The California Field Atlas (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
For poet-adventurer Obi Kaufmann, California is a magic network of living systems that connect in a grand, quilted array of ecology and beauty. Based on decades of exploring California’s backcountry, The California Field Atlas is Kaufmann’s masterpiece: a compendium of over 300 hand-painted maps that detail the local topography and of the Golden State, forming a uniquely elemental narrative based on the shaping forces of earth, air, fire, and water. Science and art co-mingle in this epic presentation, at once a timely handbook of conservationism and an indispensable companion for the classic California road trip.
An absolutely stunning atlas of California's diverse wildlife!
— From Nature & Outdoor Guides
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Description
#1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller
Winner, 2018 California Book Award Gold Medal (Notable Contribution to Publishing)
Winner, 2018 NCIBA Book of the Year Award (Regional Interest)
Finalist, 2018 Northern California Book Awards
"A gorgeously illustrated compendium."--SunsetThis lavishly illustrated atlas takes readers off the beaten path and outside normal conceptions of California, revealing its myriad ecologies, topographies, and histories in exquisite maps and trail paintings. Based on decades of exploring the backcountry of the Golden State, artist-adventurer Obi Kaufmann blends science and art to illuminate the multifaceted array of living, connected systems like no book has done before. Kaufmann depicts layer after layer of the natural world, delighting in the grand scale and details alike. The effect is staggeringly beautiful: presented alongside California divvied into its fifty-eight counties, for example, we consider California made up of dancing tectonic plates, of watersheds, of wildflower gardens. Maps are enhanced by spirited illustrations of wildlife, keys that explain natural phenomena, and a clear-sighted but reverential text. Full of character and color, a bit larger than life, The California Field Atlas is the ultimate road trip companion and love letter to a place.
