Grab your practice book, paint brushes, and discover the beautiful art of watercolor - no experience required! The ultimate beginner's guide, Watercolor Success in Four Steps will teach you how to perfectly paint 150 objects, from fruits and flowers to animals, household items, and more! Understand the basics of watercolor with tried-and-true techniques and create beautiful watercolor paintings in just four simple steps. Each project offers a sample selection of colors to get you started, followed by approachable, step-by-step painting instructions to complete each design. Once you've accomplished each project, you'll be equipped with all the skills and techniques you need to design and create your own watercolor works of art!

Bouleau's classic illustrated work examines the essential reliance of European painting tradition on the golden mean and other geometrical patterns. From antiquity to the present, expert painters-including abstract modern masters such as Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock-have conveyed harmony through the mathematics of spatial division, ultimately giving geometry a crucial role as the foundation upon which these classics were built. For over half a century, "The Painter's Secret Geometry" has been a seminal work for students of art history and composition. Now this popular, rich analysis is back in print for today's artists and historians.

"St George and the Dragon" is a supremely beautiful painting. It is an exquisitely rendered vision of a universal tale of good and evil. And it is also an example of how art witnesses and participates in the ebb and flow of world power. For its artist, "Raphael" the painting represented a crucial step in his ascent to the peak of the Renaissance art world and for a succession of jealous owners it was the ultimate symbol of power and prestige. Painted for a young Henry VII the painting then played a crucial part in the diplomatic intrigues in Henry VIII's rumbustious court. After Charles I's execution it moved through France into the gathering power and purchases of Catherine the Great and her Hermitage. It is a small work of art and during the Russian Revolution its vulnerability was perilous - it was shunted around Russia as war raged until, in an utterly dodgy transaction it was sold by Stalin to the US Treasury Secretary. Into the grips of a new world power. Within this perfectly rendered painting stories of greed and warfare can be traced, in its history the changing centres of world dominance can be seen and in the way its beauty has been traded the intricate connections between high culture and money and power can be disentangled. This small work of art is a repository of the very story of Western civilisation and Joanna Pitman is an author of considerable acclaim and great skill. This is a fantastic piece of literature - history at its most fascinating - storytelling at its finest.

In his joint capacities of Premier peintre du roi, director of the Gobelins manufactory and rector of the Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Le Brun exercised a previously unprecedented influence on the production of the visual arts - so much so that some scholars have repeatedly described him as 'dictator' of the arts in France. The Sovereign Artist explores how Le Brun operated in his diverse fields of activities, linking and juxtaposing his portraiture, history painting and pictorial theory with his designs for architecture, tapestries, carpets and furniture. It argues that Le Brun sought to create a repeatable and easily recognizable visual language associated with Louis XIV, in order to translate the king's political claims for absolute power into a visual form. How he did this is discussed through a series of individual case studies ranging from Le Brun's lost equestrian portrait of Louis XIV, and his involvement in the Querelle du coloris at the Academie, to his scheme for 93 Savonnerie carpets for the Grande Galerie at the Louvre, his Histoire du roy tapestry series, his decoration of the now destroyed Escalier des Ambassadeurs at Versailles and the dramatic destruction of the Sun King's silver furniture. One key theme is the relation between the unity of the visual arts, to which Le Brun aspired, and the strong hierarchical distinctions he made between the liberal arts and the mechanical crafts: while his lectures at the Academie advocated a visual and conceptual unity in painting and architecture, they were also a means by which he attempted to secure the newly gained status of painting as a liberal art, and therefore to distinguish it from the mechanical crafts which he oversaw the production of at the Gobelins. His artistic and architectural aspirations were comparable to those of his Roman contemporary Gianlorenzo Bernini, summoned to Paris in 1665 to design the Louvre's East facade and to create a portrait bust of Louis XIV. Bernini's failure to convince the king and Colbert of his architectural scheme offered new opportunities for Le Brun and his French contemporaries to prove themselves capable of solving the architectural problems of the Louvre and to transform it into a palace appropriate "to the grandeur and the magnificence of the prince who [was] to inhabit it" (Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Nicolas Poussin in 1664). The comparison between Le Brun and Bernini not only illustrates how France sought artistic supremacy over Italy during the second half of the 17th century, but further helps to demonstrate how Le Brun himself wanted to be perceived: beyond acting as a translator of the king's artistic ambition, the artist appears to have sought his own sovereign authority over the visual arts.

