"In this book, you will discover everything you need to know about essential watercolor tools and materials, painting techniques, and tips for finding inspiration outdoors, as well as a variety of your favorite plants and forest animals...Also included are tips for creating a sketchbook as you paint both indoors and out."--back cover.

In Victorian England, with the country swept up in the Industrial Revolution, the Pre-Raphaelites, close to William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement, yearned for a return to bygone values. Wishing to revive the pure and noble forms of the Italian Renaissance, the major painters of the circle (such as John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt) favoured realism and biblical themes over the academicism of the time. This work,...

*The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions*

A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life.
In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning "death" and städning meaning "cleaning." This surprising and invigorating...

"Poetry is the sound of language organized in lines." James Longenbach opens The Art of the Poetic Line with that essential statement. Through a range of examples - from Shakespeare and Milton to Ashbery and Glück - Longenbach describes the function of line in metered, rhymed, syllabic, and free-verse poetry. That function is sonic, he argues, and our true experience of it can only be identified in relation to other elements in a poem. Syntax and...

"In this book, early fluent readers will learn how cooking can help us focus, relieve stress, and increase mindfulness. Step-by-step instructions help readers meal prep and execute a fun, healthy recipe they can be proud of. Social and emotional learning (SEL) concepts support growth mindset throughout, while Try This! and Grow with Goals activities at the end of the book further reinforce the content." --publishers' website

Pierre Bonnard was the leader of the group of post-impressionist painters who called themselves "the Nabis," from the Hebrew word for "prophet." Influenced by Odilon Redon, Puvis de Chavannes, popular imagery, and Japanese woodblock printing, Bonnard, Vuillard, Vallotton and Denis (to name the most prominent members) revolutionized the spirit of decorative technique during one of the richest periods in French painting. Although the increasing individualism...

Deriving from the French word rocaille, in reference to the curved forms of shellfish, and the Italian barocco, the French created the term 'Rococo.' Appearing at the beginning of the 18th century, it rapidly spread to the whole of Europe. Extravagant and light, Rococo responded perfectly to the spontaneity of the aristocracy of the time. In many aspects, this art was linked to its predecessor, Baroque, and it is thus also referred to as late Baroque...

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This quote alone from William Morris could summarise the ideology of the Arts & Crafts movement, which triggered a veritable reform in the applied arts in England. Founded by John Ruskin, then put into practice by William Morris, the Arts & Crafts movement promoted revolutionary ideas in Victorian England. In the middle of the "soulless" Industrial Era, when...

Romanticism was a reaction against the Neoclassicism that invaded the 19th century, and marked a veritable intellectual rupture. Found in the writings of Victor Hugo and Lord Byron, amongst others, its ideas are expressed in painting by Eugène Delacroix, Caspar David Friedrich and William Blake. In sculpture, François Rude indicated the direction this new artistic freedom would take, endowing his work with a movement and expression never previously...