This revised edition of the classic guide Keeping a Nature Journal has a fresh look, with full-colour art and expanded sections on journaling styles, drawing techniques, and how nature journaling can be a valuable means of self-expression and a tool for fostering mindfulness and connection with the natural world. Originally published in 2000 with endorsements from E.O. Wilson and Jane Goodall, Clare Walker Leslie's Keeping a Nature Journal was at the forefront of the nature observation and journaling movement. Leslie's approach has long been acclaimed for its accessible style of teaching people to see, witness, and appreciate the wonders of nature, and her classic guide is still used by individuals, groups, and educators ranging from elementary school teachers to college-level instructors. The third edition features more of Leslie's step-by-step drawing techniques, a new selection of pages from her own journals (which she's kept for 40 years), and an expanded range of prompts for observing particular aspects of the natural world in any location. With an emphasis on learning to see and observe, Leslie shows how drawing nature doesn't require special skills, artistic ability, or even nature knowledge, and it is a tool everyone can use to record observations and experience the benefits of a stronger connection to the natural world. AUTHOR: Clare Walker Leslie is a nationally known wildlife artist, author, and educator. For more than 30 years, she has been connecting people of all ages to nature using drawing, writing, and observation of the outdoors. Her books include the bestsellers Keeping a Nature Journal and The Nature Connection, as well as The Curious Nature Guide, Nature Journal, and Drawn to Nature. She lives with her husband and family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Granville, Vermont. SELLING POINTS: Update of a classic bestseller. First published in 2000, Keeping a Nature Journal has 126,000 copies in print and is widely acclaimed as a classic guidebook on the topic. Since its first printing, author Clare Walker Leslie has become a prominent, passionate advocate, teacher, and practitioner of nature journaling as she's travelled and taught workshops around the world. Provides people of all ages with an accessible way to connect with nature. From forest bathing to nature-deficit disorder, evidence of the health and emotional benefits gained by developing a connection to nature is stronger than ever, for both adults and children. Leslie has developed drawing and observation instructions, prompts, and guidance that effectively engage people of all ages and abilities - no special artistic skill or nature knowledge required. New features include expanded drawing instructions and more inspiration from the author's personal notebooks. This third edition features new selections from the author's own nature journals, which she's kept daily for more than 40 years, along with her easy-to-follow drawing techniques and expanded sections on mindfulness, reflective writing, and citizen science.
Keeping a Nature Journal is a updated and reformated third edition of Clare Walker Leslie's first edition from 1997. Due out 30th March 2021 from Storey, it's 224 pages (print version) and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
This edition follows the layout and format of the previous additions with updated and expanded content (including new pages from the author's current nature journal - her 55th!). The introductory chapters include the hows and whys of setting up and developing the habit of keeping a journal and using (and improving) it. The second section includes accessible art instruction tutorials for rendering sky, flowering plants and trees, birds, mammals, insects and spiders, and landscapes. The entire book is full of beautiful colorful art and good takeaways about mindfulness, training ourselves to actually *look* and *see* our subjects, and some good tips on slowing down and allowing ourselves the space to learn and grow.
The appendices are also useful and well laid out: teaching and interacting in a group setting with different age groups, with some standard examples of recording data/location/etc, and tips on what to expect from different age groups, curricula, recognizing progress and learning and much more. There is an abbreviated links and bibliography list as well as a cross referenced index.
This is an information dense, accessible, and useful resource. I would highly recommend it to journalers, readers in search of more nature-based mindfulness exercises, as well as in classroom settings, painting and nature groups, and the like. This would make a nice addition to the artist's home studio or makers' group library as well.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
