This is a lovely book. I really enjoyed reading it. I have dabbled with botanical painting myself and have been most curious about how other artists went about their work. Well here we have many examples of the rough, field sketches that artists made and also their finished works so one can get some idea of the process. But it's not comprehensive. I suspect the there were probably many intermediate sketches made of most of the finished works plus small aside sketches of a particular leaf or petal to get the shape, shading and colour right.
Some 84 artists are covered and they only get a few pages each...but it's enough to get some background text about the artist plus some of their sketches and, usually, some of their finished or near finished work. I loved may of the half finished works...part in graphite and part finished.
I think all the works are in watercolour and some of the artists have shown a masterful usage of watercolour. (Notably the Scott sisters and the incomparable Ferdinand Bauer). And Harry Church's work is also extraordinary. But I also likes seeing the sketch by Alfred Russel Wallace of the Amazon Jungle and sketches by Helen Faulkner which consist of pencil sketches only part coloured so the one can see her working technique..plus the notes she took. Many of the artist's sketchbooks were similar.
Anyway, a lovely book which I never tired dipping into. Five stars from me. ( )