3 comments about Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Oil Painting.

1. Being new to painting (only about a year) I felt this book gave some good ground work but lacked indepth information for someone just starting out. Don't get me wrong its a great book, packed full of info accross lots of topics, and there is its weakness, too many topics, not enough depth on any one.



2. This book is not for anyone at an advanced level- whilst there is a whole lot of information, each technique is described in one page, with very little depth. Some of the examples chosen to highlight a particular technique are odd indeed - why for example, if one was showing how to paint "dappled sunlight", would the subject matter be a building? I may be odd myself (who knows), but the term 'dappled sunlight' brings a rural/country scene to mind....



3. I am a serious painter and I refer to this book often. It is a collection of advice and demos from many contemporary artists. Landscape, portrait, and still life are all represented. The artists' works are quite varied, so the result is interesting and fresh. I enjoy this book and think other artists will too.

2 comments about Black Paintings of Goya.

1. I haven't bought this book, but I saw the paintings this week. Really affected me. So...black. Most of the subjects in the paintings have grotesque faces that are merely smudges of black, grey and silver, as if they were gargoyles that had been burned alive. With subjects sometimes grouped together, they composed "the mob" which Goya detested so much--from seeing mob atrocities from the Napoleonic-Spanish war. As disturbing as they are, they are painted in such a powerful manner that it was hard to turn away from them. Several of them lack real focus, as if Goya had grown so disgusted with humankind that it wasn't worth the effort to have his subjects actually doing anything. But he is at least painting for himself, not indulging the vanity of the Catholic Church or rich members and patrons of the Royal Family. So much artistic talent wasted during this period on overweight Dukes on horseback...



2. So it may not be the most alternative book of the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828), but stile, for the while a very important one. This because he is the only book in the catalogue dedicated too the Black Paintings. Written by Spanish art historian Juan Jose Junquera, who recently claim that actually Goya did not paint the black paintings, but his own son. So it is an interesting saying, and also a refresh one. Still I believe that Goya and not any one else paint that madness exhibition.
   
   In any way the present book by Jose Junquera is a fascinating one, and any one finding Goya late works interesting will be reworded to read at him. The book publisher, Scala made an excellent production. The front cover has I received (and not how it show in Amazon.Com) present the painting of Saturn, eating his child. An impressive way to start a journey into Goya mind. Eight chapters filled the book and through out the book there are many close up to the paintings. The book runs out at about 96 pages, not like Robert Houges well filled edition, for many the best certainly available on Goya. Still the book contains many details on Goya life and the paintings themselves so you will probably wouldn't fill there is something missing. Although the close details are very well presented there are still points I fill to disagree with them. Like the way Jose Junquera say to give meanings to couple of the paintings. To much pretentious for me but sourly not for all. Another important mention is the book size, and I would really wish the plates of every complete painting could be larger, maybe like the big close ups.
   
   Still, an interesting study on Goya masterpiece exhibition, and at his low cost I believe you will be more then satisfied to having him.

3 comments about The Encaustic Art Project Book.

1. Awesome Book. Will use this one over and over again. Followed the tutorials, and my 2nd practice piece turned out well enough that I felt comfortable posting my creation on-line to one of my groups. Michael Bossom is a very talented encaustic artist, whose style is very user friendly. I highly recommend this book to artists who are eager to venture into the world of encaustic art. Recommend this one to all my friends, some of whom have also purchased this book. All have emailed me with positive feedback, and are just as happy with it as I am.



2. Mattera's book on encaustic seems to be the only good book out there on encaustic technique right now. Bossom's books are a step up from making melted crayon art in elementary school. I hate to be so rude, but the books are really not about encaustic painting, but about doing something with an iron and wax, and making one very particular style of art. Unless you want to make pictures just like Bossom's, this book is not in the least helpful. I write this review as a painter who uses encaustic techniques, so I feel I have some credentials to make such a harsh judgement.



3. This is not a book for the serious artist; this is a book for someone searching for a unique hobby. Contained within are simplistic descriptions of the author's naive and limited techniques (he creates crafts, not pieces of art). He combines these instructions with over-simplified rules of composition and space. Furthermore, Bossom hardly explores the dangerous potentiality encaustic presents, which I think is negligent. For a better insight view Mattera's "The Art of Encaustic Painting."

2 comments about Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: Pictures as Drama (Taschen Basic Art).

