings are Graves’s culminating work, epitomizing and summarizing his lifelong attempts to translate the spiritually ineffableinto pictorial form. In addition to Theodore F. Wolff’s inspired and insightful essay, Morris Graves: Flower Paintings features an excellent introduction by John Yau, art critic and author of recent book on A.R. Penck and Andy Warhol. The book will be of significant interest to collectors as well as to art historians.

Billy Showell is a well-respected contemporary artist whose watercolour flower portraits have earned her the respect of watercolour artists all over the world. Worked to the same degree of accuracy as traditional botanical paintings, Billy's compositions are given a more contemporary twist, combining her unique eye for design with her love of flowers. In this book, 40 flower portraits are presented, arranged in alphabetical order, each one accompanied by small studies, details, step-by-step instructions and the colour mixes used to accomplish the finished work. At the start of the book there are useful sections on the materials and equipment needed and the main techniques used, including wet-into-wet, colour blending, lifting out, layering glazes, dry brushing and colour mixing, and at the end of the book Billy gives her own unique slant on composition and discusses the importance of creating a sketchbook. Whether you love to paint, or simply love flowers, this book will delight and inspire you.

Learn the Art of Gouache with Easy-to-Paint, Stunning Floral Designs Let your creativity bloom with this inspiring step-by-step guide to painting lush roses, delicate daisies, blossoming cacti and more. Gouache makes it easy to create rich, bright colors for an impressive impact in just a few strokes. This forgiving medium is great for beginners, as well as watercolor artists looking for a bold, new way to create stunning artwork that pops. Vidhi Khandelwal, founder of The Ink Bucket art and stationery brand, guides you each step of the way through simple techniques to recreate her signature florals. Use your new skills to begin a daily art habit, create stunning compositions to brighten up your home and add a personal touch to homemade cards and gifts. With a trove of traceable flower sketches right in the book, you can focus on your painting journey without worrying about how to draw every line. Along with the essential strokes, you’ll learn simple shading methods for realistic petals, and lovely layering techniques to add fullness and texture in each blossom. Bring your project to life with fun details like veined leaves and colorful backgrounds, and even venture into floral hand lettering. Whether you’re looking to boost your painting skills or enjoy a relaxing new hobby, this book provides a refreshing creative escape.

"Art is the flower, life is the green leaf"—Charles Rennie Mackintosh Haphazard bunches, formal bouquets, chance arrangements, quiet and thoughtful rural encounters—The Book of the Flower is a sylvan collection of beautiful depictions of flowers by artists, photographers, and illustrators. Interspersed through the illustrations are short texts about the artists and their interest in particular flowers, from Georgia O'Keeffe's sumptuous close-ups of Jimson Weed and cactus flowers to Matisse's roses, Keika Hasegawa's chrysanthemums, and Albert York's close study of zinnias. A wonderful collection for art-lovers, gardeners, and flower-fanciers.