Book Description

Painting Landscapes with Watercolor is a wonderfully expressive book, opening up all of the creative possibilities that landscapes offer to the watercolorist. Ballestar, an accomplished artist, succeeds in teaching exactly how to use the transparent, free-flowing nature of watercolor to generate landscapes with great emotional appeal. * Sound advice on selecting materials, learning basic techniques, making first sketches * Sixteen brilliant step-by-step demos put key concepts into practice * Examples of watercolors by world-renowned artists add variety and inspiration * Close-ups detail how to paint snow, windy skies, mountains and reflections on waterReaders will discover how to capture the light that personalizes a landscape and enliven their scenes with dynamic movement and color.No matter their level of experience, watercolor artists will treasure this indispensable reference. ... Read more

Book Description

The painter’s favorite medium and subject combine in this lushly illustrated guide to glorious watercolor landscapes. From the best brushes to stretching the paper to depicting fields, foliage, and forests, here’s all the info-rmation you need to free your creativity. An enticing variety of themes will keep you painting pleasurably.
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Reviews (1)

The artists' paradise
Carl Little, a poet, essayist, art critic and (to make ends meet) Director of Public Relations for College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, has made it his life's work to glorify his great loves: language, painting, and Maine. In Art of the Maine Islands he collaborates once again with his 'Comrade in Art,' designer Arnold Sklonick--this time to offer an assortment of artists all in one way or another captivated by the charm of Maine's chilly dark air, red rocks and frothing waters. Little and Skolnick have the breadth of appreciation to have included contemporary art along with the more staid efforts of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The book's lively and diverse ninety-six pages probably are more designed to invite leafing through on a coffee table, than to increase the dry and dusty clutter on the scholar's bookshelf. It is homage to a place artists have always loved--and in its colorful pages you can see why. ... Read more

Book Description

Kriz examines the dramatic changes in English landscape painting during the time of Turner and Girtin, when the notion of painter as genius emerged. She argues that the concept was a category produced by critics, painters, and the public in opposition to such other ways of thinking about the artist as amateur, connoisseur, decadent Frenchman, and entrepreneur. ... Read more

Book Description

120 illustrations ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Lord of the paints
Some said that PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER, who started as a landscape painter, swallowed and then spat the Alps onto canvases and panels calling up Italian mountainous landscape masters Giulio Campagnola and Titian. In fact, he played out about 80 real "Children's games" in the Italian city view style of Piero della Francesca and of the woodcut-illustrated works of Sebastiano Serlio. But earlier Netherlandish school influences were in Flemish landscape painter Joachim Patinir-type bird's-eye detailed never-never land mapping of "Landscape with Christ appearing to the apostles at the sea of Tiberias," "The flight into Egypt," and "The parable of the sower"; and later in Herri met de Bles-type "Procession of Calvary," as his largest picture, "Sermon of St John the Baptist," and "Suicide of Saul" in all its Albrecht Altdorfer-type impressionistic brilliance, as forerunners along with the brilliantly yellow "Harvesters" and the three "Haymaking" women to Peter Paul Rubens. "The adoration of the kings," as his first large-figure and only upright-formatted picture, was one of two Italian-influenced paintings, with altarpiece-type proportions, Masaccio-type Moor, late Quattrocento-type bending and kneeling kings, and Michelangelo-type upper body for the Christ Child against balanced interweaving of strong and subdued reds, pink, green, dun, chamois, and black. The other was the one work that he kept with him until death, his small picture of Christ with Raphael-type pivotally placed adulteress, as one of his most copied paintings along with "Winter landscape with a bird trap," in a mature, rare grisaille with brown touchings and gray shades, and with his favorite theme of humility and tolerance. His only mythological "Landscape with the fall of Icarus" had its ploughman doing business as usual, thereby acting out the German proverb of no plough stopping for the sake of a dying man. Elsewhere, subtly color-schemed figures and spaces pioneered applying Hugo van der Goes-type stupid staring to bug-eyed, senselessly frenzied human automatons in "Parable of the blind" and bringing together in one artwork about 100 "Proverbs." He foreran Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Rembrandt in daringly artificial light effects for great spiritual depth with the brightly illuminated head of St John the Evangelist asleep and the supernaturally lighted Virgin Mary dying uncustomarily surrounded by patriarchs, martyrs, holy virgins, and confessors. The later bareboned getting across attitudes and moods by key body language, as in "The big fish eating the little fish," and by untraditional symbols, as in gluttonously round bulks of bellies and trees in "The land of Cockaigne," took the place of his earliest image- and motif-crowded works, as in the Botticelli-type Calumny with the King and his advisors, Ignorance and Suspicion, for his print series on "Vices" and in the Hieronymus Bosch-type grotesque animal and human combinations of fantasies running wild, with the "Christ in limbo" and "Last judgment" drawings and with the many-hued, -shaded, -textured, and -tinted "Fall of the rebel angels," "Mad Meg," and "Triumph of death" paintings. Throughout, his art drew on a mastery of color, from the wintry crisp, subdued black, brown, gray and white "Hunters in the snow" to the delicately dun, gray, mauve and subdued green "Misanthrope" and the pointillistically fresh-leafed "Landscape with the magpie on the gallows." So author Wolfgang Stechow leaves readers on good terms with the 16th-century Flemish artist's hugely productive career and scantily documented life. His clearly written and helpfully illustrated book works well with HIERONYMUS BOSCH by Jos Koldeweij et al, SEBASTIANO SERLIO ON ARCHITECTURE, SERLIO ON DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, and ALBRECHT ALTDORFER AND THE ORIGINS OF LANDSCAPE by Christopher S Wood.

