The title Caravaggio to Mattia Preti aptly provides the parameters that span seventeenth century baroque painting in Malta. Caravaggio's move to Malta in 1607 opened this magnificent chapter in Maltese art, to which the island responded with extraordinary artistic foresight. Malta offered Caravaggio security, but more importantly it offered him the opportunity to redeem himself. On the island, the power of Caravaggio's brush and the celebration of his virtuosity overcame the dishonour of his lifestyle, despite the fact that this materialised in a Catholic frontier country until then renowned, not for the artistic patronage of its rulers, but for its military austerity. During this period, Malta was ruled by the Knights of the Order of St John and their fascinating political context impinged significantly on the character of its art. Their political clout and their eight-pointed cross attracted other artists, including Mattia Preti, whose four-decade stay on the island defined the triumphant manner of Maltese baroque art. Preti's death on the island in 1699 came at the end of the century. This book discusses the work of the major artists who painted on the island during the seventeenth century and analyses the context in which they were produced. It also discusses paintings of importance that were sent from mainland Italy and reviews them and their critical fortune within the story of Maltese art.

Many people crave a creative outlet, but more often than not, don't know where to start. In Colours, Giovanna Ranaldi invites you to nurture your creativity and build your confidence by taking inspiration from famous works of art that celebrate colour. Each section explores a particular aspect of colour, from basics such as the history of the colour wheel and using complementary colours, to understanding the impact colour has on our emotions and dreams. Throughout the book, Giovanna provides creative and fun prompts that will encourage you to draw or paint on the pages using various techniques. Colours is full of information on how to see colour and use it in your own artwork and is packed with inspiration from the world's most celebrated artists, including Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Sonia Delaunay and more. Colours is a short course in unlocking your creative self - perfect for budding artists of all ages who are keen to try out different artistic techniques and materials, and begin their artistic journey.

Built in 1290, the cathedral at Orvieto, Italy, is a masterpiece of Italian gothic architecture. The decoration of the Cappella Nuova, commenced by Fra Angelico in 1447 and magnificently completed by Luca Signorelli in 1499 and 1504, displays an awe-inspiring Last Judgement and Apocalypse and, below it, scenes from Dante and classical literature. Drawing on years of detailed research into the history of the chapel, Sara Nair James identifies Signorelli's theological advisors as a group of Dominican scholars, known as the 'Masters of the Sacred Page of this city'. She presents the decoration as an integrated whole, a program complex in iconography, message, source material and theory and, through a detailed response to Dante's Divine Comedy and a moralized reading of classical legends, explains how the events of the end-time join the literary narratives to form a sermon on salvation through penance. The book is not simply a work of traditional iconography, explaining the stories behind the pictures. It is an important study in the theory and techniques of the visual representation of religious belief and its reception by the laity. The detailed illustration includes many photographs taken after the restoration of the chapel in 1996.

Just when you thought there was no hope of ever finding a comprehensive color-mixing resource for oil, acrylic, and watercolor artists, along comes the 1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor, a collection of Walter Foster's bestselling Color Mixing Recipes books, including Color Mixing Recipes for Oil and Acrylic, Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits, Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor, and the most recent addition, Color Mixing Recipes for Landscapes. This incredible collection comes in a user-friendly concealed spiral-bound format that is tabbed for quick and easy reference. Aspiring artists will also find two removable color mixing grids--one for oil or acrylic, and one for watercolor.

Painting is one of the most rewarding ways of expressing yourself. It sparks creativity, engages the imagination and relaxes you, reducing stress levels and leaving you feeling mentally clear and calm. Most people assume that the ability to paint is a skill you either have or you don't, so although they would like to paint they lack the confidence to do so. But painting can be readily learned with the right teacher to guide you, and a clear approach and encouraging voice are often all that's needed to get you on the right track. That's where this book, Acrylics, comes in. Adrian Burrows is an enthusiastic and accomplished artist and teacher who explains the fundamentals of painting with acrylics in a helpful and accessible manner. Adrian shows you what you need in terms of tools and materials, and explains and illustrates all the basic techniques. Ten step-by-step tutorials, covering a variety of subjects, then put these techniques into action. Each tutorial is broken down into stages, with clear instructions and photographs for readers to follow, plus plenty of helpful tips and troubleshooting advice. There are also special features on painting trees, skies and figures.

