cover image View from a Sketchbook: Nature Through the Eyes of Marjolein Bastin

View from a Sketchbook: Nature Through the Eyes of Marjolein Bastin

Tovah Martin, Marjolein Bastin. Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, $24.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-1-58479-353-3

In this open sketchbook, Dutch artist and naturalist Bastin invites readers on a nature walk through the wet, dark woods of her native Holland; the hardy, waving grasses of the Missouri prairie she purchased and restored; and the shell-strewn shores of Grand Cayman island where she often retreats. Best known in the U.S. for her line of Hallmark greeting cards of""uncannily lifelike birds, and animals, and flowers, suffused with color,"" she reveals her passion for preserving nature's splendor through conversations with garden writer Martin, personal interjections highlighted in sidebars and a rich collection of agreeable watercolors. The brief, illustrated chapters--featuring her herb garden, her bird feeders, her goose pond, etc.--are grouped according to the four seasons and offer a delightful annual tour of the natural world. 100 watercolor illustrations