1. If you do not want to spend a fortune and still read a good introduction to Rothko's work, this is the best choice. It covers the whole career of the artist in a text which is short and easy to read, with surprisingly good illustrations of famous or rarely seen works (many are in private collections, like the one on the cover). This is what you call good value for your money. Do not expect, though, to have a comprehensive analysis on each of the works; I would call this book "Rothko for beginners", which is, in no way, a negative opinion.



2. There are many larger, fatter and even better books on Rothko, but this little volume is pretty solid. At ten bucks, you shouldn't even wait for the second thought: it's a sure thing. It includes a wealth of color reproductions, and frankly their scale is surprisingly generous for a book of modest dimensions. Some are as large as the repros in all but the largest-format Rothko books. Taschen has wisely chosen to devote a full, text-less page to most of the canvases reprinted here, and the photography is fine and sensitive. Good quality photos like these reveal nuances that make the photos effectively "larger".

   The text covers Rothko's life and analyzes his thought, innovations and development through abundant quotations and sound analysis. There's unusually full exploration of his early work, and a good chapter on his symbolist-surrealist myth-paintings (though I miss seing "Slow Swirl by the Edge of the Sea.") The book also includes a few works by other artists where appropriate (as in the reprint of a Matisse painting that Rothko answered with his "Hommage to Matisse"). It's a complete yet efficient book, as are most of the titles in this series.

   My sole important reservation about the book concerns the minimal coverage of the essential "multiform" period of Rothko's work--only three or so examples appear here. That's an important failing, but not enough to dull my overall enthusiasm.

5 comments about Shaman: The Paintings of Susan Seddon Boulet.

1. I'm a big fan of Susuan Boulet and was very pleased to see her calendar
   avilable this year, her work just embodies the Indian spirit and beliefs and I'll be glad to have her work on my wall for the year.



2. This is the 6 year I've had a calendar containing the artwork by Susan Seddon Boulet. Although the artist is deceased, her artwork speaks of another world, ancient archtypes, legends and myths. There is always something new in each page of the calendar. Pictures within pictures. Along with each month is a small poem or quote which is appropriate to the picture and very meaningful. If you enjoy shamanism, native american legends, classical mythology, this is a product you should buy.



3. We always did want to see the spirit of a tree. Susan Seddon Boulet did & brings us every detail, enchanting our eyes & entrancing our minds. This artist has a host of calendars & greeting cards to touch the heart, uncurl our modern neutered spirits & fill our eyes with affection, calm & starlight. Lovely & profound.



4. There is very little I don't own of Susan Seddon Boulet's work in calendar, card or book form. Shaman is an exemplary achievement and work of love done by a woman of profound talent.

   I met Susan at a workshop in Rhinebeck, N.Y and was instantly struck by her inner glow. The radiance of a woman who is grounded and knows the path of a Shaman. How better to portray her inner beliefs than through her art work?

   The Shaman's Paintings are a testament not only to a spiritual path but also to one of our finest American women artists.

   The path of a Shaman is best expressed by someone like Susan Seddon Boulet as she weaves ancient myth and folklore into beautiful tales on canvas.

   A must have.




5. There is very little I don't own of Susan Seddon Boulet's work in calendar, card or book form. Shaman is an exemplary achievement and work of love done by a woman of profound talent.

   I met Susan at a workshop in Rhinebeck, N.Y and was instantly struck by her inner glow. The radiance of a woman who is grounded and knows the path of a Shaman. How better to portray her inner beliefs than through her art work?

   The Shaman's Paintings are a testament not only to a spiritual path but also to one of our finest American women artists.

   The path of a Shaman is best expressed by someone like Susan Seddon Boulet as she weaves ancient myth and folklore into beautiful tales on canvas.

   A must have.

3 comments about Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils.

1. I rate this higher than the previous reviewers because it fills a niche. It isn't a 12 page basic, how to use watercolor pencils booklet that comes with a starter kit. It also isn't a book that expects you to want to spend hours on a painting and only has examples for folks that can already draw and paint like pros. So, I suggest it as a mid-step on a beginner's route to the art.
   
   I do agree that the magenta is not a good color choice for the shadows, but each artist to their own taste. Suggestion: get a decent (or almost any) watercolor instruction book that includes shadows. There are much better and easy ways to mix VERY good and realistic shadows that will make your artwork look professional. The magenta detracts from the art in this book.
   
