Painting-the

Kinstler's adroit painterly style reminds me of James Montgomery Flagg [although its been forty years since I've seen a Flagg painting}. I was surprised on rereading the book that a portrait of Flagg can be found on p. 22. Most portrait painting is characterized by a deadly formality. It is, I fear, the nature of the beast. And most portraits in the book are of famous or vainglorious people and are necessarily formal. When he is given leeway with friends such as Thom Wolfe or Katherine Hepburn, his work sizzles. Luckily, he has chosen these very portraits to illustrate his technique. Even the most gifted portrait artist has something to gain from this book.

This is beyond all question the best book on portrait painting ever produced.

I had the pleasure of viewing this exhibit in Miami some time ago. I was grabbed by how little we had of Russian Cultural masterpieces growing up behind the iron curtain. Anyone with any interest in art and culture should definately get this book! Plan a trip to Russia while you're at it, you'll have your eyes opened.

I had the good fortune to see this traveling collection from the Soviet Avant-Garde in Chicago last year. I was so amazed by the works catalogued in this book that I returned to visit the show four times during its short run there. The catalogue gives insight into each artist along with the political climate that shaped and crushed this movement and the steps taken by artists and curators to preserve these masterpieces. The color plates are well done and the artist's profiles and quotes brought depth to my understanding of the movement.

Enjoy!

An amazing story that switches between modern day Rome and ancient Rome! A great mystery that has you guessing until the very end. Romantic and intriguing! Don't miss it!

Liane Jones (it's terrible that she's out of print!!) is a stunning writer. This book will keep you on your toes and in the shoes of the befuddled main character through her trials and tribulations. That is, if you can get a copy of it.

I've read much of what has been written about Mayan ceramics and can say with confidence that this is the best book on the subject ever written. The essays in it, by top professionals, discuss the forms and functions of the ceramics, the meaning of their calligraphy, their basic themes and the places particular styles of ceramics come from. Indeed, if you read it carefully and more than once, you too will be able to decipher the principal inscriptions even on pots that are not in the book. There are hundreds of full-color photographs of Mayan ceramic vases and plates in this book. These vases are decorated with pictures of formed the greatest Pre-Columbian civilization. These ceramics depict Mayan textile design, Mayan hair-dressing, Mayan head-dresses, Mayan ceramics (within the ceramic paintings), Mayan concepts of design and of the other worlds below this one. From them we learn of Mayan myth,Mayan ritual, Mayan daily life, and Mayan art. Leaving aside the great monumental art of sculpture and stucco that adorned major structures, leaving aside the structures themselves, and giving credit for a host of varieties of artistic representations ranging from the Tsimshian to the Moche... I think it is an absolute fact that the art that appears on Mayan ceramics is the best that America ever created prior to Columbus and arguably the best... period. This book discusses, describes, depicts and defends that incredible artistic legacy better than any other ever did.

This handsome book covers a wide range of Maya ceramic imagery, and is filled with stunning photographs. The imagery is also broken down by catagory, and is supplimented with explations of glyphs. The accessible text that explores the mythology, culture, iconography, and hieroglyphics on and related to the ceramics. The information is thorough without being overly specialized.

I've used this book for five years, teaching poetic elements to fourth and fifth graders. There is no other book that makes poetry as fun and accessible to 9-12 year olds as does this book. Every class I've had has loved the lessons.

Painting The Sky enables the teacher to lead students through creative lessons to express their ideas in poetry. The lessons contain elements of grammar, poetry patterns, and language arts elements that meet standards. The book can be easily used with each lesson taught independently or as a weekly activity. There are children's poems included to use as examples. This is truly one of the best teacher guides I have seen for introducing students to the wonderful world of poetry!

I'm always impressed by Claudia Nice's books and this one it is a confirm that she an absolutely brilliant artist and moreover a great writer. Suggestions and tips are rich and clear. Pictures are very nice. A great book to buy.

As an artist who paints buildings and landmarks, this book has been the answer to my prayers. In the past, it has been a trial and error effort to create realistic looking bricks, stones and other building parts without any real quide to teach me. This book included solutions for every texture I've tried to create and saved me valuble time with step by step instructions and examples. I recommend this as a guide for every artist whether beginning or advanced that wants to paint buildings.

