Botany for the artist : featuring plants from the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Oxford University Herbaria

This is a sumptuous, stunning book by a widely exhibited artist and teacher at both the Royal College of Art in London and Oxford University. Simblet's drawings are paired with luminous plant portraits by photographer Sam Scott-Hunter. Simblet begins with essays on the history of botanical illustration and the various styles of the art and proceeds to detailed chapters on roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Ann Swan's Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils (reviewed below) is a fine but narrower work for experienced botanical artists who want to focus only on colored pencil. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.