Learn to draw any animal and turn it into a sweet, delightful creature that always inspires a smile. You Can Draw Cute Animals features easy techniques for turning up the charm on 30 animals that run, fly, swim, slither, and waddle. Discover how to create sparkling eyes, blushing cheeks, joyful smiles, and button noses, transforming even the most ferocious beasts into delightful, appealing characters. This comprehensive guide to understanding the secrets of cute begins with basic drawing techniques and exercises and a rundown of what factors make things adorable. Yasmina Mattson of Yasmina Creates (Instagram: @yasminacreates) has devised a unique, easy, three-step drawing method that includes observation, simplification and exaggeration using simple shapes, and refining and adding details. Those techniques are incorporated in creating a diverse array of animals, including a panda, monkey, kangaroo, tiger, cat, goat, hedgehog, owl, crow, fox, deer, snail, butterfly, seal, duck, flamingo, and more. Even complete beginners will feel confident in their skills to draw any animal in a cute style. Explore ways to add vivid color with watercolor, pencils, and markers, to add even more personality and style. Play and experiment for a creatively satisfying experience. You Can Draw Cute Animals also features: An exploration of basic supplies and techniques Ideas and examples for fun variations Tips for adding accessories and backgrounds to create complete scenes Techniques for drawing animals in a variety of expressive poses Start creating your own menagerie of delightful creatures today!

Be amazed at how easily you can paint beautiful flowers in simple steps. Artist Becky Amelia shares her easy-to-follow approach to painting, with a range of beautiful flowers in her distinctive and contemporary style. Using only a few brushes and a small collection of watercolour and gouache paints, this book will inspire you with 25 stunning step-by-step projects to paint, including single flowers, leaves, wreaths and bouquets. Learn to paint sunflowers, tulips, poppies, lilies, wildflower arrangements, dried flowers and many more pretty stem arrangements. Feel inspired by Becky's intricate and delicate style and create beautiful floral paintings that you too could turn into gorgeous notecards, stationery, gifts or to keep as lovely, framed paintings.

Acrylic painting with the pros! Get the basics and expand on your skillset with 24 projects featuring various techniques, modern motifs, and abstract image ideas.

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features a licensed image from Kew Gardens' Marianne North: Foliage and Flowers. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world-famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. Kew has a gallery dedicated to the paintings of the remarkable Victorian artist Marianne North, who had a great eye for botanical detail. She set out in 1871 on a painterly progress through world flora. She arrived in Brazil in 1872 and stayed until September 1873.

Unleash Your Creativity with Beautiful Watercolor Blooms From delicate magnolias and zinnias to exotic hibiscus and tiger lilies, you'll be ready to paint an entire garden with 25 breathtaking projects. Renowned watercolor instructor Cara Rosalie Olsen covers everything you need to know to get started--even if you've never picked up a brush! Learn how to select art supplies, blend Cara's unique colors, prepare a palette, master different brush techniques and so much more. Each project provides detailed step-by-step instructions along with helpful illustrations so you can confidently create elegant botanical masterpieces. And with Cara's encouraging and beginner-friendly approach, you'll be inspired to find beauty in everything you paint.

The modernist aesthetic and, later, Nazi ideology split German Romantic painting into two opposed phases, an early progressive movement, represented by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) and Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810), and a later reactionary one - epitomized by Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869) and Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867). In this rich and engaging book, Mitchell Frank explores the continuities between these two phases to reconstruct the historical position that existed in the nineteenth century and to look once again at the Nazarenes - and Overbeck in particular - as a fully integrated part of the Romantic movement. His innovative book is crucial to an understanding of German Romanticism and the legacy of this period in European art.

Gustav Klimt's ornate art expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna's upper middle-class society around the turn of the 20th century - a society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure. The ecstatic joy which Klimt (1862-1918) and his contemporaries found - or hoped to find - in beauty was constantly overshadowed by death. And death therefore plays an important role in Klimt's art. Klimt's fame, however, rests on his reputation as one of the greatest erotic painters and graphic artists of his times. His drawings in particular, which have been widely admired for their artistic excellence, are dominated by the sensual portrayal of women.