   Again, a good step between how to get pencil on paper and wet it in 12 basic steps - and how to do experienced art.
   
   Also, keep in mind that this book is not to show how to spend hours drawing, layering, blending, and reworking to end up with a realistic picture of nature. It is a way to make a sketchbook study in the field that you can then use back in the studio.
   
   PS. I'm a watercolorist, so my interest in watercolor pencils is not to sell the medium as artwork, but to get journal sketches down quickly and on the run in order to capture ideas. So, I think the book works JUST FINE for that.



2. Nothing quite fills me with ire much more than putting down some money for an art instruction book, and then I find out that it's a dud. Such was the case with British author Charles Evans' book, Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils.
   
   I had spotted it in a catalog offering from an art book publisher, and decided, why not? I've been experimenting with the use of watercolour pencils for more than a decade now, and it's a medium that I like and enjoy. I enjoy using it because it's a very portable means of sketching -- all I really need a pad of paper that will handle getting wet, a bundle of pencils and brushes, and something to put fresh water in. A paper cup is good for that.
   
   As with most art books, this one follows the standard format -- an introduction by the artist, chapters on tools and techniques, materials, and the various ways to use the pencils and brushes to create washes, details, mixing colours and suchlike. The majority of the book is taken up by the projects that progress from fairly easy to progressively harder. Finally, there is an index.
   
   Each project has some new technique to offer. The earliest paintings are not much more than scribbling with a wash or damp brush run over it. Sometimes a waterproof marker is added to create some definition or a seabird trundling about.
   
   Now for the complaints about this book. Rarely does Evans let you see the work as a whole while it is in process. Instead, he just makes a close up on the pencil or brush or fingertip smudging away, and it makes it very difficult to get an idea of just where you're at in the painting. Too, there's a real lack of information in the chapters -- he blithely assumes that you already know what he's doing and how he got there without telling just how he did it. Now, I'm not asking for him to take me by the hand, but a little direction would have certainly helped.
   
   My biggest complaint is that he also assumes that you know what pencils and tools you're going to be needing for each project. Instead, he just tacks it on somewhere in the caption, and the poor artist is left to scramble about in the toolbox looking for the elusive item. By the time you find it, the damp area has dried, and now either the picture is ruined or you have to rewet everything. It slows the work down, and tends to kill any enthusiasm that the artist had to start the project in the first place.
   
   The colour choices that Evans makes are strange to say the least. Magenta occurs regularly, especially in one glaring example of a bridge, or in the shadows cast by trees. So too does manganese blue, a brilliant, chemical sort of blue that doesn't occur much in nature. Most of his style involves scribbling, but then he doesn't give any indication as to how much force or lightness is to be used either -- it's another fast way to wreck a project.
   
   Finally, the author's tone in his writing and instructions is annoying. It's patronizing, with a smug I know it all, and you better be grateful, you slag smarminess to him. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was ready to smack him.
   
   Summing up, while I do recommend this medium, this is not the book to find instruction in how to use it. Evans' smart-aleck attitude, tiny examples, and lack of skill at teaching shows from beginning to end, and this is not a book that I would recommend to anyone. My suggestion is to find some student grade paper, a tin of Derwent watercolour pencils, and some time to play and experiment on your own. You'll get more satisfaction that way.
   
   One and one half stars at best, and I'm being generous with that.
   
   Not Recommended.



3. this book initially looks interesting - nice cover and it has projects throughout and tips too, sadly the projects are poorly thought out and the tips are very poor. the book has nothing to offer, poor instruction and overall it won't help anyone not ever the most clueless beginner ! it would be hard to recommend this book to anyone.

No comments about Painting Peaceful Country Landscapes: 10 Step-by-step Scenes in Oil and Acrylic.

5 comments about Learning by Heart: Teachings To Free The Creative Spirit.

1. I bought this book because I am an Gen-X art teacher who saw it in the library of an older teacher. It was hard to find, but I devoured the entire book when it arrived. It's beutiful and insightful, and an inspiration to art teachers and artists everywhere. Corita Kent has touched many of us in the education community, and she guides teachers to foster the bravery to chart into the waters of creativity. I wish I had had the priveledge to work with Corita Kent. Buy this book and cherish it.



