2 comments about Basic People Painting: Techniques in Watercolor (Basic Techniques).

1. The cover of this book caught my eye as an artist just mustering the bravery to paint people. The suggestions of human movement, without minute, photo-like details, suggested the book was a super way to start incorporating people into one's paintings. Simple strokes suggest people and their activities.
   
   However, the book does even more than that. It discusses and illustrates how bodily proportions vary at different ages, provides samples of people in various cultural dress, and even discusses facial shadows, etc.
   
   For the beginner people watercolorist -- this book may be all they will need to achieve results that are satisfying and vital.



2. Having stumbled upon this book quite by accident, I was thrilled to find that the clear format, easily followed instructions, and wonderful graphics resulted in instant improvement of my watercolour portraits. There are suggestions about layers of color, highlighting, organizing your image, to name a few, that will add life and dimension to your work quickly and easily. This book will be a welcome addition to any reference library that a watercolor portrait artist is compiling.

2 comments about Francis Bacon: Portraits and Heads.

1. I expected something else. In 'Van Gogh and Expressionism' the Bacon images are vibrant and colorful and interesting. They include studies for portraits of Van Gogh as well as self portraits. They look much like the cover of this book. Unfortunately, the only image I liked WAS the cover. Had I looked through this book in a bookstore I would not have purchased. Perhaps i am not much of a Bacon 'fan'. Let that be a lesson to me.....more research in the future before purchasing.



2. FRANCIS BACON: PORTRAITS AND HEADS is a superb catalogue that accompanied an exhibition in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh last summer and unlike most of the Bacon retrospectives, this exhibition focused entirely on the many heads Bacon painted. As other artist come and go Francis Bacon continues to be one of the more 'published' artists of the twentieth century and it is refreshing to see that there are still new things to say about the work of one of the most significant painters in recent years
   
   Included are self portraits, portraits of famous people some of whom actually commissioned portraits while the majority are of friends, lovers, fellow artists, and images from photographs. Bacons small works carry as much power as the large canvases, perhaps that is due to the lack of need to place the figure in a constructed environment or space. Or perhaps when Bacon concentrated on only the head, his probing eye could explore and paint the model's psyche (as well as his own responsive psyche!).
   
   The reproductions are superb, on excellent paper, and given full attention in the catalogue. There are two fine essays in addition to the obligatory Introduction and comments from the curatorial staff. Though most of these paintings can be found in other catalogue raisonnes of Bacon's work, seeing the small head portraits in a single space is a fine idea and one from which we continue to learn about just what made Bacon unique and inimitable! Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 06

1 comments about Different Strokes: Watercolor: Unique double demonstrations reveal alternative approaches to watercolor painting (Different Strokes).

1. I'm a watercolor artist and never tire of seeing how other artists interpret their subjects because every artist has a totally different perspective of anything you place in front of him or her. And no one way is right, nor is it wrong. Happily, every interpretation is what art is about: expressing one's own creative viewpoint and passion about a subject. I like this book because it celebrates this inclusiveness, while at the same time providing tons of helpful tips on technique and methods.
   
   There are also several demonstrations of painting progressions - from drawings, initial stages, first washes, finished painting. Demonstrations include still lifes, landscapes, buildings, people, flowers. There are also chapters on basic color theory, composition, and watercolor technique. The book is geared for beginner watercolorists, but I think any artist would find it fun to peruse and learn from.

5 comments about Dreaming with His Eyes Open: A Life of Diego Rivera (Discovery Series).

1. I am surprised that other readers enjoyed this book, especially readers who like Rivera. I had the distinct impression that the author, Patrick Marnham, did not like Rivera. Rivera's larger than life personality can probably not be claimed to be understood by many people, and perhaps Marnham's total want of understanding is the source for his dislike.

   While this could be one of several books to read about Diego Rivera it should not be relied heavily upon. Marnham does not seem to approve of many of the characters he writes about in this book . I don't think he has an appreciation for colorful people. I felt he was a very supressed and uptight person writing about some very free spirits.

   A biography of Rivera seemed a poor subject choice for him. Perhaps being an art critic would be a better suited undertaking for him. Or maybe since his grasp of history seems good his temperment would be better suited to writing dry fact based history than attempting to discern the subtlties of the human character.

   He made several assertions that he represented as fact. One that springs to mind was that Frida Kahlo commited suicide. While that May be true, it also may not be true.

