Inspiration: Natural history resources and examples to jump-start and inspire you, your students, an

There’s a lot of SciArt out there, as you can see by this Google Image search for the term “#sciart”.

A few weeks ago, a friend wrote and asked me: “What natural history illustrators/artist-scientists would you want to use to inspire youth/adults to love nature, art, and science?”

Oh, was I excited to answer the question!

Here are a handful of the natural history SciArtists I recommended:

1. Cathy Johnson

2. Jenny Keller – contributor to Field Notes on Science and Nature (see below)

3. Bernd Heinrich – see also this piece with commentary re all his books/sketches

4. John Muir Laws

5. Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717) – see also this piece from The Atlantic

6. Beatrix Potter

7. Leonardo Da Vinci

8. Genevieve Jones – “America’s Other Audubon”

9. Claire Emery

And, here are a couple of books that can get you rolling with even more ideas  & inspiring SciArtists:

1. Field Notes on Science and Nature -essays with field note examples from about 10 different people who do field work and use field journals/notebooks.

2. The Heyday of Natural History – great investigation of how the pursuit of natural history became a popular past time and then developed into specialized science

3. I want to read this one: Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists’ Books and the Natural World.

#book #teacherresources #sciart #recommendation #resource #inspiration #SketchingTip #naturalhistory