From Coast & Cove
‘A sea breeze wafts up from every page. This book is a delight.’ – Nigel Slater
Both grounding and uplifting, From Coast & Cove, the new book from author and acclaimed illustrator Anna Koska, walks us through the four seasons on the English coast. Beautifully observed, contemplative and deeply personal, Anna combines emotive and evocative tales of life beside the sea with her exquisitely detailed and intricate illustrations of the plants and wildlife found in the water and along the coastline.
Anna and her family moved from East Sussex to Devon in 2020 and she now finds inspiration for her artworks in the ebb and flow of the tide throughout the year, the flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore and the creatures spotted in the air, on land and tucked away in rockpools – whether it’s the haunting cry of the curlew heard while kayaking along the River Dart, the iridescent scales and pointed teeth of a hake, the mussel shells discarded by an oystercatcher, or the kelp, wrack and eelgrass strewn along the beach and pressed for posterity.
A love letter to the natural world captured in materials ranging from pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and egg tempera, From Coast & Cove details an artist’s year spent beside the sea. A book to savour, and a wonderful celebration of nature’s cycles and minutiae.
Anna Koska is a freelance illustrator specialising in fruit, vegetables and the natural world. As well as book illustration, Anna regularly receives commissions from chefs, authors and restaurateurs for food and botanical art. She lives by the coast in Devon with her husband and three children, having spent many years in East Sussex. Along with her illustrating business, she grows an overly ambitious quantity of veg, and cares for three hives and chickens. She cycles and sea swims, and is fervent in her efforts to supply the family with homemade everything. She is on Instagram as @gremkoska.