   Marnham collected information about Diego Rivera, where he went, when he went , etc, but gave no real sense of warmth of Diego Rivera. Since Rivera was a man of such great passion it was disappointing to have only a two dimensional portrait of him drawn. I felt I knew alot more of Marnham's personality after reading this book than of Rivera's. But touché I felt much the same about Marnham as he did Rivera, I didn't like him much.




2. Diego Rivera was born in the magical city of Guanajuato. This fact alone made me pick up this book and then buy it. I visited Guanajuato in 2002 and fell in love with the twisty roads, the Baroque facades of the Templos and the Basilica, the Easter-egg colored houses and the general feeling that one had been dropped down in a 18th Century Spanish town. Rivera left it with his mother at the age of six, but the city of his birth, with its recent mummies and Day of the Dead festivals left its mark on him.

   Rivera lived in Mexico City until 1907, when he left for Spain and for the next 15 years lived there and in France. He picked up a common-law wife and then a lover- a portent of things to come. He met and was friends (or sometimes enemies) with some of the greatest artists of the period, including Picasso, Mondrian, Modigliani and Matisse. He worked in classic style until he accepted Cubism, only to move toward Cezanne-style art, and eventually to develop his own style. He eventually became one of the greatest of modern fresco painters. However, his character was far from flawless. He lied about his past often and in different ways, depending on the situation, was not very careful about personal hygiene, and also often ran away from relationships to avoid unpleasant realities.

   Rivera joined the Mexican Communist Party (MCP) in 1922. After three failures at having a permanent relationship with a woman, he married the rather obsessional young Communist Frida Kahlo (who was twenty years his junior) in 1929. In that same year he was expelled from the MCP because of various internal party intrigues. He then became friends with the exiled Leon Trotsky, who repaid him by having a short affair with Frida. Frida, to make matters more complicated, was repaying Rivera for his affair with her sister. Because of his association with Trotsky, Rivera was not readmitted to the party again until 1954, after the death of Stalin. This summery only touches on and can hardly do justice to the complicated world of Diego Rivera, one of the most complex of men.

   Patrick Marnham presents in this book the convoluted ins and outs of Rivera's life, his many affairs and his association with the art world and the Communist Party in vivid detail.

   This is a fascinating study of this very complex and often selfish man who was also a great artist. It is also a window into a very confusing and turbulent time in the history of the World. It is a work that should be read by all interested in understanding this period and the modern world that rose from it.




3. With various books written on the life of Diego Rivera this one is a must have. Anytime a subject is studied, it this case the life of arguably the greatest Mexican muralist, it is worthwhile to have various perspectives before coming to one's own conclusion. In that regard this book is invaluable as the author doesn't give you a softball and is quick to point out the inconsistencies in other versions of the larger than life Diego Rivera's exploits, including his own autobiography. The book itself is a fascinating portrait into the life of the celebrated Mexican muralist's life, beginning with the unusual circumstnances of his youth, his sojourn to Europe and studying art in France, his mingling in the bohemian lfestyle with various artists and intellectuals of his era, including his at times not so friendly rivalry with Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, his return to Mexico, his politics(communist) and the troubles he had since he usually mixed art and politics, his many, many love affairs, his multiple marriages including several to soul mate Frida Kahlo, his association with Trotsky(and his wife), his work in the United States and his later years in Mexico where he remained productive in spite of failing health. It is all here, both the believable and the unbelieveable, meshing together for a fascinating look at a man that could literally charm the pants off of the most beautiful women of the world. Included are two seperate groups of pictures that include rarely seen vintage photographs and color prints of his most famous works. Every now and then I read a book that I want to savor and take my time. Like a special meal or an intimate moment, this book was one that I wanted to savor once I began. I wanted to make it last because it was so enjoyable, knowing that the inevitable consequence of my reading would make it end I almost regretted finishing the book. I took days to read the final chapters in the hope that somehow the experience would not end. I would highly recommend this book to those that are interested in Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Mexican art or history. It is a book that paints more than a picture, it is more like a grand mural that captures the fantastic life of Diego Rivera. This is a highly enjoyable book and an indispensable aid in understanding the complex makeup of one of the true giants of art in the twentieth century.



4. No footnotes, inadequate bibliography, and surprisingly, almost no mistakes. He reports on time and place in a constructive way and dispels Rivera's own myths about himself humorously. Very good read.



