In the Sporting Tradition

The sport of hunting--its celebration of the wild, the natural, the out-of-doors--has given rise to its own body of art. Extraordinary artistic skills wedded with decades of experience as a naturalist and hunter have secured for Herb Booth a place among the contemporary masters of sporting art. In this beautiful book, illustrated with fifty color plates and dozens of etchings and lithographs, Booth's superb technique and his portrayal of an American tradition in the process of change is revealed in a variety of classic hunting and fishing scenes: upland and waterfowl shooting, deer hunting in the Texas Hill Country, casting for redfish and speckled trout in the Gulf of Mexico. Named the 1993 Texas Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year and the 1993 Artist of the Year of the National Wild Turkey Federation, as well, Booth demonstrates in his work dedication to both hunting and the intelligent use of wildlife and natural resources. The habitats of different game species are meticulously rendered, as are the animals themselves and their interaction with their environment. As author Michael McIntosh notes: "It is a peculiar fact of sporting art that it cannot be successfully faked. A sporting scene, if it aspires to any degree of acceptance, must not only reflect genuine experience on the artist's part but must also evoke the memory and feeling of similar experience in the viewer." It is a hallmark of Booth's work that the most experienced hunter or naturalist will instantly recognize the sense of authenticity and depth of personal experience he brings to his art. Each large color plate in this oversize volume includes an extended caption describing the specific scene. McIntosh, himself an experienced hunter and expert on sporting art, details Booth's development as an artist and sportsman in a lively and engaging text. The foreword is contributed by Meredith Long, longtime collector and dealer of sporting art. This elegant volume belongs in the library of anyone who loves nature, wildlife, and the American hunting tradition so faithfully preserved in the art of Herb Booth.