The Native Trees of Canada

by Leanne Shapton

A bold reinterpretation of a century-old book

While shopping in the used-book store the Monkey's Paw in Toronto, Leanne Shapton happened upon a 1956 edition of the government reference book The Native Trees of Canada , originally published in 1917 by the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. Most people might simply view the book as a dry cataloging of a banal subject; Shapton, however, saw beauty in the technical details and was inspired to create her own interpretation of The Native Trees of Canada.

Shapton distills each image into its simplest form, using vivid colors in lush ink and house paint. She takes the otherwise complex objects of trees, pinecones, and seeds and strips them down into bold, almost abstract shapes and the water birch is represented as two pulsating red bulbs contrasted against a gray backdrop; the eastern white pine is represented by a close-up of its cone against a radiant summer sky.

The author of Was She Pretty? and Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry , Shapton puts forth yet another entirely new facet of her creative artistry.

Genres: Art, Nature, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Canada, Comics, Environment

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2010

About the author

Leanne Shapton is an illustrator, author and publisher based in New York City. She is the co-founder, with photographer Jason Fulford, of J&L Books, an internationally-distributed not-for-profit imprint specializing in art and photography books. Shapton grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, and attended McGill Univesity and Pratt Institute. After interning at SNL, Harper's Magazine and for illustator James McMullan, she began her career at the National Post where she edited and art-directed the daily Avenue page, an award-winning double-page feature covering news and cultural trends. She went on to art direct Saturday Night, the National Post's weekly news magazine.

In 2003, Shapton published her first book of drawings, titled Toronto. From 2006 to 2008 Shapton contributed a regular travel column to Elle magazine, consisting of writing, photography and illustration. From 2008 to 2009, Shapton was the art director of The New York Times Op-Ed page.

Leanne Shapton published Was She Pretty? in November 2008 and Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry, in February 2009, with Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She published The Native Trees of Canada with Drawn & Quarterly in November 2010. Shapton recently contributed a regular column to T: The New York Times Style Magazine's blog The Moment. In 2011 She posted an illustrated series titled "A Month Of..." to The New York Times opinion page website.

Currently Shapton contributes a food and culture column to Flare Magazine.

In 2012 Shapton published Swimming Studies with Blue Rider Press. It won the 2012 National Book Critic's Circle Award for autobiography, and was long listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2012.

Sunday Night Movies, a book of paintings from movies, is forthcoming from Drawn & Quarterly, fall 2013. Shapton is currently working on Women In Clothes, a collaboration with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits, about how women dress, with Blue Rider Press.

Source: Leanne Shapton Bio.

Reviews

[RKanimalkingdom · Rating 4 out of 5]

There shall be no review for
This book

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book that we got for Christmas. It is just big loose paintings of leaves and I find it so inspiring!

[Cynthia]

kinda hilarious that theres 5 stars reviews

[Ali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nice colors but otherwise not particularly well done.

[Amory Blaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Large, dynamic, simplistic paintings of common Canadian trees. More specifically, leaves - the shape, roughly, but not the color, texture, detail. This would not work as an actual nature guide. As a work of art, I also found it a little underwhelming. It's fun to flip through, but a lot of the paintings look the same and like they were done quickly and sloppily, as if done by a kid who was given a couple paints and told they had to fill up a pad of paper on a nature hike before they could go inside and play video games. I would have liked more information on the trees themselves, and maybe even comparison photos. I want to actually learn about native trees of Canada!

[Sandy Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peut-on vraiment noter un livre d'artiste? Un livre intéressant à feuilleter, inspirant la création. Le choix du papier nous fait tout de suite sentir qu'on a un choix intriguant entre les mains. J'aime que les images prennent toute la page et tout l'espace du livre presque. Le texte ne suffit parfois pas à véhiculer le message malgré le format du livre.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this from a Midtown Comics clearance sale, not really knowing what to expect. Drawn & Quarterly has an art book on its hands. The last book I read was in part a catalog of such things, in this case Shapton’s impressions of the leaves of the many trees one can find in Canada. The sheer breadth of it is itself worth savoring. I consider it a lucky find.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid collection of paintings of leaves based on a guidebook. These are some loose interpretations, which makes them more interesting as art than as an actual nature guide. (That probably goes without saying though.)

[Chris Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great paintings here. This is essentially a reinterpretation of an old guidebook on Canadian trees done through paintings of leaves. Another 2024 Drawn and Quarterly release I'd been meaning to get to.

[James Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this book three times today (it is all pictures)

[Izzy Pilares · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the coffee table books, this is the most coffee table book. Mostly just made me want to read the newest Sheila Heti book of essays that came out. Really beautiful paintings though!

[Kyla]

She is definitely heading my list of people I would most like to thrift shop with.
Sadly this was not my favourite of her books, not by a long mile, but because it is her - and look at the cover, Come on, the cover - I liked it plenty.

[Mary Helene]

I saw a review in the New York Times (Oct.31, 2010) and tore it out. There are color illustrations - and favorite quotes about trees. This is wonderful. I look forward to reading this book.