5. Marnham's biography provides a rotund, finely textured portrait worthy of the rotund Rivera. Marnham's Rivera is a technically blessed meta-Mexican eternally adapting his extraordinary gifts and solitary vision to the economic and political exigencies of Europe, Mexico, and the United States. Marnham's Rivera loves only art and as a consequence was - as we all now know - a bad husband, bad father and horrible politician but - as we may not know- never truly a bad man. Marnham is able to write with enormous respect for Rivera without losing his critical edge. For example, throughout the book, Marhnam's continuously tests Rivera's own autobiographical assertions against more conventional notions of truth with amusing irony but without condescension. Marnham never loses sight of Rivera's genius.

   The biography contributes fascinating details about Rivera's European years from his studies in Spain to his days/nights as a sometimes participant of the cafe society of the Free Republic of Montparnasse. Likewise, Marnham's discussion of the Rivera/ Kahlo visits to the United States is fascinating. Though this fills in large gaps in Rivera scholarship, my major criticism is that Marnham failed to dedicate comparable effort to Rivera's role in the intellectual currents of post-revolutionary Mexico. For instance, scarce mention is devoted to the contrasts and rivalries between Rivera, and the other notable mutalists of his day, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Marnham also ignores Rivera's artistic legacy in Mexico or the United States. While Rivera did not invent nor perhaps truly even master mural art, Rivera is certainly the premier inspiration for "public" artists on both sides of the border.

   For an interesting and literate discussion of Rivera and Mexican muralism, I recommend Octavio Paz, Essays on Mexican Art.

1 comments about Pierre Bonnard: The Work of Art, Suspending Time.

1. This book makes me want to see a Bonnard "in person"! The publishers did a fabulous job of depicting the dreamy and lush colors of Bonnards paintings. Faintest shades, brush strokes, lines, tiny details -- it's all visible, and everything contributes to the liveliness of the reproductions. It is certainly hard to capture the emotions that a painting exudes in an art book, and I have not often come across such quality prints.

4 comments about Revisiting the Painted House: More Than 100 New Designs for Mural and Trompe L'Oeil Decoration.

1. A good reference book that is nicely illustrated throughout. The subject matter of this book deals most specifically with one type of formal Trompe L'oeil & mural painting than the subject in general. As such, I found it to be less effective than anticipated where general ideas for mural work are concerned. I would have preferred a broader approach to the subject, than the specific murals of a very formal & palatial residence, which while beautiful to look at, is not the average palette for murals at large.



2. This book is a terrific idea generator and inspiring for the mural painter or for those who wish to commission a mural. Examples are plentiful and executed at a very high level using simple elements.



3. I was so wowed by Graham Rust's first two books, that I expected more from this one. Not so many projects in this book. However, I do love his sketches, and I appreciate the number of maquettes he included of designs he was *going* to paint, but didn't get to. In fact, I'd love to see a book of just his watercolor studies.



4. This is an invaluable resource for muralists and trompe l'oeil artists, as well as a beautiful coffee table book for people who appreciate the arts. It consists of 7 chapters featuring the murals of several different rooms of the house including staircases. All of the projects are new and not recycled from his previous releases. Unlike the other books by this artist this book features room shots of the drawing stage (before paint is applied), as well as a section which walks the reader through the steps of a mural panel from start to finish. There are also a few pages dedicated to working method and color choices. However, this book is primarily an idea book and not an instructional manual. The only thing I would like to see more of are photos of the finished murals rather than just the renderings in watercolor.
   This book is definately worth having as a part of your personal or professional library. Bravo!

4 comments about Mark Rothko: A Biography.

1. I wasnt that interested in his childhood..its the adult fired from brooklyn college unable to sell many paintings id like to know more about!!!!
   However this is the book to read if you want to know the facts of his life.



2. I am a painter, an art professor, and a reader of biographies. I couldnt put this book down. Breslin did a magnificent job of getting inside the psyche of Rothko as a man, and as an artist. The paragraphs that describe the way in which Rothko created one of his paintings is absolutely inspired....I had goose-bumps reading it, because it seemed as if Breslin,unlike many writers who say they have observed artists, actually understood the process of creation and the passion behind it. I have never written a fan letter to a writer, but I began one to Mr.Breslin. Imagine my distress and sorrow when I read the next day in the paper that he had passed away! But this book lives as a testament to his thorough research and love of the subject. Get this book and read it....if you love art, artists, or scholarship,you will not be disappointed.