God is in the Details
I got this book two or three years ago in an Italian-language edition. I can't read Italian, so I can't comment on the quality of the text, but I can say that any Bruegel fan will be very happy to have this book, with or without readable words.

The trouble with most Bruegel books is that they show tiny reproductions of the paintings, necessarily much reduced in size, and, if you're lucky, show a detail or two of each picture. Yet more than any other painter I know of, the pleasure of Bruegel is in the mass of figures. There is no point at all in looking at a painting like the "Children's Games" if you can't spend a good long time looking at all the different figures, enjoying their games and funny poses, and marvelling that the artist could paint them all with such confidence, in translucent paint and with such a sure touch that it looks as if he never rubbed anything out in his whole career.

That's why this book is such a joy: there are ten full-page details of the "Children's Games", on good big pages and in very accurate color. There are ten full-page details of the "Carnival and Lent" picture, and six of the "Suicide of Saul", which is such a small picture to begin with that the details in this book are mostly larger than actual size.

The selections in this book, as the title says, are limited to the pictures in the Vienna museum. This is not as bad a limitation as it might sound, since the majority of Bruegels in the world are probably in this museum. The larger of the two Tower of Babel paintings is here (the one with Nimrod in the foreground), and so are the "Conversion of St. Paul", some of the most famous landscapes, and the splendid "Road to Calvary", with the wonderful classical Mary surrounded by horrible fairground types. All of the pictures are shown with no fewer than four detail pages.

Limiting the book to the Vienna museum does mean that some favorites are left out, though. The Fall of the Rebel Angels, The Triumph of Death, and the smaller, redder Tower of Babel are not in this book. It's still a wonderful volume.

