Art
Book Reviews
cont.,
I saw this book, Color Charts, at Type Books in Toronto (fantastic independent bookstore). And I might go back for it (I got a copy from the library to have a better look). I just love looking at colours and this isn't just for art materials. It covers the earliest charts for things like fabric, paper and even feathers that companies would use for sale purposes. As artists, you probably ordered either a printed version of a company's range of colours or gone the more expensive route and bought a handpainted version especially as many of us are ordering online and it is difficult to check the colour accuracy of what you see on a screen. The presentation of this book - beautiful paper, stunning photos, and research - makes it a stunner for your collection.
Another favourite thing for me is seeing different forms of typography. I used to love doing my own fonts even as a kid or meticulously copying calligraphy. Here in Freehand: New Typography Sketchbooks you see the beginning of fonts created by designers from around the globe with 800 images from their sketchbooks showing the workings, or birth, of a font. So there's another thing I also like - seeing artists' sketchbooks! This is a thick volume with images of the fonts themselves and how they are incorporated into images.
Yet another book by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico, this one titled Graphic. It's a similar concept to the Typography book above that here we get to see inside the sketchbooks of some of the great graphic designers. Many of them look to be sketchbooks that aren't used for specific projects but instead more personal projects showing their creativity even more. There's a wonderful range of artwork - from doodles, and collage to full-scale illustration and comic style drawings. As they say, there's something for everyone.
There are other books by curated by Dawn Devries Sokol on a previous page. She gathers together sketchbooks or journals of artists from around the world. In this volume, A World of Artist Journal Pages, there are 230 artists from 30 countries and more than 1000 examples of artwork. That should be enough to keep you entertained. Like her other books there is a great range of work and not all of the artists are professional. Some use journals or sketchbooks to help give them a creative outlet or help them cope with their full-time jobs like Nathalie Nayer, a medical doctor from Belgium. There is an interview with her where she states that journalling activates the right side of her brain. She even sketches in patient's medical files.
Well of course there's another David Hockney book in this review. David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition was published to go along with the exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2013. It was a survey of Hockney's work from 2002 to the present. This is one of the most productive decades of his career, embracing new technology (iPad sketches) and old, including studies of the changing seasons where he lived. It featured more than 250 works of art with portraits and landscapes.
The Drawings of Vincent Van Gogh by Christopher Lloyd is definitely going on my Christmas wishlist. It's a bit pricey at $66 (Cdn) so it isn't something I feel I could buy for myself. That's what Christmas is for, isn't it? Or birthdays. Or Anniversaries. "Featuring works from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, and many other important collections in Europe and the United States, this beautifully illustrated volume offers an extensive interpretation of the artist’s drawings, beyond what has been published to date." This is the important bit - some of these drawings have not been published before so it is extra special to see them along with the rest. The drawings are arranged into themes such as Figures, Place, Landscape, Portraits etc. I just love studying the mark making from Van Gogh's earliest works to his last and more famous period. Many of these were studies while also some done just for the sake of drawing itself. And I know I harp on about paper in books but there is just something about the quality of the paper used here that makes this book extra special and worth the price.
Once again I don't remember how I came across this book, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future. If I see something mentioned on youtube or in a magazine I quickly check the Toronto Public Library site and quite often they have the book. Amazing!
I have heard of this female artist (you tend to have to seek them out as they don't get the same attention male artists have received). Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist who died in 1944 leaving a huge collection of work (over 1200 paintings and works on paper and over 124 notebooks) with the stipulation that they not be exhibited for another 20 years. As she didn't receive the recognition she deserved in her liftetime she felt that, possibly, her work was ahead of its time.
This book is the exhibition catalogue for a show of her work at the Guggenheim. This groundbreaking painting series she envisioned for a modern temple and came about after breaking with figuration in 1906 inspired by Swedish modernism, native folk art, science and spirituality. When you look at other modern artists of her period you see that she was ahead of them in many ways.
This is technically not an art book. However, Almost Nothing, Yet Everything is really about the art, and sure the children's story. The illustrations by Ryōji Arai are beautiful, and messy and fill the entire pages. You can almost feel the texture. I believe this book was recommended by Emma Carlisle, a children's book illustrator and artist on Patreon. The story is about water and how important it is to life. The text is very brief but profound but ending on a humourous note that water is the "pee of life", the "pee-pee of the gods."