3. No book can do Mark Rothko justice. He painted on large
   canvases. To know him is to confront his original work
   on the wall before you. Find your distance, 10, 15,
   maybe 30 feet back. Yet to make sense of his
   colored rectangles tearing themselves apart in fission,
   as well as his earlier, quite different work, some
   background helps.

   Breslin's book will become the standard reference, but
   not perhaps the starting point. He writes engrossingly,
   but the 558 pages of text, I fear, will discourage the
   casual reader (who might do well to read Robert
   Hughes's paragraphs in American Visions).

   Still, for the motivated reader, James Breslin's bio is
   awesome. The Latvian Jew, charity student at
   antisemitic Yale in the early 20s, uncomfortable and
   smarter than most there, comes alive, as does his love
   for children and their art, as well as his tormented
   first marriage to a wife commercially successful during
   the Great Depression making jewelry that sold. Rothko
   had higher ambitions: fine art spelled with a capital
   "A". As Breslin relates, discomfort never disappeared.
   Success and recognition did not go over well with
   this self-described anarchist who, as a Portland
   teenager, enthusiastically took in lectures by Emma
   Goldman. Overall, Breslin provides a biographical and
   historical foundation with which to understand Mark
   Rothko's painting. I am grateful for that.

   Finally, of the many biographies I've read, James EB
   Breslin's stands out for another reason: in his
   Afterword, he turns from Rothko to himself and
   addresses his own motivations and challenges in writing
   the biography. Biographies are never "objective", so it
   makes sense that a biographer might address his own
   motivations. In the descriptions of the dangers of
   doing research in Rothko's birthplace of Dvinsk, in
   interviewing art historian Clement Greenberg, Rothko
   reappears again, this time indirectly, one step
   removed. That Breslin can bring Rothko alive in these

   different contexts is testament to the enduring value
   of this long, challenging biography.




4. If you really want to know Rothko, read Dore Ashton. Breslin tends to simplify things and I don't think that he really loves Rothko or has communicated with the paintings. Only for die-hard Rothkoites like me.

4 comments about Acrylic Workbook: A Complete Course in 10 Lessons.

1. This was one of the first books I bought when I just started acrylic painting.
   
   This book introduces the reader to different brushes, textures, effects,etc.
   
   I actually did many of the exercises from this book and they came out pretty good. I enjoyed doing the exercises because a lot of the exercises were easy and precision wasn't really required, which let me just work on the basics of things (shadows,etc.)
   
   I definately wouldn't call this a complete course, but it might be a complete course of the basics of acrylic painting (to get you started). I would recommend this book if you're just starting acrylic painting and want a book that's fairly easy to do the exercises for.



2. Please don't name your book a complete course in 10 lessons if it is not. Only for beginners and remember not a complete course. Only if you don't know anything about painting, it gives very basic knowlege and it should say that is what it does.



3. I ordered this book through a magazine thinking it would have good step by step instructions. Thank goodness I didn't pay much for it. The acrylic exersizes are all done in a messy watercolor-like style. It looks like something my 2 year old could do. I gave my copy to the goodwill (that was before I discovered reselling online...of course, I wouldn't wish this book on anyone).



4. This is the best book on beginning acrylic painting that I have run across so far. I've found the exercises challenging but not too difficult. The 10 lessons seem to give the beginner a good grounding in basic concepts of color selection, composition, building the painting, and special techniques. I would highly recommend this book to someone who is interested to beginning to paint but does not have time to take lessons.

No comments about Papermaking and the Art of Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Paul Sandby and the Whatman Paper Mill (Yale Center for British Art).

2 comments about No Experience Required! - Watercolor (No Experience Required).

1. I own several how to books on watercolor and this one by far is the best in my collection. The step by step projects are easy to follow. I have been very happy with the finished projects! This is a very fun, informative book for beginners. You also don't have to be great at drawing to have some nice results from doing the watercolor projects in this book. Definitely would recommend this book!!!



2. The author of this book definitely knows what she is doing - as I've seen firsthand - she is my watercolor instructor at the college I attend. The book has gorgeous pictures, easy-to-understand instructions, and fun step-by-step projects. You'll be surprised at how easy watercolor will come to you by simply following her instructions. This book is excellent for beginners wanting to get their feet wet to the world of watercolor. You will not be disappointed with this buy!