The World On Wood
Pieter Bruegel The Elder must have been a very interesting fellow. I would have liked to have known him. This lovely book lets you enter the strange world of Bruegel, overflowing with the reality of the 16th century Netherlands mixed (in the same painting) with biblical and classical scenes! To the modern eye and mind these are very disconcerting combinations! You have the Tower Of Babel being constructed next to a waterway which contains European sailing ships, while off in the distance you can see the houses of Antwerp. You have Icarus falling into the sea while a 16th century farmer walks by with his ox and while another man fishes nearby, both seemingly oblivious to the fate of the poor man. Bruegel's paintings, most of which were done on wood panel, are full of many different people doing many different things. You get a sense of hustle and bustle and life. Oftimes the people are odd-looking and have strange physiques. Children are indistinguishable from adults. Visual puns abound. Men at a wedding dance have outrageously bulging codpieces; bare buttocks are sometimes visible through windows. Other paintings contain moral lessons and are full of horrible demons or skeletons rampaging through the countryside like some awful supernatural army, raping and murdering. Still other paintings are of idyllic scenes, such as maidens walking through the countryside at harvest time or children playing games on the ice during winter. Bruegel was a master of color and the harvest scenes glow with golden yellow and the winter scenes chill you with whites and subtle greys and leaden skies. Taschen has done it again with another fine book with excellent commentary and high quality reproductions. The paintings of Bruegel are full of humor and horror and beauty and ugliness and sometimes so much is going on you can't digest it all at one time. The paintings of Bruegel are full of life.

It may have softcover but.......
TASCHEN Basic Series has done it again. Don't judge a book by its softcover: this stunning, simple but expertly designed book is one of the best buys you will ever get a kick out of. I love the way the book gives us a full reproduction then zoom in on the details with paragraphs of text discussing it. It has none of DK Art Book Series' awkward box-and-lines overcrowding the pages. Unlike the skimpy-on-text Phaidon Colour Library series, Taschen proves you can strike a great balance between text and visuals. The double-page spread of THE SUICIDE OF SAUL and THE FALL OF THE REBEL ANGELS are especially astounding in their details. There is a nifty 2-page pictorial guide to THE NETHERLANDS PROVERBS identifying 118 proverbs, and 4 detail panels for the amazing THE TOWER OF BABEL. Handsomely produced and extremely affordable, this Taschen book is a great introductory package all around. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Welcome Book , Kent as great Nature Painter
The great humanist Rockwell Kent is represented well in the plates of this "lost Landscape" edition. The plates are great color, and the text fills you in on the complexity of his socialist political life. Kent is a superior mannerist as was his contemporary Grant Wood. It is heartening to see these works from the Soviet Union in such an inexpensive and reputable package. The book is true to the beauty and substance of this sometimes underappreciated legend! I was lucky enough to see some of the great Adirondack paintings at the Blue Mtn. museum last summer, which made me ravenous to get this book. I am thrilled! Buy it if you have an affinity for the works of Kent!

Outstanding! Simply outstanding!
"Rockwell Kent's Forgotten Landscapes" presents 47 full-color, full-page paintings which he gave to Russia in 1960, and which have not been seen in the U.S. since. This treasure trove of his "forgotten" paintings was reproduced by Scott R. Ferris and Ellen Pearce in a 96-page coffee-table format.

By their direct simplicity, these paintings may startle viewers, especially those who revel in the nuances of paintings by impressionists, for Kent's pictures have sharp lines, bright colors, and deep shadows, and show the use of artistic license here and there. Edward Hopper's "houses" are done in a somewhat similar style. Kent's painting locales included the Adirondacks (his home), Greenland, Maine (Monhegan), Tierra del Fuego, Alaska and Ireland.

After studying the collection this reviewer emerged convinced that he has a better grasp of North Greenland, where the sun wheels around 360 degrees while hanging just above the horizon during summer months and casting a sort of perpetual evening light and long shadows. Kent's paintings often show no human or animal life, but there is enough inclusion of Indian activities as to cause cultural anthropologists to consider his paintings to be rare records of this primitive, by-gone lifestyle. Kent's portrait of Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies was so startling in color and composition as to make this reviewer actually gasp in wonder at its beauty.

In addition to the big color plates, the authors have included 36 smaller black & white pictures which amplify 15 pages of scholarly text by Ferris, in which he discusses the genealogies of selected pictures and their believed locations abroad. The text is backed by 95 footnotes, many of which are interesting in their own right.

Appendix I lists "variant titles to some of Kent's basic scenes." Appendix II organizes his "non-paintings" into engravings, lithographs, books and brochures, manuscripts and reproductions and portfolios -- all wonderful guides to other Kent works. Then there follow a Bibliography and Index.

