The Best Art Books about London and the River Thames

I've recently created a new website - The Best Art Books about London and the River Thames - which was prompted by review of the book Spanning the Thames: The River and Surrounding from the Barrier to Teddington Lock - see Book Review: Spanning the Thames.

It made me ponder on how many good books there are about artists who have painted London and I decided to try and assemble them all in once place.

My new website comprises my recommendations about the best art books about London and the River Thames. You'll find it has three main sections:

• Art Books about London - these are ones which focus on places in London - often places people are trying to get to
• Art Books about the River Thames - the theme of painting at points up and down the River Thames is a popular one and many artists have developed this theme
• Artists and London - some artists are very closely associated with painting London eg Canaletto and Monet to name but two

It includes books by a diverse set of artists past and present

• Edward Bawden CBE, RA (1903 – 1989) was a British painter, illustrator and graphic artist. (This is a link to the Edward Bawden Archive) 
• David Gentleman - a very popular artist who paints London in pen and ink and watercolour
• various artists who have produced sketchbooks of London
• Plus books about the paintings, drawings and fine art prints produced of places in London by artists from the past such as Canaletto, Monet, Whistler and Dore.  

It also includes a lot of artwork related to transport in London.  There has always been a very strong association between good graphic art and its use on the London Underground, in stations and on posters around the capital.

I've not yet finished adding books to this website but this seems like a good start.  I've got the Camden Town Group on my "to do" group and am happy for people to suggest other artists whose artwork about London and the Thames should also be on this website.

I am also planning a guide to the guide books about seeing art in London!

Book Review: Spanning the Thames

Reading Spanning the Thames: The River and Surrounding from the Barrier to Teddington Lockprompted me to think about the number of books there are about the Thames or reference art and artists who have painted the Thames which led to a new website - of which more in the next post!

The Best Art Books about London and the River Thames
Do you like drawings and paintings of London and the River Thames? If you do then you'll want to review the best art books which show you places in London and along the banks of the River Thames.




However, first my review of this book.  The list of artists whose paintings appear in the book is at the end

Title: Spanning the Thames: The River and Surrounding from the Barrier to Teddington Lock

Synopsis: This is a book about the tidal Thames - in paintings, drawings, prints, stories and historical anecdotes. Twenty five artists were commissioned to illustrate their favourite bridges and buildings along the Thames and this book is the result.  These are accompanied by a story or historical commentary by Michael Harrison  The title is of course a pun on the topic of bridges!

Summary review and recommendation: This is a small book for a small niche market.  Those who buy it are very likely to enjoy it a lot - although I'm not sure it will ever find a large audience. I enjoyed both the artwork and the history stories and the background information about the different bridges and buildings along the tidal Thames.  You think you know something - and then you see it in a completely new light and learn something brand new!

Highlights excellent range of good artists - producing good paintings and fine art prints in a range of different ways using different media the diversity in the artwork produced for this project.  strong on figurative landscapes no photorealism (why bother painting if you can photograph it to achieve this result?) interesting stories

Think Again? no artists of note from the past (ie Monet's paintings of London Bridges and the Houses of Parliament in the fog do not feature in this book!).  This isn't a negative but anybody wanting wanting or expecting such paintings need an another book

Who should buy this?: people who love London and/or the the River Thames and/or marine art people visiting London - it makes a great and unique souvenir

Who should not buy this? those who don't like art and prefer photos

Author / (Publisher) Commentary and stories by Michael Harrison / Images by various artists / (Artists Choice Editions)

Technical data: Publication Date 2008 Hardcover - 84 pages, 160 × 160, casebound with dustwrapper, £12.95 ISBN-10: 0955834309 ISBN-13: 978-0955834301 Amazon.co.uk Spanning the Thames: The River and Surrounding from the Barrier to Teddington Lock Amazon.com  Spanning the Thames

The list of artists whose paintings appear in the book are:

• Sarah Adams - Southwark Bridge
• Kelly Allen - Hammersmith Bridge
• Michael Bennallack Hart - Battersea Bridge
• Jason Bowyer - Chiswick Bridge
• Janet Brooke - Canary Wharf
• Paul Cox - Millennium Bridge - 
• Alfred Daniels - Rowing Crew at Putney - I love the fact I've now got some of his work in a book
• Mick Dean - King Henry's Wharf and Limehouse Wharf
• Anthony Dyson - Dry Dock (Cutty Sark) and Millennium Dome - Member of the RE producing wonderful prints
• Francis Farmar - A Boat Race, Putney. - Francis paints places. Do take a look at his website it's delightful - link is in his name.
• John Griffiths - Teddington Lock Absolutely delightful illustrations in line and wash. John Griffiths died on 13 March 2012.  Here's a blog post about his wonderful drawings / prints
• Frank Kiely - The Globe - It's been a pleasure to watch this Irish artist work his way around London over the last few years - recording the buildings and the Thames as he went! 
• Stuart Kolakovic - Hungerford Bridge 
• David Mann - Grosvenor Bridge from Embankment
• Luke Martineau - Boats at Low Tide near Kew Bridge
• Chris Orr RA - Topless in Battersea -  Professor of Printmaking Royal College of Art 1998
• Neil Pittaway - Tower Bridge - a Fellow of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE)
• Andrew Turnbull - Thames Wharf
• Roy Willingham - The Thames Barrier
• Joseph Winkleman - The London Eye

The Best New Art Books: May - July 2012

I've updated The Best NEW Art Books for the period May-July 2012.