Sold in packs of 6. Gorgeous, foiled, handmade greeting cards, blank inside and shrink-wrapped with a gold envelope. Themed with our art calendars, foiled notebooks and illustrated art books. Our greeting cards are printed on FSC paper and wrapped in biodegradeable cellobag, and are themed with our art calendars, foiled notebooks and illustrated art books. This example features Hokusai's The Great Wave. The most notable period in Hokusai's artistic life was the latter part of his career, beginning in 1830 when he was 70 years old. He began the series of landscapes he is most famous for: 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji', which included The Great Wave, off Kanagawa, probably his most iconic image.

A FLAME TREE NOTEBOOK. Beautiful and luxurious the journals combine high-quality production with magnificent art. Perfect as a gift, and an essential personal choice for writers, notetakers, travellers, students, poets and diarists. Features a wide range of well-known and modern artists, with new artworks published throughout the year. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED. The highly crafted covers are printed on foil paper, embossed then foil stamped, complemented by the luxury binding and rose red end-papers. The covers are created by our artists and designers who spend many hours transforming original artwork into gorgeous 3d masterpieces that feel good in the hand, and look wonderful on a desk or table. PRACTICAL, EASY TO USE. Flame Tree Notebooks come with practical features too: a pocket at the back for scraps and receipts; two ribbon markers to help keep track of more than just a to-do list; robust ivory text paper, printed with lines; and when you need to collect other notes or scraps of paper the magnetic side flap keeps everything neat and tidy. THE ARTIST. Angela Harding is a fine art painter and illustrator based in Rutland, UK. She specialises in lino prints and her work is inspired by British birds and the countryside. THE FINAL WORD. As William Morris said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

The most exhilarating painter of the Renaissance and arguably of the whole of western art, Tintoretto was known as Il Furioso because of the attack and energy of his style. His vaunting ambition is recorded in the inscription he placed in his studio: l disegno di Michelangelo ed il colorito di Tiziano ("Michelangelo's drawing and Titian's colour"). The Florentines Vasari and Borghini, and the Venetians Ridolfi and Boschini wrote the earliest biographies of the artist. The four accounts are related to each other and form the backbone of the critical success of Tintoretto. Borghini is the first one to give some information about Marietta Tintoretto, also an artist, and Ridolfi is the richest in anecdotes about the artist's life and personality - including the one about the inscription which he may, however, have invented. Boschini, a witty Venetian nationalist, wrote his account in dialect verse. El Greco, whose marginal notes to Vasari are included for the first time in English, Calmo and Franco knew Tintoretto personally and their writings give a real flavour of this complicated man. Unavailable in any form for many years, these biographies have been newly edited for this edition. They are introduced by the scholar Carlo Corsato, who places each in its artistic and literary context. Approximately 50 pages of colour illustrations cover the full range of Tintoretto's astonishing output.

Vincent van Gogh is best known for two things - his sunflowers and his ear-cutting. But there are many other ways of knowing this remarkable son of a Dutch pastor, who left his chill homeland for the sunshine of Arles in the South of France; and left us over a thousand frank letters of struggle and joy, to help us glimpse his inner world. Vincent came late to painting after spending time in London trying to be a Christian missionary. And though he is now amongst the most famous artists on earth, in his day, no one saw him coming - apart from one French art critic called Aurier. It is possible he never sold one of his paintings in his life time. When he discovered the sun in Arles, he also discovered energy. Yellow for him was the colour of hope, and in his last two years he painted almost a canvass a day. But hope ran out on July 27th , 1890 when he shot himself, aged 37. He was at this time six months out of a mental institution, where perhaps he experienced his greatest calm. Vincent compared himself to a stunted plant; damaged by the emotional frost of his childhood. 'Conversations with Van Gogh' is an imagined conversation with this remarkable figure. But while the conversation is imagined, Van Gogh's words are not; they are all authentically his. "Speaking with Vincent - which he insists on being called - was a privilege,' says Simon Parke. 'He's endlessly fascinating, contradictory, moving, funny, insightful and tragic. There's a fury in him; but also a great kindness. He found harmony in human relationships elusive; his love life was a painful shambles. But with colour, he was a harmonic genius, and he has much to say about this. And here's the thing: for a man who killed himself - he died in the arms of his brother on July 29th - spending time with him was never anything but life-affirming.'