Juliette Artistides' Lessons in Classical Drawing is basically a course breaking down the key components of drawing into lessons. There's even a DVD with it but unfortunately I no longer have anything to play a DVD. If you are wanting to learn representational drawing this book is for you. There are beautiful contemporary and historical examples that Artistides explores for you, looking at shape and line and how to approach a drawing.
From the classical to the modern - Soraya French gives us an explosion of colour in her Contemporary Landscapes in Mixed Media. I think my love for mixing media came about in high school when we had a guest artist come in our classroom and show us what could be achieved by thinking beyond one media for artwork. It was truly eye opening and so will this book be for anyone just thinking about taking the plunge. Of course you don't have to rush out and buy all the media. But it is fun! The texture and mark-making that can be achieved by mixing things up is incredible. This book is a great starting place for those wishing to explore it more. It isn't just about art media because you can mix things up with stencils, collage, changing the grounds you work on etc.
Nathan Fowkes' work is beautiful in its simplicity and he teaches his technique and approach in How to Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully in Watercolor and Gouache. He turned to this media when he grew frustrated and tired of the set-up require for more complex paintings and missing the "moment" and light that he stopped for. Instead of using gouache he uses a range of watercolour that he mixes with Winsor and Newton gouache white so that he can have transparent and opaque in his work and to make the set up easier and be able to rewet the media quickly and without fuss. He also teaches you how to simplify what you are seeing. The book is then broken down into demonstrations focusing on different aspects like light, colour etc. The end of the book showcases a gallery of his work.
Color and Light is another book in the same series as the one above and follows a similar format with more emphasis on theory rather than historical context, creating a larger section before the tutorials as there is so much to cover about light and colour and how they affect one another. Again, there is a mix of digital and traditional media for the tutorials and a gallery section at the end featuring other artists. These two books really need to be part of a set.
This book is by the Parisian born artist Juliette Plisson. Landscape Painting with Watercolors and Other Techniques is a wonderfully laid out book focusing on various aspects of what makes a good painting. While not all were created en plein air and so not urban sketches, they all have that feeling and so I was particularly keen to get this book. Plisson lays out chapters on things like Composition by looking at her working methods like how using certain media can achieve something or how altering the composition slightly can make a painting work better. She really focuses in on aspects like how colour can change something or how a simple brush technique can be used to depict an object.
Nathan Fowkes is also an animator and his work features alongside other artists in this book Composition and Narrative. The book walks you through the history of composition, the classical approach like rule of thirds but also recognizing how sometimes it is good to break those rules for artistic effect. The next section talks about the history of portraying narrative and how composition can help with this. Then the book turns to quite detailed, involved breakdown tutorials with computer assisted artwork and traditional oil. The remaining part of the book features a selection of artists and their approach to composition and narrative.
I can't believe I nearly missed reviewing this book In Pursuit of Inspiration. I got it out of the library when things were really bad with my mom's health. I couldn't concentrate on anything but I loved looking through it and even tried to distract my mom with it. I love the author, Rae Dunn's, work. It is partly a journal and showcase of her work with prompts and ideas for looking for subjects to paint or draw or how to approach your day to find that inspiration. There's also a discussion on what media she uses including what nature supplies (using feathers or sticks).
Alan Powers was an external curator for the largest retrospective of Eric Ravilious' work to celebrate the centenary of his birth. In Eric Ravilious Artist and Designer he looks at the
main areas of work of the artist such as murals, prints, and watercolours. While Ravilious' career was cut short after an airplane crash during WWII while working as a war artist, his work was influential and has seen a resurgence in interest especially in the illustrative and design world. See my section on artists who inspire me here. I'm particularly drawn to the texture in his watercolours.
If you liked the above artist, how about learn about contemporaries and other artists who settled in the small village of Bardfield in Essex? Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield examines the work on Bawden and Ravilious who first settled in Bardfield in 1931. It wasn't too far from London but difficult enough to not encourage commuters (still a desire today for some). Others soon joined them including their wives who were artists in the own right and several others throughout the years especially in the years after the war. I particularly love the work of Sheila Robinson and her husband Bernard Cheese.