2. During my doctoral work in Leadership Studies, my literature review on Creativity that led me to Kent/Steward's coloful and wise book. Corita Kent was a woman way ahead of her times, and Jan Steward did the world a favor by collaborating with this amazing artist to share with the world her engaging and charismatic teaching methodology.

   This book is a must for all teachers of art, women's studies professors, and anyone interested in creativity, multiculturalism, and leadership. Why don't they republish this treasure so that new readers can access it for a reasonable price? It is worth the $..., but unfair to the humanities!




3. Rarely have I met a book that invites me to join in such a luscious romp in creativity. Since this book found its way to me 10 years ago, I keep it close at hand and revisit its pages with the same pleasure as visiting a dear friend. The writing style and images are inviting, informative and inspiring.

   This is a valuable tool abundant with ideas for the artist as well as the educator who dreams of a rejuvenation in their teaching and learning. I wish to see this book in print once again, to continue to inspire the joy found in true creativity.

   As Education Director for a large arts organization, I desperately need 30 copies to pass on to our teaching artists to ignite the fires we all kindle deeply inside. And then of course, I'll need a spare to takes its place alongside my own rather tattered and loved - Learning by Heart.




4. Since I bought this book about eight years ago, I've loaned it to many who have been loath to return it to me. I continue to hope that it will be republished. I think it deserves a revival. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in exploring their own creativity or enabling others creativity. This is a resource that should be availble for a long time. Please let me know as soon as it becomes available again.



5. I am using Learning by Heart as a resource with my graduate students in a course called "Research and Teaching in the Humanities". The book has fabulous activities, thoughts, and ideas for encouraging the creative process. I would have used it as the textbook, had it been available! Please encourage the publisher to reissue this wonderful, insightful book!

1 comments about Landscape and Western Art (Oxford History of Art).

1. This book faces two usually insurmountable hurdles - first, designing an art book in a smallish size, with the corresponding destruction of anything like a scale appreciation for larger images true size; and second, covering an enormous amount of material in a very short text.
   The first remains an indefensible decision, and there's no more to be said. As for the second hurdle, Andrews does a fine job of what baseball pitchers refer to when they wiggle out of endless bases loaded situations without giving up a run - walking between the raindrops. This scholarly act of prestidigatation calls for hearty applause - usually such surveys are either too careful or too general. Happily this book is neither, but rather thought-provoking and sagacious.
   
   Andrews success seems to lie in an acquired acceptance that for all the modern kitchen sink tools applied to art history - from Levi-Straussian anthropology to historical statistical anaylysis to Foucault's deconstructionist revisionism, there remains an abiding need for aesthetic appreciation. As one reads through the book, a sort of moderated mediatation or commentary on what is landscape, how we see it, a large array of such new thinking pops up, many contemporary responses about the nature of landscape are offered. Yet in the end Andrews falls back, and rather slyly I might add, on a sort of updated aestheticism. The distinction, and the difference Andrews makes with this old tool is surprising. The material comes across with a clarity and directedness absent from the more typical contemporary approaches to art, approaches emphasizing far more than the works of art, usually at the expense of shrinking down their full import in a maze of dubious cross-referencing.
   
   Andrews greatest gift is confidence - he conveys a supreme sureness whatever he is writing about. In an age of relative values Andrews' certainty reverberates with an insolent disdain for doubt. (I am reminded of one critic's snickering potshot at A.L. Rowse's offhand dismissal of alternate Shakepeare author theories as pure nonsense - "for Rowse, doubt is an undiscovered country.") But Andrews, for all of that, is very much the modern, quite up on the various formalized readings and professional jargon. He has taken the measure of each of these chimeras and gone back to draw his own conclusions around an aesthetic largely free of post-modern cant. For Andrews the modern critical methodologies are but tools, used when needed, and not self-indulgence repudiating the reader in deliberately obtuse and hermetic language. And a huge bonus - Andrews is fun to read, displaying an extraordinarily adept mind; his questions and examples rarely failing to not only make his point, but develop it.
   
