The prominent Australian artist Nora Heysen has been said to have worked in the shadow of her father Hans Heysen, one of Australia's most recognised landscape painters. Letters between the two, however, reveal a different story. In 1934, when Nora first travelled to London to study art, she experienced her first time away from home and the first of many, often exotic places from where she would write home to Hahndorf, South Australia. The correspondence between Nora and Hans continued until his death in 1968. Theirs was a close and affectionate relationship, in which father and daughter shared a lifetime of thoughts about art and life, and a mutual respect and admiration for each other's work. Heysen to Heysen is a showcase of letters between Nora and Hans Heysen from the collection of the National Library of Australia. Accompanied by carefully selected images and text by leading art historian Catherine Speck, the publication lifts the lid on a vista of Australian art.

Hahndorf artist Nora Heysen was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize, and Australia's first female painter to be appointed as an official war artist. A portraitist and a flower painter, Nora Heysen's life was defined by an all-consuming drive to draw and paint. In 1989, aged 78, Nora re-emerged on the Australian art scene when the nation's major art institutions restored her position after years of artistic obscurity. Extensively researched, and containing artworks and photographs from the painter's life, this is the first biography of the artist, and it has been enthusiastically embraced by the Heysen family. This authorized biography coincides with a major retrospective of the works of Nora and her father, landscape painter Hans Heysen, to be held at the National Gallery of Victoria in March 2019.

This book contains two volumes of African American folk tales collected by J. Mason Brewer. The stories included in Dog Ghosts are as varied as the Texas landscape, as full of contrasts as Texas weather. Among them are tales that have their roots deeply imbedded in African, Irish, and Welsh mythology; others have parallels in pre-Columbian Mexican tradition, and a few have versions that can be traced back to Chaucer's England. All make delightful reading. The title Dog Ghosts is drawn from the unique stories of dog spirits which Dr. Brewer collected in the Red River bottoms and elsewhere in Texas. The Word on the Brazos is a delightful collection of "preacher tales" from the Brazos River bottom in Texas. J. Mason Brewer worked side by side with field hands in the Brazos bottoms; he lived in their homes, worshipped in their churches, and shared the moments of relaxation in which laughter held full sway. Many of the tales these people told were related to religion—both "good religion" and "bad religion." Some of them concerned preachers and their families, while others were stories told in pulpits. Mr. Brewer has set all of these stories down in authentic yet easily readable dialect. They will delight all who are interested in the historic culture of rural African-American Texans, as well as those who simply enjoy fine humorous stories skillfully told.

Considered one of Australia's greatest landscape painters, Hans Heysen reached critical acclaim—as well as knighthood—during his lifetime for his art, particularly his expressive watercolor paintings. This collection discusses the progress of his career as seen through his watercolors as well as the technique he employed in the paintings. A brief biography is also included.

Nora Heysen grew up at The Cedars near the Adelaide Hills town of Hahndorf, and was deeply influenced by her father, Hans Heysen. Nora Heysen: Light and life explores a notable career spanning seven decades, during which the artist painted some of Australia's most outstanding self-portraits, became the country's first female war artist, and was the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize. Curator and author Jane Hylton has written extensively on Australian art and has curated numerous exhibitions. In 2000 she left the position of Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia to become a freelance consultant.

Nora Heysen’s (1911–2003) life has been driven by an unwavering passion for art. This publication brings together Heysen’s work from her early years as a young 16-year-old art student in the 1920s, to the rare, masterly confidence of her later years. As Lou Klepac writes, ’what may appear as a simple still life is in fact a miraculous moment.’

This book celebrates the work of Hans Heysen and is timed to mark the fortieth anniversary of the artist's death. Enormously popular, Heysen is South Australia's best-known artist. He is also recognized across the country as one of the most influential of Australian artists, one whose work was pivotal to development of Australian art and culture in the twentieth century. In addition to his will-known landscapes, the book reappraises his lesser-known work, tracing its development from his early student days painting in Europe between 1899 and 1903. Heysen was the first artist to use eucalyptus as a persistent motif in his art, celebrating the grandeur of certain species and presenting them as symbols of heroic endurance and includes many other subject areas, such as toilers of the land, quarries, the River Murray, the South Coast and Pewsey Vale, and also portraits and still-lifes.

The story of Australian art does not begin and end with landscape. This book puts flowers front and centre, because they have often been ignored in preference for more masculine themes. Departing from where studies of single flower artists leave off, Useless Beauty embraces the general topic of flowers in Australian art and shines new light on a slice of Australian art history that extends from 1880 to 1950. It is the first book of broad chronology to discuss Australian art through blossoms, which it does by addressing stories of major figures including Hans Heysen, Margaret Preston and Sidney Nolan, as well as specific objects such as surreal flowers, Aboriginal flowers and war flowers. Whether modern or conservative, the artists in this study shared an intellectual and emotional passion for flora. This was true for men as well as women, despite blossoms being a more traditionally feminine subject. Through spectacular reproductions of historical and contemporary artworks drawn from collections in Australia, the United States, Britain and New Zealand, Useless Beauty explores how flowers influenced the psyche, governed rituals, defined identity and brought a psychological dimension to the everyday. The peak years for flower-centricity in Australian art were between 1920 and 1940 when flowers were known as the apotheosis of useless beauty.