Ellen Pearce's major contribution is a seven-page essay on the life and political entanglements of Rockwell Kent, which climaxed in his being summoned before Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Committee on Government Operations. Further, the State Department refused to renew his travel visa until the Supreme Court overturned its ruling. All this disheartened and embittered Kent and predisposed him to bequeath his "great collection" to the Russians, who had received an earlier show of his with warmth and enthusiasm.

For those who heretofore have known Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) only by his book and magazine illustrations, this is a grand introduction to his work in oils. One hopes another book someday will publish his collected works so that Americans can even better appreciate a great native-born but forgotten artist. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good for the Paintings
I'm not a fan of the instruction format the publisher decided upon for this book. Complete paintings are shown with a detailed description by the author of what she painted how, why and where. It's an approach that reminds me of written instructions for finding a road as opposed to drawing a map. I happen to be more of a fan of the step-by-step painting in progress form of instruction. If you don't like step-by-step or don't mind all-in-one-shot instructions next to the complete painting then this book will probably rank higher. Having said that - the instructions the author provides are detailed and solid.

The paintings are in a very loose manner so don't expect highly detailed, color saturated paintings. Subjects range from landscapes (the most common) to florals to country cottages in meadows. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A dazzling display of Orange County's beauty.
As a frequent visitor to California, I see firsthand the beauty that this state has to offer. Steve has magnificently illustrated Orange County in a way that is equal to the real thing. A must for anyone who loves California.

A unique vision
Steve Simon is the artist as well as the author of the verse within this book. To celebrate Calfornia's 150 years of statehood, Mr. Simon took a glorious roadtrip throughout his adopted state and captured it on canvas. California is a remarkble state because within it are colorful deserts, lush mountains, magnificent coastlines and unique lifestyles. Mr. Simon's book shows that he was able to capture California's essence in a manner that is both stunning and touching. This book is a must have for anyone who enjoys art and California. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great artwork; large and colorful; good accompanying text
This is not a giant book, but it certainly is a beautiful one, in which you'll find a decent helping of full-color plates that portray the majestic representation of idealized landscape painting that came to be known as the Hudson River School.

In an easily readable fourteen-page introduction, author Louise Minks takes us from about 1825, when the definition of this genre of landscape painting was beginning to form, to the last decades of the 19th Century, when the term "Hudson River School" came into vogue as a way of distancing the style from the emerging Barbizon School in France. Ms. Minks recounts the goings-on of the writers, patrons and artists which influenced many Hudson River School painters, such as Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Martin Heade, George Inness, Worthington Whittredge and Albert Bierstadt, to name a few. Twenty black-and-white illustrations (mostly photos of paintings and noteworthy people) appear along with the text.

The 80 color plates, about half of which extend to both pages of the open book, are arranged according to phases of the Hudson River School development: "Formative," "Mature," and "Expansionist." Each phase is introduced with a page-long synopsis of what was happening at the time the artwork on the following pages was created. As expected, Cole, Bierstadt and Church are the most represented (25 artists overall). Also, Ms. Minks made sure to include in the color plates the artwork that was most discussed in the introduction. The color printing is of excellent quality, as is the paper stock on which the artwork appears. Given the size of the pages, I found it easy to spend a long time admiring all that was going on in each painting.

Wilderness Enough....
Outstanding. If you can only get one book about this defining movement in American art, get this one. An absorbing and comprehensive grasp of the movement of the Hudson River School with stunning full-color reproductions. Best of all is the well researched narrative on the flow and development of the HRS, from its beginnings, through maturity and finally its end. A must for art history students and anyone susceptible to enchantment. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A joy to simply page through at leisure
Big Bend Landscapes by Texas painter Dennis Blagg is a breathtaking, coffee-table artbook of oil on canvas landscapes so captivating, they seize and hold one's attention as surely as the finest of photographs. Mood, mystery, natural serenity in the Big Bend National Park of Texas fill these compiled outdoor paintings austere mountains and dry deserts with a very special dignity and beauty. A joy to simply page through at leisure, each individual painting is enhanced with a brief but informative commentary in this outstanding and memorable collection.