Christopher Neve's classic book is a journey into the imagination through the English landscape. How is it that artists, by thinking in paint, have come to regard the landscape as representing states of mind? 'Painting', says Neve, 'is a process of finding out, and landscape can be its thesis.' What he is writing is not precisely art history: it is about pictures, about landscape and about thought. Over the years, he was able to have discussions with many of the thirty or so artists he focuses on, the inspiration for the book having come from his talks with Ben Nicholson; and he has immersed himself in their work, their countryside, their ideas. Because he is a painter himself, and an expert on 20th-century art, Neve is well equipped for such a journey. Few writers have conveyed more vividly the mixture of motives, emotions, unconscious forces and contradictions which culminate in the creative act of painting. Each of the thirteen chapters has a theme and explores its significance for one or more of the artists. The problem of time, for instance, is considered in relation to Paul Nash, God in relation to David Jones, music to Ivon Hitchens, hysteria to Edward Burra, abstraction to Ben Nicholson, 'the spirit in the mass' to David Bomberg. There are also chapters about painters' ideas on specific types of country: about Eric Ravilious and the chalk landscape, Joan Eardley and the sea, and Cedric Morris and the garden.

Keep the page in your book with this gorgeous pack of 10 foiled bookmarks, printed on both sides, with a silky ribbon and featuring artwork by Harry Clarke. Harry Clarke was an Irish representative of the Arts & Crafts movement. Sea Fever is his illustration for a poem of the same title by John Masefield in The Years at the Spring, an anthology compiled by Lettice D'Oyly Walters. Clarke's fantastic illustrations have encouraged comparisons to the work of Aubrey Beardsley and Kay Nielsen.

Diana Armfield RA Hon RWS NEAC has a highly personal attachment to subject and a subtly distinctive affinity with the rhythms of form and tone. These qualities make her an important, influential figure in modern British art - and a very popular one. Flower paintings have brought her wide acclaim, but this book - created to mark her 100th birthday - also richly represents Diana's feeling for landscape and place. Including an inspiring number of more recent works, it brings her fascinating artistic and life story up to date. 'I think I was born making things', Diana comments to Andrew Lambirth, whose absorbing interview with her forms the narrative thread of Diana Armfi eld: A Lyrical Eye. Diana's was a creative childhood steeped in experiments with drawing, pottery and embroidery, played out against the backdrop of a picture-fi lled house, a lovely garden and an artistic family. She studied at Bournemouth, Slade and Central art schools, starting out as a talented textile designer - a legacy that lent her a unique approach to the geometry, cadences and colour qualities of a painting. After organising cultural activities for workers and troops in World War II, Diana became one half of a successful partnership designing textiles and wallpaper, whose work featured in the Festival of Britain in 1951. The 1960s brought a turn to painting and from 1966 Diana has been a regular exhibitor at the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She has continued to paint and draw throughout her life and, as this book clearly demonstrates, always thinks afresh about each subject she tackles in order to respond to it with a close, warm sincerity. Diana Armfi eld: A Lyrical Eye charts Diana's personal and artistic journey with over 200 beautiful reproductions of her work, tracing favourite subjects and events - from a Welsh landscape to an informal fl ower display or the much-loved location of a painting trip in Italy or France. Andrew Lambirth's interview also explores the unique bond with her husband, painter Bernard Dunstan, who died in 2017, looking at how two leading artists interwove their personal and creative lives over a marriage of almost 70 years. As well as this interview, Andrew has contributed an essay on Diana's work to the book. Diana's standing and popularity have led to regular exhibitions, especially at prominent London gallery Browse& Darby. Her work is held in private and public collections worldwide, from London's V&Ato the Yale Center for British Art.

