The Local Wilderness

You don't have to travel far to discover nature's hidden treasures and exquisite details.

In this book, naturalist Cathy Johnson offers inspiring advice for finding beauty in your own backyard. Using the techniques and tools she's honed as an artist, Johnson shows you how to experience nature anew using all your senses, bringing different meaning to what you see every day.

Illustrated with the author's finely detailed drawings, The Local Wilderness is a must-read for anyone looking for a fresh way to rediscover the tranquility of nature in their own neighborhood - from the hidden creatures of the night to sojourns in the woods.

Cathy Johnson has worked as a naturalist, writer, and freelance artist for the past 40 years, and was staff naturalist and contributing editor for Country Living magazine for 11 years. She has been a contributing editor to Artist's Magazine and Watercolor Artist, and authored a regular column in Personal Journaling, where she wrote on the importance of creativity in our lives. Her writing and artwork have been included in a number of nature anthologies and art books. She has written and illustrated many books, and contributed to a number of others, working with a variety of national publishing houses. In 1993, she founded her own small publishing company, Graphics/Fine Arts Press, which primarily offers books of interest to the reenacting community or others interested in history and material culture. She has been a longtime member of the Author's Guild. She was chosen Conservation Communicator of the Year by the Burroughs Audubon Society in l987, and won the Thorpe Menn Award for Creative Writing (AAUW) for The Naturalist's Cabin: Constructing the Dream (Viking Penguin) in 1992. Cathy teaches a number of self-directed mini-classes on her website, http: //cathyjohnson.info. She also offers a number of free tutorial videos on YouTube; visit https: //www.youtube.com/user/KateJosTube.