Morgan Howell paints classic 7" singles and takes into account every crease, every tear, every imperfection-producing a one-off, truly unique artwork, almost identical to the owner's original copy, but blown up, supersize, to 70 by 70 cm, and three-dimensional, with the spindle in the centre, as if the record is ready to play. This completely original approach has resulted in Howell attracting a cult following amongst art collectors and musicians alike-with paintings commissioned by the likes of Neil Diamond, Jude Law, Edgar Wright, and The Stone Roses' Ian Brown, and major music labels selecting the artist's work for display in their headquarters, indeed, Howell's painting of David Bowie's The Jean Genie is displayed at the Sony Music Building in London, and Yesterday by The Beatles has been shown at the Capitol Building in L.A. Morgan Howell at 45 RPM, published by Black Dog Press, beautifully documents 95 of Howell's creations, from 'Tutti Frutti' by Little Richard to 'Heart of Glass' by Blondie, to 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones, to 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks. The artworks are shown in full, alongside evocative commentaries from fans of Howell's work, including The Smiths' Johnny Marr, Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp, comedian Al Murray, journalist Tony Parsons, actress Kay Mellor, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder, producer William Orbit and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The book features Forewords by Sir Peter Blake and Andrew Marr, plus an in-depth interview with Morgan Howell, exploring his process as an artist and why, for him, music and art are intrinsically linked. With a format perfectly designed to fit on record shelves, this book is a must for vinyl junkies, music heads and art lovers everywhere.

Even during the artist's lifetime, contemporary art lovers considered Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) to be an exceptional artist. In this revelatory sequel to the acclaimed Rembrandt: The Painter at Work, renowned Rembrandt authority Ernst van de Wetering investigates the painter's considerations that determined the striking changes in his development from an early age onwards. This gorgeously illustrated book explores how Rembrandt achieved mastery by systematic exploration of the 'foundations of the art of painting'. According to written sources from the seventeenth century, which were largely misinterpreted until now, these 'foundations' were considered essential at that time. From his first endeavours in painting, Rembrandt embarked on a journey past these foundations, thus becoming the 'pittore famoso', whom Count Cosimo the Medici visited at the end of his life. Rembrandt never stopped searching for solutions to the pictorial problems that confronted him; this led over time to radical changes that cannot simply be attributed to stylistic evolution or natural development. In a quest as rigorous and novel as the artist's, Van de Wetering reveals how Rembrandt became the revolutionary painter that would continue to fascinate the art world. This ground breaking exploration reconstructs Rembrandt's theories and methods, shedding new light both on the artist's exceptional accomplishments and on the theory and practice of painting in the Dutch Golden Age.

Mexican-born artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) produced some of the most extraordinarily personal images of the 20th century, often incorporating themes from Mexican folk art while candidly recording on canvas her loves, losses, illnesses, and passions. This splendid set of cards includes six of the artist's most expressive works: Self-Portrait (1926), revealing a hint of the emotional tension that would later pervade many of her self-portraits; The Deceased Dimas (1937), prompted perhaps by the loss of a child; Dona Rosita Morillo (1944), a realistic portrayal of a friend's mother; Girl with Death Mask (1938); Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943); and Still Life with Parrot (1951). A powerful sampling of works by one of the 20th century's most provocative artists, these striking reproductions will be prized by lovers of fine art for their originality and haunting beauty.

Little is known about Walter Leblanc (1932-1986), one of the key representatives of kinetic and optical art in the mid-20th century. This comprehensive monograph, the first on this artist for an international audience, includes unpublished materials, which provide insight not only into the art of LeBlanc, but also into the ZERO artist movement to which he was connected and with which he was in close dialogue beginning in the 1950s. Walter Leblanc is based on extensive studies of the artist's work: with about 150 images of his paintings and sculptures, comparative works, historical photos and documents, it includes a selection of Leblanc's writings, an iconographic mapping of selected works in museums around the world, and a bio-bibliographical appendix. Demonstrating the wealth of his creative output, the book reaffirms the enduring role Leblanc played in the development of modern and contemporary art on a global scale. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

In recent years David Hockney has returned to England to paint the landscape of his childhood in East Yorkshire. Although his passionate interest in new technologies has led him to develop a virtuoso drawing technique on an iPad, he has also been accompanied outdoors by the traditional sketchbook, an invaluable tool as he works quickly to capture the changing light and fleeting effects of the weather. Executed in watercolour and ink, these panoramic scenes have the spatial complexity of finished paintings - the broad sweep of sky or road, the patchwork tapestry of land - yet convey the immediacy of Hockney's impressions. And as in the views down village streets and across kitchen tables that appear alongside them, his rooted and fond knowledge of the area around the East Yorkshire Wolds is always clear. If you know the region, the location of the sketches is unmistakable; if you don't, its features will come to life in these pages.