In Love with Landscapes
Unique landscape artist, Dennis Blagg, shares selected paintings and drawings of West Texas. He captures more than the camera can and his style evokes a viseral response. Perhaps you must have "been there, done that" to appreciate that each one is a gift. Blagg also shares brief notes with each entry. That adds a personal touch with a underlying theme of conservation for this special landscape. I must confess I skipped right past the introduction by Ron Tyler and straight to the views of the Chisos that I can't get out of my mind.

Big Bend Landscapes is a feast for the heart and soul for all you Big Bend National Park lovers out there and believe me there's a lot of them. Dive into all the moods of the desert and let it carry you away. I just returned from a trip to Big Bend on Feb 25, 2003 and my question is "Was it real or was it Blagg?" Make the book purchase and do the trip and you be the judge. ... Read more

Book Description

Learn to paint with the guidance of experienced artists and teachers. Each of the guides in the Learn to Paint series is written by a professional and includes everything you need to begin: basic advice on paints and materials, a wealth of tips and techniques, simple exercises to develop skills, and clear, step-by-step demonstrations. Handsomely designed and filled with color illustrations, these are excellent guides for all aspiring painters. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Great art speaks a language all its own. This guide gives artists a new vocabulary for expressing themselves through painting. Focusing on landscapes, 18 renowned artists reveal how they articulate their artistic vision using oil, watercolor, pastel and more.

Through full-color examples and step-by-step demonstrations, each illuminating chapter teaches artists dozens of creative techniques, including how to: utilize 6 invaluable secrets to render water and reflections; practice 9 essential tips to find and compose subjects outdoors; use big shapes to draw viewers into the landscape; add drama and energy to a composition using diagonals; identify and correct color temperatures for maximum effect; paint a range of different outdoor textures; use color, value and detail to evoke character.

To give readers a friendly, up-close perspective, featured artists provide their own insightful commentary and are pictured in their studios as they work on each demonstration. ... Read more

Book Description

Turn the pages of Watercolor Landscape -- and discover an exciting art course that teaches you how to paint in this expressive, versatile medium. Watercolor Landscape is a practical guide to a wide range of watercolor techniques. More than 300 photographs guide the beginner through a series of exercises designed to teach all the essentials of watercolor landscape painting. Revealing projects focus on professional landscapes, shown in the making so novices can follow the creative process step-by-step. Unique gallery pages display works of watercolor masters --paintings that will instruct and inspire every student of the medium. Packed with specially commissioned artworks, clear instruction, and easy-to-follow exercises, the DK Art School offers ideal courses for "armchair" art students. The DK Art School series is a new way to learn, improve, or master drawing and painting skills. Carefully constructed courses ensure that you gain both the confidence and the know-how to create imaginative, beautiful pictures. With individual volumes on subjects like still life, portraiture, or landscape, in specific media such as oil, watercolor, or acrylic, The DK Art school series offers something for everyone, and builds into a unique collection of practical art books. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent
this is an excellent book! It makes seemingly hard textures, forms and shapes, simple. It shows the colors and mediums you use. It makes it all so simple! I highly recomend this book for the watercolor landscape artist! ... Read more

Book Description

The son of a London barber, J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) was an artistic prodigy who earned the recognition of his peers while still a very young man, and subsequently dominated British landscape painting. His fame spread to Europe and America during his lifetime, and after his death his achievements were ranked alongside those of the Old Masters. He measured himself against such predecessors as Claude Lorrain, and yet the chromatic brilliance and unusual compositions of his later paintings have drawn comparisons with more recent artists, including the Impressionists and the Abstract Expressionists. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great Intermediate Book
This is a one of the best books on oil painting that I've seen (though probably best for an intermediate level painter; it's a little short on basic 'just getting started' information).Both the author's advice and the demonstrations are helpful and done in a professional but friendly way.

The best compliment I can give it is that I've actually looked for the author's paintings to purchase.

Excellent book for the skilled oil painter
First rate demos.Good graphics.The artist-author is a premier realistic Plein air painter. ... Read more