Arts, Architecture & Design Books

Sharpen your skills and your pictures with this updated edition of Lonely Planet's bestselling Best Ever Photography Tips . Featuring 45 practical tips and ten golden rules from award-winning travel photographer Richard I'Anson, it's packed with insight...

Reflections on a Surprising Universe takes the reader beyond the headlines of the latest scientific breakthroughs, translating complicated topics into an understandable narrative. It covers a wide array of scientific developments in clear and concise...

In Kitchen Witchcraft: Crystal Magic, best-selling author Rachel Patterson looks at some of the more commonly available crystals and presents them in a magical light! Combining an extensive reference section along with topics such as how to work with...

The Hidden Goddess delves into the Bible to uncover the goddesses that have been buried within it. As well as discussing familiar figures such as Eve and Mary, the book also features Asherah, Sophia, Lilith, and others, exploring their histories, their...

In virtually every system of spirituality the world has ever known, sound has been considered a direct link between humanity and the divine. The ancient mystery schools all taught their students the use of sound as a creative and healing force. Now,...

William Morris viewed his patterns as both an art form and a means of social commentary. In response to the industrial designs and manufacturing of the Machine Age, he created wallpapers and fabrics that boasted natural floral motifs and handmade...

Despite the rise of industrial manufacturing, William Morris believed in craftsmanship. Along with other leading painters, Morris founded what would become Morris & Company, producing decorative textiles and furnishings in a way that intimately linked...

William Giles (1872–1939) is widely considered to be one of the most important and innovative British color printmakers of the early 20th century. He focused on the Japanese woodcut relief method, a technique new to the Western world at the time. With...

Vincent van Gogh is considered a tragic figure—struggling against madness, in and out of mental hospitals—yet he created works of genius. Shimmering with light and color, saturated with the intensity of his vision, they resound throughout the world of...

Make a lasting statement with this keepsake box of notecards, featuring an assortment of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings. Van Gogh was a prolific artist. He created over 2,000 works, from quick sketches to intricate oil paintings. He devoted his life to art...

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) The Starry Night, 1889 A swirling starlit sky over a peaceful, timeless landscape—Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night is among the world’s most immediately recognized works of art. The energetic impasto of his...

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) The Night Café (Le café de nuit), 1888 Vincent van Gogh often rejected the naturalism of Impressionism in favor of bold, intense colors that conveyed emotion. The Night Café portrays a scene just past midnight, with...

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) Irises, May 1889 Though intensely driven, van Gogh was a deeply thoughtful artist who had the respect of his Impressionist peers. His images convey the earthy, spiritual joy he took in his surroundings, and to see the...

Using black ink pens and colored pencils, American artist and illustrator Tim Jeffs has created a kaleidoscope of chameleons—part of his veritable ink zoo of intricately drawn animals. He begins each drawing with extensive research into the given...

In 1896, Kate Cranston, the pioneer of Glasgow tea rooms in the late nineteenth century, commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh—who would become one of the Western worlds’ most renowned designers—to design her tea rooms, and over the next two decades he...

Spirit, as Robert Bissell says, is nearly impossible to describe. It’s full of magic and mystery, and you can find it only when you allow yourself to experience it firsthand—something best done in the natural world. Zoomorphism—using animals to show us...

Wide-open spaces, the seasonal textures of land and sky, and clouds as you have never seen them before. In Steve and Bonnie Harmston’s serigraphs, the sky’s the limit and the clouds are fantastic. Using simple shapes and knock-your-socks-off color, each...

One summer morning, Georgia O’Keeffe’s friend Maggie arrived at the artist’s New Mexico home with the flower that inspired this painting. Once the canvas was finished, O’Keeffe traded the sunflower—the model, not the painting—to Maggie’s young nephew for...

Spirit, as Robert Bissell says, is nearly impossible to describe. It’s full of magic and mystery, and you can find it only when you allow yourself to experience it firsthand. This is something best done in the natural world. Zoomorphism—using animals to...

Kenojuak Ashevak (Canadian, Inuit, 1927–2013) Six-Part Harmony, 2011 Kenojuak Ashevak was a matriarch of modern Inuit art. She was an innovative artist with an intuitive sense of composition and a deep appreciation for birds and animals of the Arctic...

From the owl named Aurora to the zebras Frankie and Lola, the loving, happy animals illustrated by Shanti Sparrow populate a brightly colored animal kingdom—all drawn in watercolor, vector, and collage. It’s a place where everything is just a little...

Shanti Sparrow (Australian, b. 1987) Hide & Seek, 2015 Shanti Sparrow’s owls play hide and seek in this stripey forest of purply trees. This fun and challenging floor puzzle was awarded the 2016 Kid’s Product of the Year in the Puzzles category by...

A native of South Wales, Rosalind Wise takes inspiration from nature, painting scenes of flower gardens and meadows on canvases typically four to five feet across. “When I am standing in a field, a meadow, or in front of a riotously colorful garden...

