In the 15th century, the ideas of the great Renaissance artists required the attentions of engineers and artisans to construct and explain the dynamics of their ambitious works. Leonardo da Vinci's helicopter was built in a studio; very probably his submarine, too. Today that endeavour and enquiry is represented by Mike Smith, whose studio in the Old Kent Road in London furnishes the architecture for the most pressing installations and sculptures of young British artists. He is the carborundum that enables the best artists working in Britain today to realise their work--Rachel Whiteread's Monument in Trafalgar Square is a testament to his abilities. The painter Patsy Craig has here unravelled the activities of the Mike Smith Studios, including the symbiosis of the studio with those of Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Keith Tyson, Darren Almond, Mark Wallinger, and others. The last 12 years of the studio's archives include the detritus, correspondence, notes, ideas, failures, and successes of these and other artists who collaborate with the studio. They are a diary and vade mecum of the construction of a significant theory in current British art. It is an extraordinary assembly of the very templates of the thinking, design and creation of art in Britain today, edited with a painter's eye to the relevant and disdain for the irrelevant. It is as if one were provided with a pop-up illustration of how and why artists think, and how their ideas are engineered by those who translate their odessys into reality. Germano Celant, a Senior Curator for Guggenheim New York, has contributed the critical text. William Furlong, from Audio Arts, has conducted the artists' interviews.

Classification and qualification seem almost to be the enemy of artistic endeavour. Yet in The Natural History of Vedovamazzei, the curator Mirta D'Argenzio has produced an elliptical collation of the artists' ideas and hopes that offers a remarkable insight into a rarely defined world, that of Vedovamazzei's creative process. Simeone and Stella were lovers, from Naples. They were, and are, artists, painters, sculptors. As a matter of course they sketched out ideas in drawings and watercolors, produced cartoons for future projects, dallied with line and colour for experimental concepts. Some of them didn't work or were put away for another day. These sketches, sometimes no more than doodles or jokes, were also their means of communication when one was away, so that at any moment, on their return, they would find a scrap with an illustration to muse over pinned to the wall. Mirta D'Argenzio, the art historian and curator, came across these fleeting memoranda and resolved to make sense of them, like an Egyptologist deciphering hieroglyphs or an entomologist ordering the development of the Wing-tailed Cabbage White. She set about classifying them into an almost scientific order, from their larval forms through the pupae to the first spread of wings. She has produced a collection of the sketches in eight sections that makes up a visual record of the nascent ideas of Vedova and Mazzei, even in the 21st century cognisant of the traditions of Leonardo. The result of her work is as if one were treading the hallowed halls of the Natural History Museum, with its polished cases of botanical and insect collections, minutely marked and classified by the scientist's copperplate hand. It is a dazzlingdisplay.

What can philosophy reveal about painting and how might it deepen our understanding of this enduring art form? Philosophy of Painting investigates the complex relationship between the painted surface and the depicted subject, opening up current debates to address questions concerning the historicality of art. Embracing contemporary painting, it examines topics such as the post-medium condition and the digital divide, and the work of artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Amy Sillman and Katharina Grosse. Illustrated with 24 colour plates and highly readable throughout, Philosophy of Painting provides a philosophically rigorous defence of the relevance of painting in the 21st century, making an original contribution to the major ideas informing painting as an art. Here is a clear and coherent account of the contemporary significance of painting and the pressures and possibilities that distinguish it from other art forms.

Master the craft of glass art in your own home studio

The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook is a robust review of three popular glass art styles--stained glass, fusing, and lampworking--that brings learning new skills and making glass art within everyone's reach. With the right tools, classic techniques, and several "teaching projects," you will soon be making beautiful glass art at home.

Artist Cecilia Cohen walks you through planning your work space, selecting tools and materials, mastering basic glasswork techniques, and applying your new skills to original pieces. In addition, "The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook "encourages good organization, unique and inspired design, and eco-friendly practices, ensuring it will remain an invaluable resource for artists.

The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook

- Invites you into the studios of 18 glass artists from around the world

- Teaches fundamental glass-art techniques--cutting glass, soldering, flameworking, kilnwork, and more--in full-color photographs

- Illustrates the steps for crafting beautiful pieces of glass art, including suncatchers, jewelry, boxes, beads, and a kaleidoscope

Whether you are new to the art and want to set up your first studio and learn the basics, or an experienced artist looking to expand your repertoire and stimulate your creativity with advanced projects, The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook is for you.

The first substantial overview of Newling's mysterious, intriguing, and often beautiful works.