This first-ever biography of American painter Grace Hartigan traces her rise from virtually self-taught painter to art-world fame, her plunge into obscurity after leaving New York to marry a scientist in Baltimore, and her constant efforts to reinvent her style and subject matter. Along the way, there were multiple affairs, four troubled marriages, a long battle with alcoholism, and a chilly relationship with her only child. Attempting to channel her vague ambitions after an early marriage, Grace struggled to master the basics of drawing in night-school classes. She moved to New York in her early twenties and befriended Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and other artists who were pioneering Abstract Expressionism. Although praised for the coloristic brio of her abstract paintings, she began working figuratively, a move that was much criticized but ultimately vindicated when the Museum of Modern Art purchased her painting The Persian Jacket in 1953. By the mid-fifties, she freely combined abstract and representational elements. Grace-who signed her paintings "Hartigan"- was a full-fledged member of the "men's club" that was the 1950s art scene. Featured in Time, Newsweek, Life, and Look, she was the only woman in MoMA's groundbreaking 12 Americans exhibition in 1956, and the youngest artist-and again, only woman-in The New American Painting, which toured Europe in 1958-1959. Two years later she moved to Baltimore, where she became legendary for her signature tough-love counsel to her art school students. Grace continued to paint throughout her life, seeking-for better or worse-something truer and fiercer than beauty.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was the leading painter and graphic artist of the 'Golden Age of Dutch Art'. He excelled in imbuing his art with the 'deepest and most lifelike emotion', with rich detail and stunning lighting. This richly enjoyable book gives the reader an illuminating overview of the life, work and influences of the artist, before going on to showcase the most stunning and varied examples of his oeuvre, broken down into themes - Portraits, Landscape & Narrative, Self-portraits, and Etchings & Drawings. Discover his versatility in the range of works selected, from the electric The Storm on the Sea of Galilee to the treasured The Night Watch, with its triumph in chiaroscuro and energy. A visual feast, it will underline the artist's status as a true master.

A Kenyan upbringing is the ticket to this voyage into a remarkably real created world entered via carved, integrating frames. Twice TVs pick of the show at the Royal Academies and with crowds and fan mail at a third RA Summer Exhibition, James remains a virtual unknown in his own country. A production rate averaging just one painting a year may account for this, but in an Art World where price is all, his output is sufficient to net him a viable living selling internationally. Also introducing the remarkable paintings of his artist son Alexander James. Together their art is akin to a vigorous breath of fresh air in a stuffy room.

Jonathan Richardson (1667-1745) was one of 18th-century England's most significant cultural figures. A leading portrait painter and influential art theorist, he also amassed one of the period's greatest collections of drawings. But there was another, highly unusual dimension to his pursuits. In 1728, at the age of 61 and shortly before his retirement from professional life, Richardson began to create a remarkable series of self-portrait drawings. Not intended for public display, these works were unguarded explorations of his own character. In one of the most astonishing projects of self-examination ever undertaken by an artist, for over a decade Richardson repeatedly drew his own face. His self-portrait drawings are usually dated precisely, and they document, from month to month, his changing state of mind as much as his appearance. Many were drawn in chalks on large sheets of blue paper, from his reflection in the mirror. Some of these are bold and psychologically penetrating, while others, in which he regards his ageing features with gentle but unflinching scrutiny, are deeply touching. A further group of self-portraits is drawn with graphite on small sheets of fine vellum, and in these Richardson often presents himself in inventive and humorous ways, such as in profile, all'antica, as though on the face of a coin or medal; or crowned with bays, like a celebrated poet. Sometimes, too, he copies his image from oil paintings made decades earlier, in order to recall his appearance as a younger man. In this extraordinary series of self-portraits, Richardson offers a candid insight into his mind and personality. Together, these drawings create nothing less than a unique and compelling visual autobiography. This publication - which accompanies the first ever exhibition devoted to Richardson's self-portrait drawings, held in the new Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery at the Courtauld - tells the story of these remarkable works Jonathan Richardson (1667-1745) was one of 18th-century England's most significant cultural figures. A leading portrait painter and influential art theorist, he also amassed one of the period's greatest collections of drawings. But there was another, highly unusual dimension to his pursuits. In 1728, at the age of 61 and shortly before his retirement from professional life, Richardson began to create a remarkable series of self-portrait drawings. Not intended for public display, these works were unguarded explorations of his own character. In one of the most astonishing projects of self-examination ever undertaken by an artist, for over a decade Richardson repeatedly drew his own face. His self-portrait drawings are usually dated precisely, and they document, from month to month, his changing state of mind as much as his appearance. Many were drawn in chalks on large sheets of blue paper, from his reflection in the mirror. Some of these are bold and psychologically penetrating, while others, in which he regards his ageing features with gentle but unflinching scrutiny, are deeply touching. A further group of self-portraits is drawn with graphite on small sheets of fine vellum, and in these Richardson often presents himself in inventive and humorous ways, such as in profile, all'antica, as though on the face of a coin or medal; or crowned with bays, like a celebrated poet. Sometimes, too, he copies his image from oil paintings made decades earlier, in order to recall his appearance as a younger man. In this extraordinary series of self-portraits, Richardson offers a candid insight into his mind and personality. Together, these drawings create nothing less than a unique and compelling visual autobiography. This publication - which accompanies the first ever exhibition devoted to Richardson's self-portrait drawings, held in the new Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery at the Courtauld - tells the story of these remarkable works and puts them into the context of his other activities at this period of his life - in particular the self-searching poems he wrote during the same years and often on the same days as he made the drawings. An introductory essay is followed by focused discussions of each work in the exhibition. This part of the book explores the materials and techniques Richardson used, whether working in chalks on a large scale or creating exquisitely refined drawings on vellum. It will also reveal how Richardson modeled some of his portraits on old master prints and drawings, including works in his own collection by Rembrandt and Bernini. The publication brings together the Courtauld Gallery's fine collection of Richardson's drawings with key works in the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum.

