Slow Looking

The Art of Nature

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An astounding visual compendium of artworks that illuminates the deep connection between artistic expression and the natural world, leading to a heightened individual experience of both art and nature

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Slow Looking: The Art of Nature takes readers on a meditative journey from fields, mountains, forest and glaciers to lakes, ponds, waterfalls and rivers and on to sunrises, rainbows, comets, clouds, constellations and so much more. This guided observation of nature offers a whole new way of contemplating the world – all through the medium of art.

This beautiful book brings together artworks that explore our deep-rooted connection to nature – from Georgia O’Keeffe’s seashells to Van Gogh’s olive trees and ancient Egyptian carvings. With each pairing, Meehan encourages us to notice more, look closer and find calm in the beauty and power of the natural world, from volcanoes and tempestuous seas to shimmering forests and shooting stars.

Slow Looking is a gentle reminder of the joy that can be found in paying attention, and how much nature continues to inspire, soothe and ground us.

With essay contributions from Harriet Baker, Lizzie Marx, Miya Tokumitsu and Alice Vincent.
Extent: 320 pp
Format: Hardback
Illustrations: 300
Publication date: 2025-09-18
Size: 27.5 x 21.5 cm
ISBN: 9781760764739
INTRODUCTION – THE PRACTICE OF SLOW LOOKING by Olivia Meehan • LAND: TREES | PLANTS & FLOWERS | FARMING | FIELDS | FORESTS & WOODLANDS | ROCKS, MOUNTAINS & GORGES | VOLCANOES • Regarding Flowerbeds by Harriet Baker • The Fragranced Dutch Flower Painting by Lizzie Marx • WATER: SEAS | COASTLINES | BEACHES | CORAL & SHELLS | SEA CREATURES | WATERFALLS | RIVERS & WATERHOLES | LAKES & PONDS | GLACIERS & ICEBERGS • Swimming in Ponds by Alice Vincent • SKY: CLOUDS | WIND | WILD WEATHER | RAINBOWS | SUNS | MOONS | CELESTIAL BODIES & THE NORTHERN LIGHTS • Clouds, Air and Weather Systems in Print by Miya Tokumitsu • Biographies and suggested slow reading

Press Reviews

This beautiful collection of artworks and equally moving essays is the ideal guide for anyone wanting to adopt the ethos of slow-looking – a practise perfectly suited to viewing and experiencing art in nature. It will be a constant on my bookshelf, and I have no doubt I shall be regularly reaching for it
Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate

Olivia Meehan has gathered together an intoxicating world of images. Her book awakens the ecstatic potential in the encounter and contemplation of both nature and art
Sophie Fiennes, filmmaker

This is a jewel of a book: an invitation for us to practise the essential art of looking, of slowing down. An animate celebration of nature and the myriad ways we have interpreted it across history
Edmund de Waal, artist, potter and author

The only way to see something is to look more slowly. That’s what this book is showing us how to do
Jeanette Winterson, author

About the Authors

Olivia Meehan is an art historian who makes connections between art, literature, nature and gardens across continents and through centuries. She received her MPhil and PhD in the History of Art from the University of Cambridge, King’s College. She trained at the V&A Museum, London, and has worked as Assistant Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia, at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice, and at the Archivio Luigi Nono Venice. She is a regular contributor to World of Interiors.

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