Art Fundamentals 2nd edition is very like the Artists' Master series of books above but all of the aspects like composition, light etc are all in one book. And like those books it also combines historical examples and works from contemporary digital artists. The chapter on anatomy is especially interesting and great for even experienced artists who need to brush up on things.
Another Martin Salisbury book Illustrators' Sketch Books is basically just as the title says. There are short write ups of or by the artists and then images from their sketchbooks. You have famous Illustrators like Edward Gorey (I used to love the PBS Mystery drawings as a kid), Quentin Blake, Eric Ravilious (see above) and Robert Crumb as well as contemporary illustrators like Emma Carlisle and Charlotte Ager.
I am very interested in using more mixed media and layers in my artwork. Mixed Media Landscapes and Seascapes by Chris Forsey is very inspirational. It walks you through the basics like composition and colour because these are key to any good result. It even covers the aspect that weather and seasons will have on your work. Then it gets into what I'm here for - mixing media. There are demonstrations of watercolour with acrylic ink, watercolour and oil pastel, watercolour, acrylic paint, ink and oil pastel etc. - all sorts of techniques that you can explore in your own work.
I only had a working knowledge of Paula Rego's work but so many people refer to her so I thought I better brush up and this is the perfect book. It was published to go along with a retrospective of Rego's work at Tate Britain in 2021. Like the exhibition it covers her early work (collage) to large scale pastels with complex compositions. There are a few essays by scholars/curators at the beginning but then mostly a full show of the work from there.
Everyday Watercolor:Seashores by Jenna Rainey is great for the beginner interested in sea themed images. These aren't your old seascapes either, they are throroughly modern. The artist starts off small and very easy to create images of sea creatures and the like (fish, starfish, shells etc.). They she moves to the little bit more challenging - depicting water. Then she builds you up to more complex compositions applying what you've learned to create images like hers of boats in the water, figures in the landscape, sunsets etc. It's a lovely starter for the subject or a recap for more advanced artists who haven't given the subject a try before.
Fans of Artemisia Gentileschi will love this book, Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art, but so will artists themselves. Marshall examines the career of Artemisia, her general career, how she marketed herself, how the art market treats her now. Many of these issues are still relevant to today. While it is common to have female artists now, some of the big names (ie. the ones that gain the most attention and money and shows) are still quite often men. It is a very approachable academic book and the illustrations are gorgeous.
There are other books about the British artist Frank Auerbach out there and I may seek them out. Until then I picked up this book edited by Catherine Lampert at my local library. It was published alongside the exhibition of the artist's work at the Kunstmuseum, Berlin and Tate Britain, London nearly 10 years ago. It is a wonderful survey of his work in proper coffee table format with large images. There's an essay by T.J. Clark, the critic and art historian, and text of a conversation between the artist and the editor from 1978. Mostly it is images, which is fine by me as I'm more interested in his texture and mark-making.
If you are not already aware, yes Jamie Wyeth is a member of that Wyeth family, his father being the artist Andrew Wyeth and his grandfather, N.C. Wyeth. Like his family most of his subject work is inspired by his homes in the Brandywine River Valley of Pennsylvania and Delaware and the mid-coast of Maine. This book, Unsettled, looks at his career but through different lenses with authors from the world of dance, cinema, and music and their response to Jamie Wyeth's work. I can definitely see the relation to cinema as the compositions, lighting are very reminiscent of film. Some of the other essays are more of a stretch, though. But the images are well presented with a large section at the end of the book.
See above for other titles in this Artists' Master Series (Color and Light; Composition and Narrative). Perspective and Depth follows the same format with images of traditional and digital examples and plenty of indepth technical study of the subject.
I knew I would seek out more Frank Auerbach books. I'm not sure why I'm on this kick. This William Feaver's Frank Auerbach is a revised and updated volume spanning the whole of Auerbach's career. There are only a few essays at the beginning, one giving a synopsis of Auerbach's life, and the rest is full on images of his work with a handy thumbnail catalogue at the back arranged chronologically.
This is my favourite of the Auerbach books I've got from the library. I just love his mark making and I think it really comes through in his drawings. Frank Auerbach: Drawings of People offers a lot more depth with the inclusion of more essays while not stinting on wonderful images. It is in the category of "I would love to own this book." Even the paper used is beautiful and is perfect for showing off the drawings.