I've not had time to update this site each month since March although nearly pulled it off twice! Hence I think what I'm going to be doing in future is display the best new books in the last three months and that way I'm updating a few at a time.

I do however regularly maintain the following in which new books are listed by the month they are published - and you get to see which books are coming up for publication!

• 2012: New Books about Drawing 
• 2012: New Books about Painting

The Main Changes

Fewer art books from print book publishers: It seems to me that fewer art books are being published by the major publishers.  I can still see a lot of self-published books around but I'm not persuaded that many of these are high quality

Manipulation of Amazon ratings: I've also observed what I regard as manipulation of Amazon.  One book in the list somehow managed to acquire 134 customer reviews within 3-4 days of publication.  When you see a very high number you have so fast you have to wonder what that was all about.  Is it genuine?  Who knows?

The Kindlisation of art books continues.  I don't tend to list these as new books unless they have also been out of print for some time.  I've also still to see many publishers who have managed the transition from print to ebook successfully.  I've seen a lot which are "so so" and some which are downright poor.

Did you know that Amazon now sells more ebooks that print books in the UK?  eBooks outsold print books in the USA4 years after the introduction of the Kindle.  It only took 2 years in the UK

For every 100 print books sold through the site, Amazon said it sold 114 titles for its Kindle e-reader device.

This of course is "hype" by Amazon as an awful lot of those who are reading ebooks - like me - are not dong this on a Kindle. We're using our iPads!

Valentin Serov (Best Of Collection)

The Best New Art Book

Of all the books in the list I think the one I'm most interested in buying is about the Master Russian Impressionist painter Valentin Serov.  I keep trying to get to grips with the Russian painters and this particular one reminds me very much of John Singer Sargent so I should really try to find out more about him.

Another reason is because the image websites don't have a lot of images of his paintings eg see paintings by Valentin Serov here

I'm also quite intrigued by the "look inside" Blogging for Creatives: How designers, artists, crafters and writers can blog to make contacts, win business and build success by: Robin Houghton.  I don't there's much it contains for me to learn but I'm interested in how it's presented.

You can see what I've actually bought this year in Making A Mark - My Book List

More about Best Art Books

You can find out more about my "best books" series of websites in Making A Mark's Art Book Lists

Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books - March 2012

Here's the link to my website - Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books - which has been wholly revised to list the top rated and best selling fine art books in March 2012.

Here are the links to the top rated and best selling books in each of the five sections

• How this list is compiled each month

• *** TOP DRAWING BOOKS ***
• DRAWING - Top Rated Drawing Book in March 2012
• DRAWING - Best Selling Drawing Book in March 2012

• *** TOP PAINTING BOOKS ***
• PAINTING - Top Rated Painting Book in March 2012
• PAINTING - Best Selling Book in March 2012

• ***TOP BOOKS ABOUT ARTISTS***
• ARTISTS: Top Rated Book in MARCH 2012
• ARTISTS - Best Selling Book in March 2012

• *** TOP BOOKS ABOUT ART HISTORY ***
• ART HISTORY: Top Rated Book in MARCH 2012
• ART HISTORY - Best Selling Book in MARCH 2012

• *** TOP BUSINESS BOOKS FOR ARTISTS ***
• THE ART BUSINESS: Top Rated Art Book in March 2012
• THE ART BUSINESS - Best Selling Art Book in MARCH 2012

The Best NEW Art Books in March 2012

After a month off last month (due to the Pinterest debacle) I'm back to highlighting new art books.  In putting my revised listing for March together (see end) I came to a couple of conclusions, namely:

• The good thing about 2012 will be that it will go down as the year when self-publishing really took off.
• The bad thing about 2012 will be that it will go down as the year when self-publishing really took off.

In other words, anyone can now publish a book - and anyone is.

As a result, there's a lot of new art books out there:

• There's some art books which we can now read which previously would never have been published
• however an Amazon listing is no longer any sort of indicator that the book is any good.  The filter which the publishers used to exercise has now effectively been removed.
• Amazon also doesn't appear to think it necessary to exclude books of an "adult" nature from its listings - and I don't mean "artistic nudes" - I mean graphic top shelf content.

CP Treasures - edited by Ann Kullberg
published 9th March 2012

All told, it's beginning to feel more and more as if I'm wading through treacle due to the amount of dross which is being produced.  However in amongst the dross are some gems!

Some of the books being produced independently look set to do well

• The Art of Urban Sketchers which was published on 1st February sold out straight away and went straight to reprint. It looks set to stay at the top of the charts for quite a while.
• Ann Kullberg has written and published a new book CP Treasures: Colored Pencil Masterworks from Around the Globe (Volume 1).  To my mind this reinvents the "Best of Coloured Pencil" books which have been so very popular in the past with coloured pencil artists and yet no publisher would continue the series.
• There are books which look like they might be little gems on niche topics - like one on silverpoint drawing.  Now there's a topic which would never have got a book deal with a major publisher and it's great that the advent of digital books enable us to learn more about niche interests and techniques.

Obviously since I'm highlighting new books, I've not seen them all.  Consequently I do recommend you look very carefully at the reviews rather than taking star ratings at face value.  Do also bear in mind that there's an awful lot of people with not much experience handing out five star ratings to books which are not very good.

I'm also NOT highlighting books which

• I don't rate.  For example, I've never seen a drawing book by Barrington Barber which I would ever consider buying.  
• Or can't rate - there's a lot of new books which don't have an "inside view" and the author has no track record

So here is a link to The Best NEW Art Books in March 2012

Let me know what you think about this month's list.

Makingamark's Top Ten Fine Art Books in January 2012

Find out about the the Top Ten Fine Art Books sold in January 2012 - and which new art books were published.  You can see more about:

• the Top Ten art books in January 2012 in Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books
• the best NEW books in January 2012 in The Best NEW Art Books
• NEW books about drawing in 2012: NEW Books About Drawing
• NEW books about painting in 2012: NEW Books about Painting

Below you can find notes about:

• changes in where I post about the best and newest art books each month
• changes in the marketplaces for book publishing and book retail
• changes in the categories of best and top rated books

Changes to postings about my book listings

Over on Making A Mark, I've highlighted the fact I'm planning a new project on that blog which will focus on the production of books by artists or those working in the art field.

As a result I'm switching the regular monthly posts about art books to Making A Mark Reviews - and this is the first.

Changes in the marketplace

The book market continues to change.  It's very evident that it's now absolutely impossible to ignore the power of Amazon which seems to have ambitions way beyond its present set-up.

Morris Rosenthal has been writing the Self-Publishing 2.0 blog since 2005.  He indicates in Marketplace Sellers Provide 2011 Profit For Amazon (3 January) three important conclusions.  I've provided sub-heads for my readers

#1  Who's the biggest bookseller

 Amazon is now the biggest book retailer, both in North America and overseas,

That's partly because a lot of their business is now done via third party book retailers.

#2  What type of book sells most?

on January 2nd, 2012, the top 20,000 paid Kindle eBooks were outselling the top 20,000 paper books by a wide margin

It's no wonder that the book publishers are pricing their ebooks at a level far in excess of what they cost to produce ie with bigger margins to the publishers.  It would be interesting to know if those margins are being shared with the authors - although I suspect not.  My guess is they're mopping up the cost of the bottom falling out of the printed book market.  However there is a sting over which they have no control........

#3  How important are free ebooks?

In the middle of the range for the top 1,000 Kindle books, it appears that free eBooks “outsell” paid eBooks by a ratio of more than 5:1 .

Free is fine so long as it is also good quality.  Free which is dross only serves to downgrade the listings and submerge the better quality books so they never surface in the Amazon listings.

What I need right now are listings that separate out the free ebooks from the paid or very low priced ebooks.  This is possible on Amazon UK but not amazon.com

Changes to the Amazon listings

Amazon.com continues to present challenges with respect to how to make sense of that site's listings.  As I see it there are three problems

Art swamped by music/entertainment:  Changing the category on Amazon.com to include music and entertainment has done art books no favours whatsoever.  A lot of books which gained a good profile by being included in the top 100 art books now have no chance of getting on the list

The Amazon charts favour new books:  Amazon's focus is sales and they obviously think that the emphasis needs to be on new books.  However rankings which favour latest sales are worthless within the context of the bigger picture.  My analysis of the available data in the past suggests that there are some art books which continue to sell well for a very long time - as well as selling much better than new books.  However it's now far more difficult to identify these due to the way books are now listed.

Which I guess makes my listings a bit more important than I anticipated they might become when I started.

Self-publishing:  The Amazon charts are beginning to become swamped by author driven books - which might be good but for the fact that they are of extremely variable quality - and not necessarily written by the author! I cannot over-emphasise how much complete and utter dross now inhabits the listings!

Those that are being priced very cheaply seem to sell well. That doesn't mean to say they're any good or that they will sell well in the longer term. Some are complete rubbish - take a look inside this one. However cheap and free books seem to be successful at submerging books which deserve to do well - but now find it much more difficult to get into the lists. That just spells more and more problems for the traditional printed book produced by the traditional publisher.

New formats: The charts are also being swamped by the production of old books in new formats. There is no new book only a new format.

In general I'm finding that the Amazon.UK listings are lot less adulterated than the Amazon.com listings, plus they enable me to screen out the free Kindle books. I anticipate that my listings for 2012 might well draw more heavily on the UK pages than hitherto. The listings for January 2012 certainly have a more mid-Atlantic flavour.

Best and Top Rated Books

You can see the Top Ten art books in January 2012 in Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books

I've changed the categories of best and top rated books.  For 2012 they will be:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Artists
• Art History
• Art business

Drawing:  The major story of January 2012 is the way The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around The World has topped both the drawing and painting charts but since it can only top one in my charts, I've gone for drawing.  It also rides high in art history charts but how it justifies that is beyond me!

Painting: James Gurney's Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter continues to be the top rated painting book.  However finding the best seller (given that the urban sketching book could only be top in one category) proved to be a tad more difficult.  In the end I selected a book which was doing well in charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Artists: Having changed the categories because I was finding books about an artist were straying into painting and art history, I then find that January is not awash with popular or top rated books about individual artists.  There's many more fantasy artists and photographers getting good ratings compared to books about fine artists.

Art History:  I've retired the Hare.  I can't cope with the idea of yet another variation on this theme.  I am BORED with a very small hare with an amber eye.  Interestingly I think people are now buying it because people have bought it and it's a best seller - because when you look at the "wished for" books it's not quite so high!

The Louvre: All the Paintings now becomes the top rated art book in recent times.  I think however it's a book which is ultimately destined for the shelves of libraries.

Art Business:  This section has been home to a curious turn of events.  A new art business book has stormed the rankings for one month only.  Last month's top rated book now languishes at #78 in the best selling art business books - and there have been no more reviews.  I've been thinking why this might be and the only explanation I can come up with is that the glowing reviews did not translate to sales.  I have to say I'm always very wary of books which suddenly have a vast number of 5 star reviews - it never seems quite real to me - unless the individual has a strong and well known track record.

New Art Books

Check out The Best NEW Art Books in January 2012.

It's getting really difficult picking out good new art books is the main conclusion this month.  It's been getting progressively worse each month but it seems to have gone up a notch this month.  The main problem is wading through the books which I won't include in my listings.

However there are LOTS of new drawing and painting books published in January 2012 - some in ebook format for the first time.

I've also updated for

• NEW books about drawing in 2012: NEW Books About Drawing
• NEW books about painting in 2012: NEW Books about Painting
• changes in The Best Art Business Books

Book Review: Color and Light by James Gurney

Color and Light by James Gurney

I've studied colour and light over the years and have many books on this topic.  However I've never ever come across a book which tackles this topic in such a comprehensive and authoritative way as James Gurney's new book Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter.

Here's my review of this brilliant new book - which in my honest opinion is set to become a standard for all artists working in the realist tradition.

Title: Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter  by James Gurney

Synopsis:  This is a comprehensive art instruction book about all the important aspects colour and light for students of art and those wishing to improve the quality of their painting in any media. It addresses the FAQs about these topics raised by painters and illustrators.

Summary review: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - This is a book for students and improvers and all those who want to know more about colour and how light and colour interact - in life and in a painting.  Practical application of the lessons learned is made possible through a very accessible text coupled with excellent use of images and graphics.  Coverage of this topic is comprehensive.

Highlights comprehensive, informative and stimulating - about every aspect of colour and light relevant to the realist painter James' style is very accessible - succinct and informative and avoids being unnecessarily technical knowledgeable overview of the use of colour and light in different traditions and painting movements he simplifies complex topics.  Enough information is given to enable the reader to grasp the point being made but not so much that it overwhelms the reader useful review of the different types of colour wheel - excellent graphics an excellent and systematic analysis of the properties of pigments (in an appendix) interesting recommended reading list - not one you'll have seen before!

Think Again? Not as technical as those who love the in-depth aspects of colour science might like - however all important aspects are covered in a very accessible fashion

Who should buy this?: artists using every type of media art students needing an excellent primer about colour in every aspect particularly relevant to painters working in the realist tradition those who don't like instruction books which are dumbed down or ignore important areas of knowledge

Who should not buy this? People who like step by step books - because it's not one People who like pointers on "how to mix colours" - because it doesn't do this

Author / (Publisher): James Gurney / Andrews McMeel Publishing LLC Technical data: Publication Date: 30th November 2010 Paperback -  224 pages;

Let me be very clear on this point.   This book comes very highly recommended by me.  

I've not come across any other book which covers this topic in such breath and depth and makes it accessible as well. 

• I've got ones which are more technical - but they're much less accessible. 
• I've got ones which are as accessible - but they don't cover as much as he does

The major plus point about this book is that it is comprehensive and accessible art instruction of a very high order. 

• It does not attempt to dumb down or omit important aspects of the way in which colour and light function and interact. 
• It articulates very clearly how you can make choices about how to use different features of colour and light in a painting.

I am so confident about the impact of this book that I am happy to predict that if you buy and study this book your paintings will improve.

You can get an overview of what the book covers by reference to the Table of Contents.

There's so much one could say about this book - one could write a small book!  The table of contents gives you the headings - the summary below is what they actually mean in practice.  Here then are some of the more specific highlights of this book and reasons why it makes a good buy.

This book explains:

• how outdoor studies of colour and light and plein air painting influence great studio paintings
• how to look for sources of light in the paintings of others - in order to better understand their impact
• how colours respond to different types of light - and why red looks good in a painting

Light and form

• what are the different types of lighting and how it impacts on form
• what's the best type of lighting for different subject matter
• how light impacts on colour saturation and detail
• five general truths about reflected light
• what are the different types of shadows - and how they behave
• how to simplify form in the context of the way light hits it
• how a subject's material and ability to transmit light impacts on colour and light effects
• how light and shade can add value (and drama!) to design of a composition

Elements of colour

• the different types of colour wheel
• the different types of colour
• the characteristics associated with different types of colour
• what a chroma value chart looks like
• how greys and neutral colours can be your best friend
• tips for handling greens (and reds and pinks!)
• how tints and gradations are created

Paint and pigments

• the different - and important - characteristics of pigments
• how pigments can be charted
• why painters start from underpaintings in an opaque colour
• a simpler way of achieving an effective sky gradation
• how you can create glazes
• different ways of organising paint on a palette
• different types of limited palettes
• how to create mud

Colour relationships

• the value of monochromatic colour schemes
• the effect of colour temperature on the viewer
• what are warm and cool colours and how to use them
• the different ways of mixing colour
• how a triadic colour scheme works
• the value of the colour accent

Premixing

• how to make a colour string
• the value of premixing value steps
• why it's important to leave out colours
• what's the saturation cost
• how to create a gamut mask
• how a colour scheme can have a shape
• how to create your source colours
• what pushes you to identify accents
• why a colour script is useful

Visual perception

• how tonal and colour information gets processed
• what can help create a more effective nocturne
• how edges vary in different lighting conditions
• why Goethe was wrong
• how to isolate a spot of colour
• schemes which describe how colours influence one another
• colour associations and their impact on our psychology
• how transmitted light works and what its impact is
• what subsurface scattering is and how it works
• the different colour zones if the face
• how to create convincing hair
• what a caustic reflection is and how it is generated
• three rules of specularity
• the different types of highlights - and how they work
• how to use photographs more effectively

Atmospheric effects

• how the color gradations work in a sky
• the impact of atmospheric perspective on colour
• what is reverse atmospheric perspective - and how it works
• why painters prefer to work at dawn and dusk
• how to paint sunsets from observation
• techniques for painting rainbows
• why transparency is important when painting trees
• how sunbeams and shadowbeams work - and when to use them
• the shape of dappled light
• three rules of cloud shadows
• how the lighting and colour of the foreground influences design and focus
• why the age of snow makes a difference
• reflections, refraction and shadows on water - and why they are different
• how the behaviour of water impacts on colour and light

Now I'd extremely surprised if a lot of this is not entirely unknown to self-taught painters.  Much much may also only be a vague memory to those with fine art degrees - assuming they were ever taught it in the first place!

I first commented on Color and Light in MAKING A MARK: "Color and Light" and Making a Mark.

.......and finally

James Gurney's first art instruction book was published in 2009.  A year ago I published my review of it - see Book Review - Imaginative Realism by James Gurney

Note:  I was sent a review copy of "Color and Light" by James Gurney. 

Book Review: Landscape Painting by Mitchell Albala

Landscape Painting by Mitchell Albala

Title: Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice

Summary review: This book will become a new classic manual of landscape art. It takes the core concepts and skills required of those creating any type of representational art and interprets and relates how these apply and work within the context of landscape art. It's an in-depth guide produced by somebody who is an experienced educator. It's written and designed by somebody who is an excellent communicator. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of everybody who takes landscape art seriously - whether they paint plein air or in the studio.

Highlights articulate and accessible - it's a good read but it's not difficult to read packs in a lot of information and covers all the key areas provides a range of exercises and demonstrations great practical advice for those new to landscape art - working both plein air and in the studio an excellent graphic example of how to set up an easel in relation to the source of light uses the principles and elements to explain composition of the landscape reviews colour theory and relates it to landscape art unpicks approaches for painting and explains how they work a very useful chapter on working with photographs with a good summary of do's and don'ts includes a chapter on abstracting nature - a topic which often gets ignored helpful section for those who've been painting for a while and who have maybe lost their mojo and/or need new inspiration excellent range of images of art by a wide variety of contemporary artists with different styles of representational landscape art very useful glossary of key terms on landscape painting contains 'on topic' quotes by fampus landscape artists throughout

Think Again? It's emphatically not a dumbed down 'how to' book of the type that takes a scene and tells you how to paint it - with step by step stages

Who should buy this?: landscape art tutors - as a recommended reference for their students experienced landscape artists in need of a pep talk - it'll remind you of all those things you know but which you've maybe forgotten to employ of late! intermediate landscape artists with a brain which doesn't mind exercise (ie those who don't mind a lot more words than pictures!) - iof you take pleasure in a good read artists who want a LOT more than just a step by step guide - while there is a good mix of graphics and practical instruction this goes way beyond a lot of other books ambitious novice artists wanting to study and work hard at their landscape art - this is a manual which you will return to time and time again

Who should not buy this? people wanting basic instruction with lots of essential bits missed out - this book will challenge you people who just want to copy step by step landscapes - because there is a great more than just demonstrations artists who don't like art instruction books with a lot of words - there's a lot to read!

Publishers' Synopsis: Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest challenges for the landscape artist, such as: • Simplification and Massing: Learn to reduce nature's complexity by looking beneath the surface of a subject to discover the form's basic masses and shapes. • Color and Light: Explore color theory as it specifically applies to the landscape, and learn the various strategies painters use to capture the illusion of natural light. • Selection and Composition: Learn to select wisely from nature's vast panorama. Albala shows you the essential cues to look for and how to find the most promising subject from a world of possibilities. The lessons in Landscape Painting are based on observation rather than imitation and applicable to both plein air and studio practice—are accompanied by painting examples, demonstrations, photographs, and diagrams. Illustrations draw from the work of more than 40 contemporary artists and such masters of landscape painting as John Constable, Sanford Gifford, and Claude Monet. Based on Albala's 25 years of experience and the proven methods taught at his successful plein air workshops, this in-depth guide to all aspects of landscape painting is a must-have for anyone getting started in the genre, as well as more experienced practitioners who want to hone their skills or learn new perspectives.

Author / (Publisher) Mitchell Albala / Random House/Watson Guptill Technical data: Publication Date: Hardcover (with dust jacket) - 192 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8230-3220-4 (0-8230-3220-5) Price as at today's date: RRP $35 or Amazon.com $23.10 Landscape Painting RRP £22.99 or Amazon.co.uk £14.94 Landscape Painting

If I was to try and write a book about landscape painting then this would be the one I'd wish I'd written. This book will be published in the UK tomorrow and has been available in the USA since November. Watson Guptill were kind enough to send me a copy to review.

It's very refreshing to find a book which focuses on and combines information about the key artistic concepts, skills and practical information relevant to the landscape artist.

Albala is a great communicator and makes the essential concepts and approaches accessible while avoiding the sort of 'dumbing down' which afflicts too many art instruction books these days. It was obvious to me that the text has been developed and honed and edited and refined until it's the best it can be - in summary it's a good rdead in more ways than one.

Nothing in this book is 'rocket science'. I think I knew virtually all the content - either from books, instruction or experience - but what distinguishes this publication is that he gets it all down in one book! I've known other books which have been excellent at some of the topics covered by this book but very few which have come anywhere near its breadth and depth.

It's also a book which pulls off the neat trick of providing a comprehensive manual for the newcomer to landscape art while providing a refresher for the more experienced artists who will find it provides a useful recap of key concepts as well as tips and techniques.

In my landscape classes, I argue that nature poses its own unique set of challenges that require a unique approach, which I often refer to as the “Essential Concepts of Landscape Painting.” Landscape classes focus a great deal on simplification and translation (“less is more”), composition, color and the inherent abstraction within nature. In my introductory drawing and painting classes, I stress a foundational set of ideas that can be applied beyond the end of class (as in all Gage classes). I also I stress observation rather than imitation and encourage students to find their own style, even as beginners.
Mitchell Albala

I like the fact that the book starts with an overview of where he is going - as per 'tell them where you are going'. It then covers all the bases.

The section on materials is basic but not generic - it's very specific to the landscape artist in the studio and working plein air and is actually useful! For example, when discussing colours he provides a recommended palette but then gives over a double page spread to review how to mixing green and which other colours can be helpful!

Chapters devoted to composition and colour cover all the key essentials - including all the ones which often get left out in other books. He's an advocate of colour temperature which some artists may quibble with but that didn't bother me. Overall it's pitched at a level which renders the complex simple and yet provides a useful and quick review for all those who already 'know' the basics.

Working with photographs highlights what NOT to do and also the how digital images can be manipulated to extract more information from an image which has distorted values. It also highlights how digital manipulation can be effective in identifying key shapes and masses and the basic values. I loved the demonstration of how paintings need not look exactly like their reference photos!

The section on abstraction will interest those - including me - who feel that there is more scope to abstract their work but are not quite sure how to go about it.

The final section is the one which will perhaps appeal most to those who have been painting for some time without quite getting to the place where they want to be. It talks of style, how that can be achieved, how you can maintain your momentum and inspiration and how you can develop your won critical faculties and continue to learn.

Finally, his book is generous in its use of works by various landscape artists and in providing a further reading list. In the latter he highlights a number of authors and books which are ones I highly recommend to people - so he's got to have good judgement! :)

I think this book will repay re-reading over time as people progress from novices to experienced painters - and begin to realise that the author has provided something for a range of different backgrounds and experiences. I suspect that it will particularly appeal to the experienced but self-taught artist who has not benefited from formal art education but wants to learn all they can.

Note: MITCHELL ALBALA teaches landscape painting at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. A respected and dedicated teaching artist for more than 20 years, he is best known for his atmospheric and semiabstract landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He has lectured on impressionism at the Seattle Art Museum, has written about landscape painting for American Artist magazine, and hosts an educational website at mitchellalbala.com. He has exhibited nationally and is represented by the Lisa Harris Gallery in Seattle

The Best Books about Landscape Art

Do you want to learn about landscape art? Do you want to find out which which are the best books about painting landscapes? Do you want to know more about famous landscape artists? This site covers books - and book reviews - for people wanting to learn more about landscape art.

Book Review - Imaginative Realism by James Gurney

Cover of Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist by James Gurney

Title: Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist

Synopsis: This book has been described as the ultimate reference for fans of science fiction and fantasy illustration. Imaginative Realism links traditional techniques with contemporary visualisation. Award-winning fantasy artist and the creator of Dinotopia, James Gurney systematically examines and details practical methods for creating believable pictures of imaginary subjects. (Right click the Table of Contents on the right and open in a new tabe to see the contents page) This is NOT a book about the use of digital tools. Instead the focus is on the use of plein-air studies, models photographed in costume, maquettes, models and tableaus. He also demonstrates the use of thumbnail sketches, storyboards, charcoal comprehensive drawings, tone paper studies and a variety of approaches and techniques relevant to composition. This vast number of topics are typically covered in double page spreads with dense but succinct text and relevant images at various stages of development. The book also includes a useful section on careers and a detailed glossary.

Summary review: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED On publication this book became the #1 art instruction book on Amazon. A month after publication it holds on to the #1 slot in art books about Realism. The reason being that this book sets a very high standard for all art instruction books as it is jam packed full of useful content which is both very accessible and highly informative. The bias is towards Gurney's normal fantasy art subject matter but the principles are applicable to all painters who create works which involve some element of imagined realism. Many of the technical approaches he uses are also rooted in classical realism. This book reminded me of all the ways that artists who pre-date photography often worked - assembling finished paintings from studies, mock-ups and maquettes. I looked at the Degas maquettes in the Musée d'Orsay in a whole new light after reading this book This book is so good I'd recommend that any aspiring fine artist buys it just for Chapter 11 which deals with composition. The approaches to developing a composition and the various devices discussed in the book are also ones which are important to the education of any artist wanting to paint in a realistic way. They also go way beyond what gets highlighted when composition gets discussed in most forums and books. James manages to be is very informative about past practices of leading illustrators as well as providing very clear explanations about traditional concepts and his own particular techniques developed over many years in his very successful career as a creative artist. In doing so, he maintains a very accessible writing style of the type used by the very best teachers. I suspect some will hope this book will be published as a hardback as I think this will become a standard reference book and be used for many years to come.

Highlights covers an enormous amount of material a focus on classical, traditional and practical methods which enable the realisation of fantasy - updated for those using conventional media in the 21st century an emphasis on different stages of development and the amount of work which cam be involved in getting it right an excellent review of fundamental concepts relating to composition - with Gurney terminology well evidenced challenges to conventional wisdom on composition - which will surprise quite a few people a huge number of images used to illustrate and underline points useful section on careers extremely well written and very accessible. This book will appeal to all ages. excellent production values - colours reproduce well. Binding is good - but might possibly become strained over the years of use that this book is likely to generate

Think Again? You can access much of this material on his blog - but if you find that useful you'd regret not buying this book! some may find the fantasy element a little bit too much - but I'd recommend you stick with mining the nuggets of excellent advice in the text I suspect this book will be very well used by some artists who might value the option of a hardback as an alternative.

Who should buy this?: This is a MUST BUY who all those need to create imaginary realism - even for those working in digital format! Including: fantasy artists contemporary illustrators, Concept artists - for films and games Animators comic book artists figurative artists who would like to create imagined scenes - even if they don't involve dinosaurs!

Who should not buy this? Of limited interest to those not wanting to portray realism dedicated digital artists might think this book has little relevance - but they'd be wrong!

Author / (Publisher): James Gurney / Andrews McMeel Publishing

Technical data: Publication Date: October 20, 2009 in USA; November 2009 in UK Paperback: 224 pages ISBN-10: 0740785508 ISBN-13: 978-0740785504

I've been a long-time follower and reader of James Gurney's blog Gurney Journey. I also regularly highlight his blog posts in my weekly Sunday post "Who's made a mark this week?" Indeed sometimes it feels like I'm featuring him every week! One of the reasons for that is James is so generous in sharing his expertise as an artist and illustrator.

I've known for some time that he had a book planned and consequently it was great to be able to get hold of it, read it and now write this review.

This long time artist and author produces what he wants to do the way he wants to do it. He's writing about what he knows, he writes from a position of many years expertise and he shares an absolutely amazing amount of content and material.

It's very important to note that, at a time when many publishers of art instruction books are finding yet more ways to regurgitate existing content that they've already paid for into yet another format or cover, James Gurney confounds all the myths about the publication of art books.

• He tackles complex topics - and renders them easy to understand.
  
• He creates a book which appeals to those starting out and those who are experienced in this field.
  
• He packs a huge amount of information into one book rather than delivering a publication which is very thin in content terms.
  
• He tackles traditional concepts without any sense of the 'same old same old'.
  

I do hope some of the publishers take note and many thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for letting James do what he does best!

A lot of what is in this book I'd already read on Gurney Journey. This has given James the opportunity to refine some of his material as prior publication on his blog means he's already got a very good sense of what interests his readers and devotees. I really enjoyed seeing it all again in book form and there's something about having it all together in a logical sequence which I think creates an overall sum which is greater than the parts.

You should also read Charley Parker's review on Lines and Colors - Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. This one will particularly appeal to the fantasy artists and illustrators reading this.

This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me. If you find somebody to buy you a copy as a present for Christmas I guarantee you'll have read it before the New Year arrives! :)

Links:

• Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist by James Gurney
  
• This review and book are now included in my resource The Best Books about Drawing and Sketching

Art Bookshop Review: Thomas Heneage Art Books

Lots of excellent art history books
all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is a review of a shop selling art history books. It's also a shop which I shall definitely be going back to. Yesterday I visited Thomas Heneage Art Books and walked away with two excellent books - one a Tate Publishing catalogue of the 1998 retrospective exhibition of John Singer Sargent at the Tate Gallery and a 1984 book providing an overview of Pastels and pastel artists from the 16th to the 20th century by Genevieve Monnier.

Name of Art Bookshop: Thomas Heneage Art Books

Address: 2 Duke Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6DJ

Website: Thomas Heneage Art Books http://www.heneage.com

Shope hours: Monday to Friday 9.30am to 6pm, otherwise by appointment (closed public holidays).

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7930 9223

Of interest to: art lovers, students of art history, gallery owners, art dealers, art exhibition visitors, art students and art teachers

Highlights: my idea of a good bookshop - three rooms with books everywhere! an excellent range of high quality art history books about various artists - published at various dates and in various languages ad hoc selection of international exhibition catalogues from past exhibitions; strong on 'landmark' exhibitions all books in excellent condition new publications focus on very specialised topics very helpful staff

Think Again? not for those seeking a cheap book - although prices are fair no art instruction books

Summary: This is the bookshop to go to if: you love art history books you're trying to track down an art history book or catalogue that you want.

Exterior of shop at 42 Duke Street

Thomas Heneage Art Books was founded in 1977. The business focuses on selling art books. We specialize in books for the art market, our core business being in catalogues raisonnés, monographs and international exhibition catalogues. It is our policy to stock the most authoritative book on any subject and in any language, irrespective of its being new or second hand.

I'm never averse to stepping over the threshold of an art bookshop. However shops in the "very posh" St Jame's area of London can be a bit intimidating. However this one is very relaxed - there are books everywhere and you sometimes have to watch your step!

This shop also has extremely friendly and very helpful staff. For example, after I asked whether I could take photographs and explained why, I was given a complete tour of the bookshop - and the coverage of topic areas within art hsitory is extensive - including I then asked about a book I've been trying to get hold of Wilfrid Blunt's The Art of Botanical Illustration and one was located in a very short space of time and I had a price for it. Reader - I was impressed!

Lucian Freud on paper'
surveys what's on offer

Most of the books are about artists and painting - however there is also a set of shelves just devoted to the history of drawing. Extensive shelving is also given over to specialised areas of antiques and artifacts and the art associated with specific countries.

This is the sort of bookshop which is a recommended visit for serious art bibilophiles, art historians, art teachers and students of art history - not to mention the art dealers - many of whom get their reference books here.

The books are authoritative and the best quality. Some are new (the type which only get published in limited numbers for not insignificant prices) but the majority are secondhand. That said they are all in good condition. Some even come with some added extras inserted by their previous owners - always a small joy to find! I opened up my Pastels Book to find an item from the Galerie Camoin on the Quai Voltaire in Paris.

If you like art history and you really like books I recommend a visit.