From Field & Forest: An Artist’s Year in Paint and Pen by Anna Koska

Summary:

Highly respected illustrator Anna Koska is best known for her drawings of fish and fruit and is widely celebrated by food journalists and restaurateurs. In this mindful, artistic journal, Anna celebrates the natural world; the changing of the seasons, the blossoming of flowers and the ripening of fruit.

Working in watercolour, pen and ink, oils and luscious egg tempera, Anna’s illustrations are reproduced in beautiful detail and they are accompanied by her musings and observations of objects, engaging us in the everyday realities of her artistic practice.

Anna sources inspiration from the flora and fauna in the fields and forests surrounding her home in East Sussex. Her illustrations root us in nature, allowing us to pause to admire and appreciate the beauty and significance of everyday occurrences – whether she is drawing wasps feasting on apples fallen in the orchard, or trying to capture the cerulean blue of a winter sky. \

In this book, image and narrative text are wedded to create a beautiful journey through the seasons, taking time to appreciate our surroundings.

My Review:

Anna Koska is a celebrated illustrator of around 25 years over the years she has illustrated fruit, vegetables and nature, Anna’s work has featured in over 100 books but just published is Anna Koska’s first book, From Field & Forest: An Artist’s Year in Paint and Pen (Pavilion Books) that looks at the seasons and nature that surround her home and it really is an incredibly beautiful book.

Beginning in autumn and working through the seasons Anna celebrates the natural world that surrounds us. The beauty of From Field & Forest is that it is like being out in nature in that it makes you stop and wonder of the beauty that we have in front of us, and Anna captures this in both words and through her stunning illustrations. As the seasons change so does the natural world from autumn to the dark winter months and walking through a muddy landscape or hearing the gentle crunch of a frost covered field listening to the winter birdsong. As natural world awakes from its winter sleep, and life begins again Anna captures this beautifully within the landscape that surrounds her Sussex home.

Finally, Summer has arrived, and the hives are busy, and flowers are plentiful, there is something about standing in your garden at first light of a Summer’s day, the grass damp with early morning dew, listening to the birdsong. Anna describes these moments, and it is like you turn a page and you are there. Anna Koska has written and illustrated the most beautiful book in From Field & Forest that anyone who loves the natural world will enjoy through the seasons.

You can follow Anna Koska on Twitter: @GremKoska and also via her stunning Instagram account: @gremkoska

For mor information of books available via Pavilion Books: Pavilion Books

144 Pages.

My thanks to Komal Patel for the review copy of From Field & Forest by Anna Koska.

From Field & Forest by Anna Koska published by Pavilion Books on 4^th March 2021 and is available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org