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RIGOR VITAE: Life Unyielding is a large format, hardbound volume with 130 - 137 color plates (depending on how you count 'em*). At 12" x 9" and with 304 pages, it's really more of a weapon than a book.

Beautifully designed by graphic artist Megan Davies, I can honestly say that I've seen few books that look as nice. We've also managed to enlist the very finest to write this book. The foreword was written by Carl Brenders, who paints the textures of nature with a richness and depth that no one has ever matched. The introduction was written by David J. Wagner, Ph.D., the top academic in the field of American Wildlife Art, and the core text...well, we couldn't get anyone to write that, so I did it myself - five chapters of anecdotes, musings, and scientific and historical facts, describing my relationship with nature and with wildlife, as a human and as an individual, as well as an explanatory caption for each of the 139 paintings in the book.

On this site you can view excerpts from the book, investigate its background, and read comments and reviews. I hope you enjoy this site!...oh yeah, and that you buy the book!

* Included are two diptychs and two triptychs; four plates or ten? Also included are eight ink washes: not color plates, strictly speaking, although one of them has just a touch of red watercolor.

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Copyright © 2006 - Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen