Looking for suggestions of art-related books to read? You've come to the right place! Below are some great books to get you thinking, inspired, or simply to enjoy when you're not drawing, painting, sculpting or taking photographs...
Portrait of an Artist: Frida Kahlo by Lucy Brownridge
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter and today is one of the world's favourite artists. As a child, she was badly affected by polio, and later suffered a terrible accident that left her disabled and in pain. Shortly after this accident, Kahlo took up painting, and through her surreal, symbolic self portraits described the pain she suffered, as well as the treatment of women, and her sadness at not being able to have a child. This book tells the story of Frida Kahlo's life through her own artworks, and shows how she came to create some of the most famous paintings in the world. Learn about her difficult childhood, her love affair with fellow painter Diego Rivera, and the lasting impact her surreal work had on the history of art in this book that brings her life to work.
Portrait of an Artist: Vincent van Gogh
by Lucy Brownridge
by Lucy Brownridge
A beautifully told art story for children, looking at Vincent van Gogh's life through his masterpieces. Accompanied by stunning original illustrations from Edith Carron.
Vincent van Gogh was born in the Netherlands and today is one of the world's best-loved painters. But during his lifetime, Van Gogh struggled to find fame and fortune through his art, making very little money from his paintings, which now sell for millions of dollars. This book tells the story of Van Gogh's life through his own artworks, and shows how he came to create some of the most famous paintings in the world, including the Sunflowers and Starry Night. Learn about the importance of brotherly love, his struggle to find the right path and the lasting impact he had on the history of art in this book that brings his work to life.
A Van Gogh masterpiece is featured on every spread. This art story also includes a closer look at 10 of Van Gogh's masterpieces at the back.
Vincent van Gogh was born in the Netherlands and today is one of the world's best-loved painters. But during his lifetime, Van Gogh struggled to find fame and fortune through his art, making very little money from his paintings, which now sell for millions of dollars. This book tells the story of Van Gogh's life through his own artworks, and shows how he came to create some of the most famous paintings in the world, including the Sunflowers and Starry Night. Learn about the importance of brotherly love, his struggle to find the right path and the lasting impact he had on the history of art in this book that brings his work to life.
A Van Gogh masterpiece is featured on every spread. This art story also includes a closer look at 10 of Van Gogh's masterpieces at the back.
Portrait of an Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe
by Lucy Brownridge
by Lucy Brownridge
A beautifully told art story for children, looking at Georgia O'Keeffe's life through her masterpieces. Accompanied by stunning original illustrations from Alice Wietzel. The Portrait of an Artist series is an excellent introduction to art and its importance to our world.
Georgia O'Keeffe is known as the Mother of American Modernism, discover why in this first story book about Georgia O'Keeffe. From humble beginnings living on a prairie farm, to taking the New York art scene by storm, to living a solitary life in the New Mexican desert, find out how Georgia's extraordinary life unfolded and how each place changed the ways her paintings came out. See how her life shaped her much loved masterpieces and find out why she is such an important figure in the history of art. An O'Keeffe masterpiece is featured on every spread. This art story also includes a closer look at 10 of O'Keeffe's masterpieces at the back.
Georgia O'Keeffe is known as the Mother of American Modernism, discover why in this first story book about Georgia O'Keeffe. From humble beginnings living on a prairie farm, to taking the New York art scene by storm, to living a solitary life in the New Mexican desert, find out how Georgia's extraordinary life unfolded and how each place changed the ways her paintings came out. See how her life shaped her much loved masterpieces and find out why she is such an important figure in the history of art. An O'Keeffe masterpiece is featured on every spread. This art story also includes a closer look at 10 of O'Keeffe's masterpieces at the back.
Portrait of an Artist: Claude Monet
by Lucy Brownridge
by Lucy Brownridge
A beautifully told art story for children, looking at Georgia O'Keeffe's life through her masterpieces. Accompanied by stunning original illustrations from Alice Wietzel. The Portrait of an Artist series is an excellent introduction to art and its importance to our world.
Georgia O'Keeffe is known as the Mother of American Modernism, discover why in this first story book about Georgia O'Keeffe. From humble beginnings living on a prairie farm, to taking the New York art scene by storm, to living a solitary life in the New Mexican desert, find out how Georgia's extraordinary life unfolded and how each place changed the ways her paintings came out. See how her life shaped her much loved masterpieces and find out why she is such an important figure in the history of art. An O'Keeffe masterpiece is featured on every spread. This art story also includes a closer look at 10 of O'Keeffe's masterpieces at the back.
Georgia O'Keeffe is known as the Mother of American Modernism, discover why in this first story book about Georgia O'Keeffe. From humble beginnings living on a prairie farm, to taking the New York art scene by storm, to living a solitary life in the New Mexican desert, find out how Georgia's extraordinary life unfolded and how each place changed the ways her paintings came out. See how her life shaped her much loved masterpieces and find out why she is such an important figure in the history of art. An O'Keeffe masterpiece is featured on every spread. This art story also includes a closer look at 10 of O'Keeffe's masterpieces at the back.
The Fundamentals of Drawing by Barrington Barber
The Fundamentals of Drawing is a practical and comprehensive drawing course from beginner to advanced levels. Opportunities for practice and improvement are offered across a wide spectrum of subjects with step-by-step examples to guide you through.
Subjects include:
• Still life
• Plants, nature and animals
• Portraiture and life drawing
• Perspective and composition
Subjects include:
• Still life
• Plants, nature and animals
• Portraiture and life drawing
• Perspective and composition
Sketch Your World by James Hobbs
Breathe the air and hear the sounds, and experience the freshness and energy that working on location brings to your work...a quality that says "I was here." And transports your viewer there, too.
In Sketch Your World, top artists take you back to the scene--be it a bustling cafe, town square, or quiet park--to share the subjects that caught their eye and how they captured them on paper.
Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier by Juliette Aristides
This elegant & accessible primer from master contemporary artist Juliette Aristides distils the drawing process into its essential elements. In “Lessons in Classical Drawing”, award-winning author, artist and teacher, Juliette Aristides breaks down the drawing process and shows what all great drawing has in common. The book conveys a start-to-finish overview of the drawing experience and shows what to tackle when first starting a drawing and then how to lay the groundwork for each subsequent step in creating a well-crafted drawing.
Little People Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
In this international bestseller from the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of Frida Kahlo, the world-renowned painter.
When Frida was a teenager, a terrible road accident changed her life forever. Unable to walk, she began painting from her bed. Her self-portraits, which show her pain and grief, but also her passion for life and instinct for survival, have made her one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century. This moving book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the artist's life.
'Girl with a Pearl Earring' by Tracy Chevalier
This elegantly simple journal – which will make wonderful Johannes Vermeer gifts for women and men and children – presents a uniquely beautiful work of art from one of the master painters of the Dutch Golden Age or Dutch Renaissance, a distinctive Johannes Vermeer notebook and Baroque art print journal distinctive among Vermeer art prints that aims to inspire in its owner greater and more imaginative writing.
The Art Forger by Barbara A. Shapiro
Almost twenty-five years after the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum still the largest unsolved art theft in history one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist. Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect that this long-missing masterpiece the very one that had been hanging at the Gardner for one hundred years may itself be a forgery. The Art Forger is a thrilling novel about seeing and not seeing the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.
Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
The beautifully illustrated and authoritative biography of Frida Kahlo
'Frida will hold its place as the first comprehensive biography of this most visceral of artists' Observer
'Mesmerizing' Time
Frida is the story of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary women, the painter Frida Kahlo. Born near Mexico City, she grew up during the turbulent days of the Mexican Revolution and, at eighteen, was the victim of an accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children. To salvage what she could from her unhappy situation, Kahlo had to learn to keep still - so she began to paint.
Kahlo's unique talent was to make her one of the century's most enduring artists. But her remarkable paintings were only one element of a rich and dramatic life. Frida is also the story of her tempestuous marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera, her love affairs with numerous, diverse men such as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky, her involvement with the Communist Party, her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture, and of the inspiration behind her unforgettable art.
'Frida will hold its place as the first comprehensive biography of this most visceral of artists' Observer
'Mesmerizing' Time
Frida is the story of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary women, the painter Frida Kahlo. Born near Mexico City, she grew up during the turbulent days of the Mexican Revolution and, at eighteen, was the victim of an accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children. To salvage what she could from her unhappy situation, Kahlo had to learn to keep still - so she began to paint.
Kahlo's unique talent was to make her one of the century's most enduring artists. But her remarkable paintings were only one element of a rich and dramatic life. Frida is also the story of her tempestuous marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera, her love affairs with numerous, diverse men such as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky, her involvement with the Communist Party, her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture, and of the inspiration behind her unforgettable art.
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell
A vividly-rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of the artist at the center of the movement, Claude and Camille is above all a love story of the highest romantic order.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his father's nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his father's will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.
But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet -a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. Even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time.
His muse, his best friend, his passionate lover, and the mother to his two children, Camille stayed with Monet--and believed in his work--even as they lived in wretched rooms and often suffered the indignities of destitution. But Camille had her own demons--secrets that Monet could never penetrate--including one that when eventually revealed would pain him so deeply that he would never fully recover from its impact.
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Based on the BBC television series, John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics.
'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.'
'But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.'
John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented: 'This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.' By now he has.
'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.'
'But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.'
John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented: 'This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.' By now he has.
Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland
Art & Fear is about the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. Drawing on the authors' own experiences as two working artists, the book delves into the internal and external challenges to making art in the real world, and shows how they can be overcome every day.
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
'The Artist's Way' presents an inspirational twelve-week program intended to increase creativity by capturing the creative energy of the universe and offers new insights by the author into the creative process.
How often do you find reasons to sabotage your creativity? Julia Cameron uses carefully tested exercises to work through these creative blocks in a user-friendly way. The morning's free-writing is an exceptional tool for unleashing all those negative emotions!
Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
by James Gurney
by James Gurney
'Color and Light' bridges the gap between abstract theory and practical knowledge. Beginning with a survey of underappreciated masters who perfected the use of colour and light, the book examines how light reveals form, the properties of colour and pigments, and the wide variety of atmospheric effects. Gurney cuts though the confusing and contradictory dogma about colour, testing it in the light of science and observation. Gurney’s book is a very strong introduction to two fundamental aspects of painting which are rarely properly understood: light and colour.
The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
The Art of Looking Sideways is a primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination. It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories, all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters, all this material is presented in a wonderfully inventive series of pages that are themselves masterly demonstrations of the expressive use of type, space, colour and imagery.
This book does not set out to teach lessons, but it is full of wisdom and insight collected from all over the world. Describing himself as a visual jackdaw, master designer Alan Fletcher has distilled a lifetime of experience and reflection into a brilliantly witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, colour, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value.
This book does not set out to teach lessons, but it is full of wisdom and insight collected from all over the world. Describing himself as a visual jackdaw, master designer Alan Fletcher has distilled a lifetime of experience and reflection into a brilliantly witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, colour, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
by Betty Edwards
by Betty Edwards
If you enjoy sketching but feel stuck, this classic handbook will give you the drawing skills you have always wanted. If you are already drawing as a professional artist, it will improve your confidence and deepen your artistic perception. As well as giving detailed advice on how to draw anything you want – including ways to step from black-and-white into colour – Edwards exploits recent developments in brain research to show how drawing skills can be used in the corporate world, in education, and even in problem-solving.
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
by Roland Barthes
by Roland Barthes
Barthes shares his passionate, in-depth knowledge and understanding of photography.
Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind.
Understanding a Photograph by John Berger
John Berger's writings on photography are some of the most original of the twentieth century. This selection contains many groundbreaking essays and previously uncollected pieces written for exhibitions and catalogues in which Berger probes the work of photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith - and the lives of those photographed - with fierce engagement, intensity and tenderness.
How do we see the world around us? This is one of a number of pivotal works by creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision for ever.
On Photography by Susan Sontag
This is a study of the force of photographic images, which are continually inserted between experience and reality. Sontag here develops further the concept of "transparency". When anything can be photographed, and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely, with no expectations of discovering what it means. This collection of six lucid and invigorating essays, with the most famous being "In Plato's Cave", make up a deep exploration of how the image has affected society.