Drawing and Painting Beauitful Faces is an inspiring, mixed media workbook on how to draw and paint beautiful, fashion illustration-style faces. Author Jane Davenport is a beloved artist, and popular international workshop instructor known by her thousands of students and fans for her over-the-top, enthusiastic, happy and encouraging style. In this book, she guides you step-by-step through the foundations of drawing a face, developing successful features, creating skintones, playing with bright colors, shading, highlighting and much more as you learn to create amazing mixed media portraits. Master a variety of techniques that employ pencil, marker, pen, watercolor, acrylic paint, ink, pastel, and ephemera as you happily dance your way through the exercises in this brilliant guide.

The role of the visual arts in the assertion of European colonial power has been the subject of much recent investigation and redefinition. This book takes as a ground for discussion the representation of Indian scenery and architecture by British artists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Conservation of Easel Paintings, Second Edition provides a much-anticipated update to the previous edition, which has come to be known internationally as an invaluable and comprehensive text on the history, philosophy and methods of the treatment of easel paintings. Including 49 chapters written by more than 90 respected authors from around the world, this volume offers the necessary background knowledge in technical art history, artists' materials and scientific methods of examination and documentation. Later sections of the book provide information about the varying approaches and methods for treatment and issues of preventive conservation, as well as valuable reflections on storage, shipping, and exhibition. Including exciting developments that have taken place since the last edition was published, the book also covers new techniques of examination, especially MacroXRF scanning and Reflectance Transmission Imagery. Drawing on research presented at recent professional conferences, information about innovative methods for cleaning modern and contemporary paintings and insights into modern oil paints is also included. Incorporating the latest regulations and understanding of health and safety practices and integrating theory with practice throughout, Conservation of Easel Paintings, Second Edition will continue to be an indispensable reference for practicing conservators. It will also be an essential resource for students taking conservation courses around the world.

Looking at pictures can be a delightful, exciting or moving experience, but some pictures - and these are often the most rewarding - require some explanation before they can be fully understood. Delving into the origins, designs and themes of over 100 pictures from different periods and places, this book illuminates the art of looking at - and talking about - pictures. Woodford shows how you can read a picture by examining the formal and stylistic devices used by an artist, and explores popular themes and subject matters, and the relationship of pictures to the societies that produced them. The book is supplemented by a glossary of key terms, ranging from art movements and technical terms to religious and classical terminology, to give readers all the information they need at their fingertips.

Many of Cy Twombly's paintings and drawings include handwritten words and phrases--naming or quoting poets ranging from Sappho, Homer, and Virgil to Mallarme, Rilke, and Cavafy. Enigmatic and sometimes hard to decipher, these inscriptions are a distinctive feature of his work. Reading Cy Twombly poses both literary and art historical questions. How does poetic reference in largely abstract works affect their interpretation? Reading Cy Twombly is the first book to focus specifically on the artist's use of poetry. Twombly's library formed an extension of his studio and he sometimes painted with a book open in front of him. Drawing on original research in an archive that includes his paint-stained and annotated books, Mary Jacobus's account--richly illustrated with more than 125 color and black-and-white images--unlocks an important aspect of Twombly's practice. Jacobus shows that poetry was an indispensable source of reference throughout Twombly's career; as he said, he "never really separated painting and literature." Among much else, she explores the influence of Ezra Pound and Charles Olson; Twombly's fondness for Greek pastoral poetry and Virgil's Eclogues; the inspiration of the Iliad and Ovid's Metamorphoses; and Twombly's love of Keats and his collaboration with Octavio Paz. Twombly's art reveals both his distinctive relationship to poetry and his use of quotation to solve formal problems. A modern painter, he belongs in a critical tradition that goes back, by way of Roland Barthes, to Baudelaire. Reading Cy Twombly opens up fascinating new readings of some of the most important paintings and drawings of the twentieth century.

Oils give a rich, majestic quality to a painting but may often be deemed too tricky or ambitious to try. This practical book puts the joy of painting with oils within reach of all who want to develop their skills. Examples of landscape, marine, nude and equestrian paintings will inspire and show the rich diversity, texture and depth that oil painting can achieve. Written by a professional painter, it encourages artists of all levels to experiment with the medium and to develop their art.