I bought this book based on the review and on the sample pages in the hope it would help me to improve my technique in painting wild animals. To be honest I was rather disappointed when I first opened the book. At first I thought the book was meant as a course book for illustrators of wild life books, not painters, due to the poor quality of the illustrations, and the fact that in most cases they dont represent paintings but only details. I found the sample pages looked much better on the screen, especially colorwise, than in the real book (Paperback edition 1996, other editions may be better). My first intention was to rate this book a 3-star because of the poor presentation and illustrations. Take for example, John Agnew's book "Painting the secret world of nature" and you will know what I mean. After a closer look, though, I found Lawrence's book was not as bad after all, especially for the part on the eyes p. 66 and 67, the many explanations and usefull tips and the abundance of step-by-step presentations. Now, after having read the book through and having used it in the past days I feel I have to upgrade my rating to a 5-star as this is one of the most honest, usefull and inspirational art instruction books I have ordered. I call it honest because it really gives you what is written in the title, which is, as compared to other books, already an achievement. Unlike so many other art instruction books, where the artists use the pages as a showcase for their own art pieces instead of communicating anything relevant, you feel Rod Lawrence really wants to share his technique with the reader and does it in a clear, understandable way. It is usefull because you can really sit down and follow the clear step by step demonstrations without having to go through lots of useless text or guru-like nonsense befor you get to the point. No other art instruction book I have seen brings so many step by step demonstrations (50 in total), allowing you to see the steps to follow to achieve the desired result, making your painted fur or feathers look real. The items covered include : fur (long : american elk, short: bobcat, curly: bison), feathers (wing, speculum, body, head), scales, eyes&ears, bills&muzzles, tails&feet, antlers&horns and the different types of whites and blacks. The mediums described are watercolor, oil and acrylic, with a preference for acrylic.

This is an excellent reference with a step by step guide to bringing out the most vital of details in animal art. The techniques, while shown in mainly acrylic painting, are adaptable to any media of your choice. A wonderful tool for the serious or amatur artist.

A truly remarkable, beautiful volume. The Frick has always been one of my favorite 4 museums in the world and now having moved to pennsylvania miss it dearly. I used to go atleast once a month. Now this volume lets me relive some of the greatest times w/ such beautiful, powerful art. I own over 500 art volumes and this is in the top 5.

The Frick collection is one of the most wonderful private collections in the US. This wonderful "villa" on the corner of 5th ave. and 70th st. on Central Park East in Manhattan, once belonged to the steel and railroad tycoon Henry Clay Frick, is house to his amazing art collection. The paintings at the Frick collections are invariably of the highest quality, including masterpieces by Duccio di Buoninsegna (panel from the "Maesta`"), Giovanni Bellini (the unforgettable "St Francis in the desert", detail is also on the cover), Holbein, Tiziano, Rembrandt, complete rooms by Boucher and Fragonard, and many many more (Whistler, Watteau, one feels almost guilty by not mentioning them and others...). A museum book should provide luminous access to the museum exhibits, both for those who haven't visited the museum and want a first acquaintance with it, or those who visited it and want a wonderful reminder. This book delivers the goods in the shape of wonderful and vividly colourful reproductions, accompanied by succinct descriptions. It's always a pleasure to go back to this book.

Outstanding photography

I sent this book as a gift to my brother, who is a printer. He thought that pains had been taken with the photography to produce such fine prints. He compared it to another book of Restoration painters that he had once bought at the Guggenheim, having been thrilled with the original exhibition, but said that the Restoration photography had been careless and therefore did not print well, whereas the Hermitage collection exhibited outstanding photography. I didn't buy books that were available in St. Petersburg at the Hermitage because they didn't look good, but these were both beautiful and plentiful. I can't comment on the accompanying text, as I didn't read it.

I had very high expectations from "Paintings" when I ordered it, and they were all met! The volume contains beautiful fine quality, mainly full-page reproductions from the famous collection. "Paintings" is a beautifully designed, very substantial size volume which also offers Colin Eisler's very informative yet not imposing style of writing with which she guides us through the many periods of western art and the history behind Catherine the Great's collection. I, a Russian, can only appreciate the thoroughness with which the Hermitage collection is compiled in the "Paintings." I bought it along with "Paintings in the Louvre," both volumes are of the same format as if in the same series and will always be our priceless source for admiring some of the world's most treasured canvases.

This is a beautiful book. It contains pictures of all the paintings you will see at both galleries and much more. It is a treasure to keep to remind me of our trip to Florence.

This is a spectacular and gorgeous book. It's truly the next best thing to visiting the museums themselves. If you've ever gone to a world-famous museum and wished you could have a copy of every painting there, then this is a dream-come-true book for you. It's pricey but worth every cent. This is the sort of book that will appreciate once it goes out of print and I'll bet it'll be worth several times its price in a few years.