This book explores many issues raised by the range of ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. The whole concept of landscape is examined as a representation of the relationship between the human and natural worlds. Featured artists include Claude, Freidrich, Turner, Cole and Ruisdael, and many different forms of landscape art are addressed, such as land art, painting, photography, garden design, panorama and cartography.
Landscape ecology - the ecology of large heterogeneous areas, landscapes, regions, or simply of land mosaics, has rapidly emerged in the past decade as an important and useful tool for land-use planners and landscape architects. Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning is an essential handbook that presents and explains principles of landscape ecology and provides numerous examples of how those principles can be applied in specific situations.
Because nature is so expansive and complex, so varied in its range of light, landscape painters often have to look further and more deeply to find form and structure, value patterns, and an organized arrangement of shapes. In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light. Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest challenges for the landscape artist, such as: • Simplification and Massing: Learn to reduce nature's complexity by looking beneath the surface of a subject to discover the form's basic masses and shapes.• Color and Light: Explore color theory as it specifically applies to the landscape, and learn the various strategies painters use to capture the illusion of natural light.• Selection and Composition: Learn to select wisely from nature's vast panorama. Albala shows you the essential cues to look for and how to find the most promising subject from a world of possibilities. The lessons in Landscape Painting—based on observation rather than imitation and applicable to both plein air and studio practice—are accompanied by painting examples, demonstrations, photographs, and diagrams. Illustrations draw from the work of more than 40 contemporary artists and such masters of landscape painting as John Constable, Sanford Gifford, and Claude Monet. Based on Albala's 25 years of experience and the proven methods taught at his successful plein air workshops, this in-depth guide to all aspects of landscape painting is a must-have for anyone getting started in the genre, as well as more experienced practitioners who want to hone their skills or learn new perspectives.
Water and land interrelate in surprising and ambiguous ways, and riparian zones, where land and water meet, have effects far outside their boundaries. Using the Malheur Basin in southeastern Oregon as a case study, this intriguing and nuanced book explores the ways people have envisioned boundaries between water and land, the ways they have altered these places, and the often unintended results. The Malheur Basin, once home to the largest cattle empires in the world, experienced unintended widespread environmental degradation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After establishment in 1908 of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a protected breeding ground for migratory birds, and its expansion in the 1930s and 1940s, the area experienced equally extreme intended modifications aimed at restoring riparian habitat. Refuge managers ditched wetlands, channelized rivers, applied Agent Orange and rotenone to waterways, killed beaver, and cut down willows. Where Land and Water Meet examines the reasoning behind and effects of these interventions, gleaning lessons from their successes and failures. Although remote and specific, the Malheur Basin has myriad ecological and political connections to much larger places. This detailed look at one tangled history of riparian restoration shows how—through appreciation of the complexity of environmental and social influences on land use, and through effective handling of conflict—people can learn to practice a style of pragmatic adaptive resource management that avoids rigid adherence to single agendas and fosters improved relationships with the land.
An exploration of shifting landscapes--both real and represented--in nineteenth-century France and the role of images in both picturing and producing those shifts What is the relationship between land and landscape? This engaging study examines the role landscape depictions played in the formation of modern France and reveals how art and visual culture contributed to the physical and symbolic shaping of the nation. Spanning more than a century, from the post-revolutionary period through to the early twentieth century, Land into Landscape explores political and environmental shifts alongside changes in landscape representation across a variety of media, including paintings, photographs, prints, porcelain, and maps. Through this broad and diverse set of images--by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Gustave Courbet, Théodore Rousseau, and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, as well as lesser-known figures--Kelly Presutti contends that representational problems were also political problems, which often required drastic solutions on the part of the state. In the nineteenth century, France's forests were replanted, its wetlands were drained, its coasts were secured, and its mountains restored. Landscapes and their inhabitants, however, could resist being co-opted as emblems of a greater ideal. The book therefore addresses the tension between a place and its representation--a matter of heightened urgency in a moment when we are once again struggling to both see and manage our environment.
Foreword : In search of the American cultural landscape / Dolores Hayden -- Considering nature and culture in historic landscape preservation / Robert Z. Melnick -- Selling heritage landscapes / Richard Francaviglia -- The history and preservation of urban parks and cemeteries / David Schuyler and Patricia M. O'Donnell -- Appropriating place in Puerto Rican barrios : preserving contemporary urban landscapes / Luis Aponte-Parés -- Considering the ordinary : vernacular landscapes in small towns and rural areas / Arnold R. Alanen -- Asian American imprints on the Western landscape / Gail Lee Dubrow -- Ethnographic landscapes : transforming nature into culture / Donald L. Hardesty -- Integrity as a value in cultural landscape preservation / Catherine Howett.
Contemporary landscape architecture is progressing towards an appropiate and independent language of its own. Drawing on the potentials of art and architecture, the ever changing relationship between man and nature is given new expression. Ecological concerns and aesthetic aspirations interact in a fruitful dialogue. Particularly Land Art and related art movements become sources of inspiration and innovation. The ground-breakting works of the landscape artists and architects presented in this book reveal the diverse current trends in international landscape design. "This book offers many stimuli to design. Its contents are not just for landscape architects," wrote The architects' journal. With chapters on Dani Karavan, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Bernard Lassus, Peter Latz, Dieter Kienast, Herman Prigann, Peter Walker, Adriaan Geuze and others.
Soils and Landscape Restoration provides a multidisciplinary synthesis on the sustainable management and restoration of soils in various landscapes. The book presents applicable knowledge of above- and below-ground interactions and biome specific realizations along with in-depth investigations of particular soil degradation pathways. It focuses on severely degraded soils (e.g., eroded, salinized, mined) as well as the restoration of wetlands, grasslands and forests. The book addresses the need to bring together current perspectives on land degradation and restoration in soil science and restoration ecology to better incorporate soil-based information when restoration plans are formulated. - Incudes a chapter on climate change and novel ecosystems, thus collating the perspective of soil scientists and ecologists on this consequential and controversial topic - Connects science to international policy and practice - Includes summaries at the end of each chapter to elucidate principles and key points
