No comments about Intuitive Composition: A Right-Brain Approach to Achieving Simplicity, Harmony, and Balance in Your Paintings.

No comments about Salvador Dali: The Early Years.

1 comments about Oil (Barron's Art Guides: Learning to Paint).

1. If you are a beginning painter, this book is for you. It's very basic and easy to understand. Many pictures in color to show techniques. You will Learn how to paint water, skies, landscapes, etc. It is very detailed as to what results you can gain from each brush. In addition, it gives you color combinations to mix your own colors. I Highly recommend it to the beginner.

3 comments about Design & Composition Secrets of Professional Artists: 16 Successful Painters Show How They Create Prize-Winning Work.

1. I found this book very disappointing. It's more a showcase for not very good painters than a useful source of information on composition techniques. I did not recognize any of the names from the fine work I've seen in the International Artist's magazine but rather ordinary & mediocre examples. Explanations were wordy & dogmatic rather than visually instructive.The material is not organized in any formal manner for a subject such as this...Generally disappointing in every respect.



2. If you only ever get one book on composition it has to be this one! Composition is such an important tool for any artist; it can make or break a painting. Regardless of what style of painting you do, good composition and design is the foundation of a successful painting. And yet this is a subject that doesn't get taught in art schools and books on the subject are few and far between and often very dry and technical.

   Design and Composition Secrets really does change all that. It's a fascinating read, fabulously illustrated throughout and full of great tips and techniques. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to learn more about composition. It has really improved my painting and has given me so many ideas. It's the kind of book you'll be using for years.

   It takes 16 different artists, with very different styles and allows each of them a chapter to explain their own approach to composition, using plenty of examples of their work and finishing with a gallery of the artists paintings complete with a compositional analysis.

   The result is a set of essays that come at the subject from many different angles. Donna Baspaly's fabulous layered multi media paintings demonstrate her philosophical approach, her emphasis on structure, shape and the use of checklists to keep on track during painting. Robert Bateman loves abstract qualities and shares his cut out composition tactic along with his stunning wildlife paintings. Don Farrell looks for rhythm and harmony, shape relationships and connections and divisions. Tom Huntley shares his 5 point plan and his wonderful sense of colour and Myfanwy Pavelic never consciously thinks about design or composition at all, her approach is based on intuition.

   Along the way they cover a wealth of information that you'd expect from a book like this, shape, colour, texture, pattern, values, geometry, the golden section, rhythm, balance, negative space and the like. But they also cover some more surprising topics like the child within, intuitive painting, left brain and right brain painting, using a projector, choreographing movement and designing for a strong emotional response. It's full of surprises and fresh ideas.

   This book is not just a wonderful resource on composition, which you'll want to come back to again and again, but also an incredible insight into how 16 very different artists work. I absolutely love it!




3. This book certainly lives up to it title in providing many different perspectives when looking at design and composition. Perhaps a prior knowledge of design and composition would be an advantage in order to understand some of the interpretations when some artists refer to "rightness", their intuition and their sense of rhythm and harmony. The book is full of colourful paintings, pencil sketches showing line, shape and values. There is certainly plenty of variety, both in the style of painting and the method for the composition and design. There do not seem to be many books on the market in this area and I am sure this book will provide plenty of ideas and perhaps a new way of looking at problems in this area. I have just one grumble and that is so many art books are 127/128 pages long and it is always great when you come across books that have been exceedingly generous with number of pages but this book is the usual 127 pages long.

1 comments about A Moral Compass: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Painting in the Netherlands.

1. Perhaps the best thing about the three essays published in this exhibition catalogue is their readability. You don't need to be a student of the History of art to appreciate and understand them. However, they are by no means dumbed-down either. The images chosen for the exhibition are truely lovely. There are genre scenes, sea scapes, still lives (both floral and breakfast images), church interiors, and potraits. It is a wonderful little gem.

3 comments about Petty: The Classic Pin-Up Art of George Petty.

1. This book was chock full of great stuff. Such a beautiful comprehensive look at an amazing Illustrative talent. Especially the fold-out poster what a bonus! This one's a must-have for any serious Pin-Up lover.



2. Besides containing hundreds of photos of some of Petty's best works for Esquire and Old Gold this book also contains the story of the artist, George Petty. From the beginning of his art career to his run arounds with the stuffed shirts at Esquire. The author masterfully paints a picture of a man that created one of America's most endearing icons. This book also contains a brief but very interesting story about the author searching out, finding, and actually meeting his hero a few short years before his death. Excellent read and masterfully designed.



3. I'm a big fan of the classical pin-up. George Petty's work is the epitome of pin-up art. His girls always seem to talk to you, to tease you. I was lucky enough to purchase this book and I feel my money was well spent. This book also tells the story of Petty's birth, childhood, and eventual rise to fame in the pages of Esquire, True and several other popular magazines of this era. It also tells how he became enthralled in the war effort and how his "girls" became the dreams and fantasies of many a G.I. during WWII, and especially one of his pieces recreated on the nose of the famous "Memphis Belle". This book is for the aspiring pin-up artist (like myself) too as well as the pin-up enthusiast. Do check it out!!

No comments about A Small Book of Fairies.

No comments about Lyonel Feininger: The Loebermann Collection: Drawings/ Watercolors/ Prints.

1 comments about Turning Point: The Abstract Expressionists & Transformation of American Art.

1. This removed and often second-hand journal of the 1950s School of New York is a mostly dry read whose uncommon interesting whirls really resolve themselves like a flaky TV episode of Chuck Norris. Too often, these complex characters are conceived by the author as stereotypes of American fairytaledom. Their frailties are not well-enough addressed and sparsely dotted among habitual drone and American folk imagery. Elaine deKooning, Lee Krasner, and other groundbreaking artists of the time such as Frankenthaler and Hopper, who may not represent the core of the Expressionist flame, but nevertheless burned bright have been neglected alongside other surrounding artistic circumstances. Besides these prominent shortcomings, the author is also lacking in bravery of prose. This is not an exciting read, but it is adequate in that it does not defeat itself while getting across the vital struggle for serious contemplation of American Art in the 1950s. Certainly not a "turning point" in literature, it provides facts and lore in a predictable and easily understood manner

1 comments about Drawing Closer: The Paintings and Personal Reflections of Carolyn Blish.

1. I inherited my appreciation for Carolyn Blish artwork from my father. When I came upon this book in a local bookstore, I immediately purchased it for his birthday which was a couple of months away. When I took the book home, I couldn't put it down. I discovered that Carolyn Blish paints so much more than just the beach scenes that I had become so fond of over the years. The paintings in "Drawing Closer" all struck me as being very calm and peaceful. In addition to reflections and stories shared by Carolyn Blish, the book is sprinkled with quotes from various individuals that beautifully match the spiritual feelings reflected in her work. As difficult as it was, I did indeed give the book to my father for his birthday. He was just as delighted with the book as I was. We have an added interest in this book. In the book, Ms. Blish talks about learning to fly a plane. My father may be the flight instructor mentioned in her book! This book is a feast for the eyes, the heart, and the soul. It is a must have for anyone who enjoys the work of Carolyn Blish.