Rosalind Wise is inspired by all that nature has to offer and has an affinity for painting scenes of garden borders. She often makes quick plein air sketches during her morning walks, recording the relationships of plants to one another. Later, in her...

Unknown artist Flammarion engraving (color added), from L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire, 1888 The Flammarion engraving depicts a legendary scene, but the illustration’s origins have collected their own series of myths. The first documented...

Revel in every flower and feather in Erin E. Hunter’s artworks—expressions of her fascination with the cycle of life. From backyards to city park benches to botanic gardens, this scientific illustrator has studied the natural world, documenting such...

Pierre Bonnard painted what he found enjoyable—the comforts of home, the intimacy of the kitchen, pets, children, pretty women, flowering fruit trees, bountiful tables, luxuriant gardens—and his art evokes pure happiness with its vibrant colors. Here are...

Architect Steve Schaecher presents his deft ink-and-watercolor illustrations and knowledgeable prose to imagine phone booths as they might have been constructed by various iconic architects. Schaecher's book is not a mere parody. While he envisions...

Artist and teacher Paul Heussenstamm’s vibrant sacred art incorporates principles of many religious traditions, among them Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. His signature motif is the mandala, a mystic symbol many see as a doorway to the soul...

A contemporary of the impressionists, Odilon Redon had an eye for nature but his blooms could be inventive, sometimes for the sake of pattern and shape. He set his flowers in abstract environments and gathered bouquets of loosely defined leaves and...

Few artists have captured the essence of everyday America with the warmth, humor, and kindness that Norman Rockwell brought to his illustrative work. A master of painterly technique, he turned a gentle but highly perceptive eye on the details that made...

Mycological marvels! Whether edible or poisonous, all mushrooms can be appreciated for their astonishing variety of form, texture, and color. Mushrooms can also pack a powerful punch in terms of nutritional and medicinal values, and they are respected...

Mycological marvels! Whether edible or poisonous, all mushrooms can be appreciated for their astonishing variety of form, texture, and color. Mushrooms can also pack a powerful punch in terms of nutritional and medicinal values, and they are respected...

The late work of Claude Monet represents a time of artistic focus on his living laboratory—the gardens he created at his home in Giverny, about 45 miles outside Paris. Flowers, not figures, were Monet’s primary subjects during this final stage of his...

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) Sailboats on the Seine at Petit-Gennevilliers, 1874 Claude Monet’s Sailboats on the Seine at Petit-Gennevilliers showcases the artist’s brushwork used to create consummate scenes portraying the evanescent interplay of...

Qavavau Manumie (Canadian, Inuit, b. 1958) Feathering the Nest, 2003

B. Kliban (American, 1935–1990) Cat meditating with flower in Lotus position

Louis Sullivan’s designs stand—among stiff competition—as the preeminent exemplars of Chicago School architecture. He brought to his practice a conviction that ornamentation should arise naturally from a building’s overall design, restating, in a large...

Lisa Houck (American, b. 1953) Landscape with Visitors Amid off-kilter cottages and fantastic flowers, a bird and butterfly visit a crazy quilt landscape in this engaging floor puzzle.

Lilian May Miller (American, (1895–1943) Little White Plum Tree, early 20th century Lilian May Miller was born and raised in Japan, and the Japanese woodblock printing aesthetic is clear in this lovely image of a bonsai plum tree. An unconventional woman...

Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine is one of the most important Shinto shrines and among the most recognizable cultural properties of Japan. Founded by Minamoto Yoriyoshi in 1063, then enlarged and moved to its current site in 1180 by Minamoto Yoritomo, it is...

We are all in this together, and the interconnectedness of species and ecosystems is a particular passion for artist Jon Ching. His brilliant photorealistic paintings inspire close observation of flora and fauna—as well as flights of the imagination...

A centuries-old tradition of “standing flowers,” rikka is a classic Japanese artform. Stately, upright arrangements (often 5 to 15 feet tall) reflect nature’s splendor and are rooted in Buddhist cosmology. A pine branch might symbolize mythical Mount...

Timeless examples of Japanese artistry—the decorative designs featured herein reflect a historically deep appreciation of beauty in art and nature. Although little is known of their creators or the actual dates of their creation, such works have...

About 1,200 miles north of Toronto, the hamlet of Cape Dorset, Nunavut, is home to a multigenerational community of Inuit graphic artists. Their cooperatively owned printmaking studios have been in continuous operation since 1959, producing unique,...

Rooted in a deep sense of place, Billy Hassell’s eye-catching paintings radiate stunning colors and nature-inspired patterns. From a young age, Hassell was called to the creek beds and wild places near his childhood home in Dallas, Texas. His art is...

Austrian artist Ditz paints house pets and farm animals, often in sweet domestic settings or grouped together like the cats in these notecards. Her distinctive style has evolved over time to include highly detailed, quirky, small-scale images. In each...