Painting-the

I've spent many a long and happy hour aboard literary ships, from Viking longboats to modern warships, and perhaps my fondest times were spent with Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey in the days of fighting sail.

Here is a prize to be snapped up, a feast to be savoured, an illustration on every page, working through from the earliest ship paintings of royal barges carring Pharoahs up the Nile to Charles Turner's painting of Britain's last battleship being towed to the breakers.

In between there are hundreds of pictures, every one carefully selected and described. The illustrations are evocative - I'm looking at an early passenger liner now and I can all but smell the coal smoke, feel the spray on my face from the waves and hear the comments of the passengers lining the rails as they cruise past.

The text is focussed on the painters - there are many, many long columns devoted to the artists, their lives, their styles, their main works. We learn of the various schools and techniques and developments in the field of nautical illustration. But the artists are the focus, as they should be, and this is a very human book - I felt at times that I was standing behind an artist, looking over his shoulder as he captured the essence of some mighty ship. Or of some cameo, passengers on a liner, fishermen cleaning their nets, small boats serving a fleet anchored in the background.

Eminently readable, it provides the authorative background for the real reason I bought this book - the illustrations. This is a book I can lose myself in, sailing away on waves that have long since spent themselves, on ships that are but memories now, with painters, dust themselves but living fresh and new in these pages.

This book is a more than an excellent tool in the revival of the lost art of Glass Painting. It informs us about the secrets closely guarded by artists and revealed only to family and trusted friends a few hundred years ago. It revived glass painting in the 1980 pubishing of this book, causing this arts resergence in the glass movement of our times.

This book should be given credit in a large part for the contribution in bringing the secrets of important techinques in this beautiful and storytelling art.

This book is full of great information and photo explanations,clearly and simply. A very important book for glass painters of all abilities.

To see a Robert Bateman work is to glimpse a moment in Nature's time when an elk treks across a vast winter landscape of snow, conifers & mountains; or a stream bank where tender green plants glow against the moist earth & a minute bird perches; or a trumpeting bull elephant confronts you in a storm of dust. Roger Tory Peterson has written an expressive introduction & Ramsay Derry's profile of the artist makes good reading - especially as he's included a history of who Robert Bateman is; where he's lived; several works-in-progress sketches; photos of the artist in action & on location. A worthy addition to your library.

Fifty years in the making, this book covers subject matter never before completely understood by the academies. As a pioneer in the "art of seeing and painting", Hensche's dogmatic approach is one that is appreciated and realized only after the student painter begins to understand the possibility and limitations of his painting through the constant study of light keys and weather conditions. Surely destined to be a classic for the striving Color Visualist painter, "The Art of Seeing and Painting" dispells many misunderstood and misrepresented facts about painting, the Old Masters, Impressionism and Claude Monet. An excellent source of solid information on a subject which has heretofore never been adaquately taken to such a degree of analysis and criticism.

Before my son was born 9 years ago I attended a course on printmaking at my local college. It was there that I became addicted to stencilling. Lynn Legrice was the author of the first book that I read on the subject and I gained much inspiration from it. The ideas for projects either on a small or large scale are there. Many of the large scale stencillings in this book can be broken down into small projects for the very beginner. One of my first was helping my friend with her wedding invitations. I would wholeheartedly recommend a look at this book, I am lucky enough to own a copy and it is still one of ther first places I look when want to start something new.

This is not a simple "how to" book. First, Shozo Sato brings together masterpieces of Japanese and Chinese ink painting to show examples of its history and its traditional patterns of composition. Then he explains in words and in clear black and white photos the basic brush techniques.

I value this book highly because I am currently taking a class from a wonderful traditional Japanese teacher whose English is not so fluent. She teaches by demonstrating without more than a few words of explanation She paints a lesson in my book: bamboo, wisteria, wild iris, for example. We spend our class trying to replicate her example for brush strokes, design, variety of ink values.

The author of this book writes in detail about what I am seeing first hand in class. He explains Japanese terms and philosophy and also introduces some contemporary sumi-e artists with examples of their work. This is over 300 pages where the art of black and white triumphs.

A find of gold! Not mentioned the well-researched writings, the illustrations, presented in big size, printed with high quality, definitely are the merits for this coffee-table sized book to serve as a pictorial reference for art of the Renaissance, especially, for the sculpture part. This high-quality volume is a bargain. It should be one of the collection on your book shelf if you find interest in classic works of art.

This is a fabulous book for someone who loves art, who is interested in ancient peoples, or for someone who is interested in preserving the past. Rock art, our global priceless heritage, is fast disappearing -- especially in such populated places as California. Dr. Whitley is among a handful of archaeologists in North America who are trying to understand this gift from the past before it is vandalized out of existence. Whether you like coffee table books or whether you just want to learn about rock art, this book is for you.

The thrill of reading this wonderful new book was only preceded by a telephone call that I received at home by the author himself! Living `out in the boondocks`, I wasn`t sure how to order this book that I first saw summarized in Watercolor magazine. I was initially attracted to the art of Thomas Daly after reading the Winter 2000 issue of Watercolor. I just had to have the book. I am a teacher on leave of absence... and I have been dabbling in the processes of watercolor painting. All of my work was leaning towards one style and mood. After a trip to Europe last fall that i believed would energize and change my style... I came back still painting the old familiar landscapes. Daly`s message is that you have to paint what you are deeply emotionally involved with. It is a wonderfully refreshing book that will appeal to those seeking a gentler way of life and a calm way of reflecting on it. five stars to Mr.Daly!

Compiled by art historian Kathleen G. Hjerter, The Art Of Tom Lea: A Memorial Edition is a simply gorgeous coffee-table artbook that showcases the black-and-white as well as the color illustrations of Tom Lea's drawings and paintings. Images of the American West, World War II, and the enduring vibrancy of nature are palpable in these historic and captivating images. A brief but informative commentary enhances this collection of outstanding visual images, with most of the pages being devoted entirely to superbly presenting Tom Lea's unforgettable work. The Art Of Tom Lea is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended contribution to personal and academic American Art History collections.