When and why did large-scale exhibitions of Old Master paintings begin, and how have they evolved through the centuries? In this book an eminent art historian examines the intriguing history and significance of these international art exhibitions. Francis Haskell begins by discussing the first 'Old Master' exhibitions in Rome and Florence in the seventeenth century and then moves to eighteenth-century France and the efforts to organize exhibitions of contemporary art that would be an alternative to the official ones held by the Salon. He next describes the role of the British Institution in London and the series of remarkable loan exhibitions of Old Master paintings there. He traces the emergence of such nationalist exhibitions as the Rembrandt exhibition held in Amsterdam in 1898 - the first modern 'blockbuster' show. Demonstrating how the international loan exhibition was a vehicle of foreign and cultural policy after the First World War, he gives a fascinating account of several of these, notably the Italian art exhibition held at Burlington House in London in 1930. He describes the initial reluctance of major museums to send pictures on potentially damaging journeys and explains how this feeling gave way to cautious enthusiasm. Finally, in a polemical chapter, he explores the types of publication associated with exhibitions and the criticism and scholarship that have centred upon them. Francis Haskell, who died in January 2000, was one of the most original and influential art historians of the twentieth century. His books included 'Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque' (revised edition, 1980), 'Past and Present in Art and Taste' (1987), 'History and Its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past' (1993) and, with Nicholas Penny, 'Taste and the Antique' (1982), all published by Yale University Press. He retired as Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University in 1995.

A common lament among artists is that there are no books available that give specific, practical information about the procedures used by those creative geniuses collectively known as the Old Masters. The reason for this dearth is that such a work's author would have to possess extraordinarily wide-ranging expert knowledge and skills. Thomas Gullick's credentials indicate a great capability in taking up this challenge. He was a professional artist and scholar living in the mid-19th century, and so was in an exemplary position to discuss the intricacies of traditional techniques, and to compare modern systems to the styles and methods of previous eras. The book's exceptionally insightful combination of art history, aesthetic theory and erudite analysis made it highly regarded at the time, and it was given as a prize for outstanding achievement at the Royal College of Art in London. In this important new edition, with a newly compiled comprehensive index, Gullick authoritatively covers the aims and objectives the artist should have when interpreting reality, with stress laid on accuracy of detail, depth and transparency. Apropos of these principles, he skilfully discusses the surprisingly complex theories of art that existed in ancient times, including that of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. Also, the spiritual features of Christian Medieval art are explored, as are the distinctive traits of the national schools of Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and England. Of particular value to the working artist are the detailed sections dealing with technical issues of pre-modern forms of painting, many of which are poorly understood today, but that could, if used, greatly facilitate and expand the range of visual expression. The reader will learn about various physical processes such as encaustic, mosaic, tempera, fresco, oil and miniature painting. There is also a wealth of knowledge pertaining to implements, vehicles, varnishes, grounds, colours, subjectiles (i.e. supports), chemical formulations, the arrangement of the work-room and studio, and much more. Despite the sophisticated nature of the material, the author does not neglect the human dimension, for he cites pertinent facts, as well as witty anecdotes, from the life stories of many well-known and not so well-known artists.