   Having showered the author with praise I must point out one caveat: unlike Kenneth Clarke, who invariably seemed to put his figure on the one painting defining an age or movement, Andrews sometimes misses the obvious. A discussion of Niagara which is posed to rightly culminate in Church's great masterpiece suddenly veers off into a discussion of the Panorama, interesting enough as idea, but invariably second rate art. In deliberately thumbing an intellectual nose at Church, Andrews reveals some blind spots - he fails to understand what connects Church's greatest work with the early Wright's prairie architecture - land-gripping yet enclosed and interlocking horizontals celebrating the continent's scale. I find it strange indeed that such a book could fail to register Wright's influence and importance on our view of landscape. Next to these responses to the New World Andrew's Panoramas appear quite naked, generalized and simplistic. Although they fit nicely into his argument, he misses the chance to look beyond and over the edge, as it were. This blatant Eurocentric reading of American art continues on in a discussion of imperialist viewpoints and uninteresting observations on the over-rated Bierstadt: for Andrews the historical connections of American painting outweigh the purely artistic. The result? Even a century and half later Europeans refuse to take seriously our greatest landscape artist Church because he doesn't fit their critical template.
   Despite these peccadilloes this remains a first rate book, and a must for any Art History collection.

5 comments about Jack Vettriano.

1. You may well have seen Vettriano's "The Singing Butler," or other of his elegant paintings - but that doesn't mean you've heard of him. This book takes care of that. It covers eighteen years of his career, 1987 to 2004. It shows what you missed, and probably a few images you saw but never connected to the others.
   
   Vettriano's images go beyond Hopper's. They have much of the same graphic quality but, where Hopper so often addressed solitude or loneliness, Vettriano frequently depicts depicts desperation under a cracking veneer of elegance. Many of these paintings capture some moment in a story of intimacy for sale, or of intimacy between the wrong people - the moment that culminates the story so far, and that sets the direction of the story to come. In those pictures, the underlying cheapness of motiviation contrasts sharply with the graciously dressed (or graciously undressed) actors moving their roles forward. The anachronism of ballroom grace and mid-twentieth-century fashion gives the modern viewer enough distance to see the glossy finish as well as tawdry underside. Without asking forgiveness, Vettriano explains how beauty and a moment of passion can lead people down paths that they'll later regret.
   
   Not all of the imagery carries that dark edge, though. Vettriano does equally well with sunny couples in happy, if adult kinds of love. In many cases, only the painting's title tells the viewer whether or not to approve - and somehow, that makes disapproval that much harder. Vettriano's work has been called "populist" and "undemanding." So be it. Holding wide appeal isn't such a bad thing, and neither is work that easily yields its meaning.
   
   -- wiredweird



2. The introduction and subsequent text is very brief, and provides a glimpse into the artist's background and rise to success. The text makes little if any critical comment about the artist's work, perhaps leaving the paintings to speak for themselves. The book concludes with a list of the artist's paintings and exhibitions. The book really is all about the pictures.
   
   There are about 160 full colour reproductions of Vettriano's paintings of which about half dozen are small images illustrating the text, there are over thirty full page bleed pictures many of which in fact amount to a page and a half and include one double page spread (the best in the book?). However the bulk of the illustrations range from almost full page images to those which occupy about half a page or occasionally less. The quality of the reproduction is excellent, and the varied and attractive layout suits the images well, bold yet without detracting from the work.
   
   For those of us who are perhaps used to seeing Vettriano's paintings merely as small reproductions adorning cards and the like, it is a revelation to see them produced so well and to a good size. Seeing them so it is easy to label his technique as commercial and slick; but there is no denying the immediate appeal and impact. Whether or not you are a fan of this Scottish artist this is a book worth having, it shows the range of his work, from the dark and sensual to some very appealing high key paintings. Altogether it is a most sumptuous volume.



3. I viewed this book personally in the UK where I live and since my daughter is a big fan of Vettriano, I purchased this book as a present for her. It shows the various aspects of Jack Vettriano's work, both the well known (printed on cards) and the not well known. It is very insightful of the different sides of a wonderful artist, and his work is well represented.



4. I got this as a present to sister who couldn't decide which piece of art to hang on her wall. It was perfect and beautiful. Great on coffee table, Never tire of flipping through it.



5. I own one of Jack's prints "The Singing Butler", and this book gives great insight into the thought process involved in producing such fine work, as well as many other color prints are to be found within. Jack has produced some of the finest paintings I've ever seen. I paint also, but only seascapes,landscapes,etc., so to view such a variety of excellent work in the Vettriano style is a rare treat for all who purchase this fine coffee table book.
   Bravo Jack.........Excellent work !
   P.F.Matriscino Geneva,NY.