Tag: nonfiction

Start painting and explore your creativity

Xinxin

One way to relax and find normality in the current situation is through creating artworks. We’ve selected a range of techniques and materials to help you explore your creativity: watercolour, acrylic, sketch and digital drawing.

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5-minute watercolor : super-quick techniques for amazing paintings / Nielsen, Samantha
“A comprehensive guide to quick sketching in watercolor and a new addition to a successful series. 5-Minute Watercolor is the perfect way to focus your energies on producing a great painting. This bite-sized approach will help readers to make watercolor painting a part of their everyday lives. Every spread in the book features five expert tips and ideas, as well as examples of amazing 5-minute watercolor sketches to inspire readers.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Stitch, fibre, metal & mixed media / Midgelow-Marsden, Alysn
“Author shows how to use both textile-based and mixed media techniques to create beautiful artworks using metal in the forms of shim, foil and woven fabric alongside many other materials. Inspiring techniques include machine stitching, gilding, embossing, needle felting, beading, printing, appliqué, making stitched foil fabric and using dry decal transfer images. Eight beautiful projects include lampshade, bauble pods, a memory lampshade, decorative panels and a tablet cover. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Sketch! / Belleville-Van Stone, France
“An inspirational manual for integrating sketching into daily life for artists and non-artists alike with instruction on turning rough sketches into finished work. By sharing her own creative process, which includes sketching by hand and digitally, Author emboldens readers to craft a method of their own and devote more time to art, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day. Sketch Your World will inspire artists both established and aspiring to rethink their daily practice, sketch for the pure joy .” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

The elements of landscape oil painting : techniques for rendering sky, terrain, trees, and water / Brooker, Suzanne
“Landscape painting is one of the most popular subjects for painters working in the medium of oils. Author presents the fundamentals for mastering landscape oil painting. With additional lessons on the latest brushes, paints, and other tools. Key methods like observation, rendering, and color mixing are supported by demonstration paintings and samples from a variety of the best landscape oil painters. (Adapted from the Catalogue)

The paint pouring workshop : learn to create dazzling abstract art with acrylic pouring / Ferro, Marcy
“Jump into the exciting world of paint pouring and instantly create dazzling, abstract art. Paint pouring involves using a free-flowing acrylic paint mixture created with a pouring medium, such as glue and water. Author demonstrates a range of skills and techniques, from setting up paint-proof workspace and control your pours; the dirty pour and flip cup; and manipulating paint with a hair dryer or string. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

How to paint living portraits / Clark, Roberta Carter
“Back in print by popular demand, How to Paint Living Portraits has been updated to help today’s artists discover the joys of this time-honored tradition. Hands-on instruction offering a practical approach to creating successful, spirited portraits in charcoal, oils and watercolor. Offers instruction on painting the figure, hands and clothing. Addresses common stumbling blocks of skin and hair. Illustrates simple and complex lighting set-ups for achieving multiple moods and effect. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Sketch your world : essential techniques for drawing on location / Hobbs, James
“Packed with accessible tutorials and inside tips and advice from contemporary artists, Sketch your World is the ultimate handbook for anyone seeking to explore the exciting creative possibilities afforded by sketching on location. Includes tips for digital sketching with tablets and phones.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Recipes for Local Food Week 25 Feb to 6 March

Xinxin

Local Food Week is an annual event that celebrates Wellington’s local food and food producers. Eating from resources that are around to keep you healthy and strong: kiwifruit and wild berries, pies and cakes, backyard treasures and fresh produce markets, kitchen and local restaurants, and much more.

The organic guide to edible gardens / Stackhouse, Jennifer
“Growing fruit and vegetables in your own backyard, and feeding your family with food freshly harvested can be extremely rewarding, and even better to grow naturally without chemicals. This fully illustrated guide to growing authentic produce at home from purchasing your first seedlings, understanding the growth cycle, sourcing biological fertilisers, controlling pests and diseases and ultimately sustaining healthy, organic edible plants.”  (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

A treasury of New Zealand baking
“One hundred recipes for cakes, slices, loaves, scones, tarts, muffins and friandes from a star-studded list of New Zealand food writers. The recipes include everything from glamour special-occasion cakes to every day fill-the-tins reliables. Every recipe was tested and baked especially for this project by well-known international baker and author Dean Brettschneider, and photographed by Aaron Maclean, and edited by New Zealand food ambassador extraordinaire, Lauraine Jacobs.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Eating clean, living paleo : New Zealand paleo cookbook / Devcich, Rachael
“New Zealand’s favourite cafes open their recipe books to share popular dishes from their menus. You will spot some familiar places from the 50 cafes up and down the country, and be shown how to recreate their signature breakfasts, brunches, lunches and baked treats. The perfect road trip companion book to flick through over a flat white; a celebration of our thriving cafe culture and the places, people and food that make it special”. (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Forager’s cocktails : botanical mixology with fresh ingredients / Zavatto, Amy
“From fresh produce markets to speakeasies, delectable drinks made from foraged and grown ingredients are trendy to hit mixology. Full of mouth-watering colour photos, this handy guide offers 40 inspiring recipes, tips for foraging and preserving seasonal berries, herbs, flowers, and more. It’s a luscious toolkit for crafting tasty and unique cocktails from backyards and woodlands. Raise your glass to making the most of nature’s bounty!” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

My family table : simple wholefood recipes from ‘Petite Kitchen’ / Ozich, Eleanor
“Eleanor’s unique approach to food styling and photography showcases the simplicity of her food in a natural, down-to-earth style that is fresh and inspiring. Eleanor presents over 100 wonderfully simple, nourishing and wholesome recipes. She takes some classic family favourites and adds her own wholesome, creative twist, and using plenty of herbs and aromatic flavours for scrumptious taste combinations.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

The complete New Zealand seafood cookbook
“From smoked fish pie and whitebait fritters to fish burgers, gumbo and paella, all of your favourite seafood dishes are here in this cookbook. This book also has tips on catching, handling, purchasing and storing fish; preparing fish at home, including scaling, gutting, filleting, boning and skinning, as well as cleaning and preparing shellfish; cooking seafood, including pan-frying, barbecuing, steaming, poaching and baking; and how to choose the ideal seafood option for a meal. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Tahua-roa, korare = Food for your visitors, Māori green vegetables : their history and tips on their use / Roskruge, Nick
“Nick Roskruge, Massey University horticulture and Maori resource development lecturer, introduces over 30 korare, or Maori green vegetables sourced from freshwater or coastal areas, the forest or bush, as crops, or as weeds. eg: kokihi, puha, porporo, kopakopa, rerewai and many others. This illustrated book aims to increase knowledge of korare by histories and practical everyday recipes, whakapapa and nutritional values.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

New Zealand café cookbook : recipes you love from your favourite cafés
“New Zealand’s favourite cafes open their recipe books to share best-loved quintessential kiwi dishes from their menus. As you discover recipes from 50 cafes, you’ll spot some familiar places, and their signature breakfasts, brunches, lunches and baked treats. The perfect road trip companion book to flick through over a flat white; a celebration of our thriving cafe culture, places, and people. (Adapted from the Catalogue)