New Eyes for Plants by Margaret Colquhoun and Axel Ewald, offers fresh ways of seeing and understanding nature with a vivid journey through the seasons. Scientific facts of nature are interwoven with artistic insights to arrive at a synthesis of understanding and appreciation of the transition of forms in nature. Readers are guided by simple observation exercises and by inspiring detailed illustrations which together make a companion guide to the observation of plant growth throughout the year. The authors demonstrate how science can be practised through the eyes and sensibilities of the artist, and how art can help science through using the holistic observational approach used and recommended by Goethe. A wide variety of common plants are beautifully drawn, from seed and bud to flower and fruit.

The drawings in New Eyes for Plants are accompanied by helpful suggestions which encourage readers to try out the observation and drawing exercises. Dr Margaret Colquhoun researches into plants and landscape. Axel Ewald is a sculptor. The book is the outcome of their teaching and research work.

“This book invites us to go on a journey, not simply of the imagination but also activity and transformation. The invitation is to reconnect with the living forms by looking and doing so that our eyes are opened to the nature of plant life . . . The door opens onto a new way of practising science as an art . . . The drawings resonate with the relationship to nature that inspires the work of Andy Goldsworthy and David Nash, while the text achieves the directness and simplicity of intimate conversation arising from real understanding. The impulse engendered by this workbook to participate by looking, drawing and experiencing is irresistible.”

– Professor Brian Goodwin, Department of Biology, Open University