Art Books

Jeanne Dobie's Making Colour Sing was interesting - as a colourist you might find it interesting or you may know it all!

I rather like Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Figure Drawing, mostly because I like comics. Quite good for what I was in need of.

Sorry if you look down upon me now. "Comics are not true art," the teacher said. "LIES, All LIES!" I replied, and left holding only the last bowl of macaroni.

I have that one, and it is very good for comic drawing. I have a high respect for well done comics. (JTHM is one of them) However, those kids in high school who would rather draw generalized bodies because they don't know any better make me angry. First learn how to draw (representationallly), then do your thing (whatever you want to do). It will make you better at doing your thing.

The Life of Frank Frazetta", hes like the Jackson Pollock of Illustrators.
we have a few tons of art books back home. We are awlys buying new how tos and even though most arent worth their paper, we feel we must own them. I dont know why.

art books
i have a book I purchased for a friend who does not travel and could not see an exhibit I saw, at the ARt INstitute of Chicago, a comparison of
Van Gogh adn Gaugain sp? She looked at it and then wrapped it up and gave it back to me at a later time, becuase she said she knew how much I loved the exhibit. They gathered up the works from museums and collections all over hte world and then at the top of the walls, took lines from letters written by both of them about the other. It seemed as if Van Gogh was very dependant on Gaugain emotionally and went all to pieces when Gaugain decided to leave the studio, The cutting off the ear was, not over a woman at all........ They often painted the same site or model and the contrasting styles were fantastic to look at side by side.

Anyway, that is my favorite book right now. One that I lost long ago but will always remember was History of ARt, from college, because at that time I dont think I had ever set foot in an art museum anywhere, having grown up in the middle of nowhere.

zincwhite would you post the title and authors of that book? - it sounds interesting and I'd be interested in tracking it down.

Thanks :D

In keeping with my love of wildlife "The World of Robert Bateman". The cover is a painting of a squirrel on a tree trunk. The detail in the squirrel's tail alone sold me on the book. Some of the paintings will make you believe they have to be photographs but they're not. I'm not an art book collector but this is a treasured book.

Ive got a copy of 2 of Batemans books with autographs and personal inscriptions. We were at a wildlife art show at the Smithsonian a few years back and he was there. I bought the books and chatted with him to find more about how he works (I do wildlife art as my main outlet in painting) He was very gracious and he autographed each book with a special rule about "In field painting"
Another artist you may enjoy is a Canadian, Guy Cohelach. hmm Batemans a Canadian too, come to think of it.

Book title
Well, I have it in front of me now and it is "Van Gogh and Gauguin - The Studio of the South" (Highlights of hte Exhibition, Chicago Art Institute) It apparently is the Institute publication and has about 80 pages. lots of glossy photos of hte work. publisher Harry N. Abrams, INc. although in back it says call 1-888-839-6121. ;I bought the $12 softcover, there is a hardcover available with more pics $49.95 I remember looking at it. ISBN 0-8109 4588 6. Even the $12 book had 51 color plates about half or so 10x12 full pages. There is a website www.artic.edu which is part of the Art Institute site i think.

Hey Farmerman:

Bateman's got to be the best. His attention to detail is consummate. The painting of the polar bear's face emerging from a snowstorm is remarkable. I envy you for being able to chat with him.

Re: Book title



thanks for that

I like Phaidon's "The Art Book" in the little size, b/c it is in alphabetical order, you can carry it around with you, and when you're first learning about art it is very handy to look up someone you don't know. I used to quiz myself by turning to random pages and covering up the name.

Iv'e had mine so long it is coverless, earmarked, full of tape, and soaked in india ink and turpentine. Heh.

My favorite art book right now, one that I keep putting away and dragging out again to look once more, is the
Manet/Velasquez
The French Taste for Spanish Painting
put out by the New York Metropolitan Museum, in hardback, about 12" x 15" by about an 1 1/2" thick. I think I paid $70 or 75., worth every penny.
I mention the size because the plates in the book are large.

It has an endlessly fascinating text, for me, and gorgeous color plates of literally dozens of works than matter to me. Plus it makes connections in the text between many of the works of Velasquez, Goya, Zurburan, Ribera, Murillo, El Greco, Delaquoix, Courbet, Hugo, Millet, Manet, Chase, Whistler, Cassatt, Eakins.

People who majored in this area of art history will know a lot of the information already but for me it is a bath of knowledge I am hungry for, and a visual panorama of work I love.

Probably available through A2k's amazon link on the Control panel page, or through the Met's online site.

bobsmyth-My favorite Bateman painting is called TEMBO. In it Bateman, captures the choking dust and this bull elephant in an obvious snit.

http://www.galleryone.com/images/bateman/bateman_-_tembo_h.JPG


This thread has two directions, art books about "doing" art and art books of the collected works of favorite artists. My favorite collection books are those of contemporary artists whove done some new things with their chosen media. Its very difficult to get serious attention for works of high realism, so a "painterly" approach is often respected. For such a painterly approach in watercolor, I like the work of Ted Rose, whose entire artistic life has been devoted to TRAINS. His work is collected in a book called "In the Traces" . I find his touch masterful.

Id also like to see a book by an artist that Vivien introduced , named Prentice. His work shows a touch of real genius for depicting fleeting light. He could more realistically be called the "painter of Light" more than that other guy who we love to dump on.

BAteman
I am totally unfamiliar with BAteman but you all kept talking about him / her so I opened the elephant link. Wow!! So real, even to the leathery skin. Is this a practicing artist, alive??

Robert Bateman is a working genre artist who is, arguably, the best wildlife artist alive today. Hes a Canadian and spends much of his life travelling to paint in field locations. Hes got 5 books of his work published.

http://www.world-wide-art.com/art/Robert_Bateman/google.html

Heres an index to some of his more famous works. As Bobsmyth said, one of his most famous ones is a Polar Bear in a snowstorm, or a pack of timberwolves in a subarctic night sky.

farmer that was a really interesting link

here is a link to Kurt Jackson's work - another artist i love

Kurt Jackson

I appreciate seeing Jackson's work, I like it a lot. I was going to say I didn't like the later ones in the group as much, but then as I scrolled it became very clear they weren't by him.

if you like Kurt Jackson's work, putting his name in on Google will bring up loads of other sites and images - he's a very hard working prolific artist, who works on projects - like following an old tin workers route across Cornwall and painting along the route, charting the daily life of a slate quarry, painting a tree through the year from the same place ....that's just the 'local' stuff - he also paints in Greece and France and captures the essence of places.