Thus began the romance of the most dynamic, productive and famous couple in American art. 8 pages of full-color photographs; 40 black-and-white photographs.

    From temperance quilts to the AIDS quilt, there’s a rich history of individuals and communities using fabric and thread to connect with others and express themselves, both personally and politically. Why We Quilt blends bits of this history with the stories and work of today’s leading quilters, highlighting themes of tradition, community, consumerism, change, and creativity. With a unique die-cut cover and a richly layered design, this book will enthrall designers, quilters, and all types of handcraft enthusiasts.

    Are You Up to the Challenge? With just watercolors, colored pencils, and white gouache, artist Mark Crilley takes you step-by-step through his process for producing stunning, hyperrealistic recreations of everyday items. Based on Crilley’s mega-popular “Realism Challenge” YouTube videos, The Realism Challenge contains thirty lessons demonstrating how to render mirror-like duplicates in the trompe l’oeil tradition of everything from shells, leaves, and candy bars to your very own still life arrangements. Each lesson builds off the previous one, as you’ll master essential artistic techniques like creating drop shadows, adding highlights, and building from light to dark. Learn the secrets of one of hyperrealism’s biggest stars. Come take . . . The Realism Challenge!

    Most of his pictures, all of which are reproduced in this text, show women about their daily business. Vermeer records the tasks and duties of women, the imperatives of virtue under which their lives were lived, and the dreams that provided the substance of their contrasting counter-world.

    At first, attention was given to his private project-depicting the same subject in secrecy from 1971 to '85. Away from the publicity that accompanied the debut of these works, they remain a striking, thoughtful study of an individual who evolved as a model from stranger to acquaintance to friend. The works in the Helga Pictures may also be appreciated for their artistic strengths & for their place within his continuing career as a keen observer of the people & places around his residences in Pennsylvania & Maine. Ultimately, The Helga Pictures is a telling tale of a persistence of vision & technique from a perspective that's both objective & personal. From a distinguished artistic family, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is a painter & draftsman who developed under the watchful eye of his father, artist/illustrator N.C. Wyeth. One of America's most celebrated artists, Wyeth is famous for his tight style of drybrush painting & recognizable subject matter. Dedicated to a characteristic realism in both style & approach to subject matter, he finds resonance & universal meaning in the most commonplace details of the world around him.

    French of Family Affair) "singing" songs by Bob Dylan, and tons more

    That is creativity," say award-winning craftsmen Beiderman and Johnston in this well-organized and highly instructive guidebook that tells you everything you need to know to create attractive woodcarvings.Especially written for the novice, it shows how to produce realistic animals, flowers, and humorous figures in a variety of forms: in the round, in relief, and as line carvings. A wide spectrum of more than 60 project patterns offers practical plans and ideas for carvers at all levels of expertise.The authors provide a detailed yet easy-to-follow introduction to carving tools and how to use them. There are also helpful hints to guide beginning carvers through difficult stages of carving, and expert advice on painting and finishing, woodcarving as gifts, how to exhibit and enter carvings in competition, and much more. You'll even find a whole chapter devoted to carving birds.Abundantly illustrated with over 200 photographs and detailed line drawings, this first paperback edition of The Beginner's Handbook of Woodcarving will be welcomed by any would-be woodcarver seeking a thorough, reliable, and crystal-clear introduction to the age-old art of carving wood.

    This drawing tutorial from best-selling author Christopher Hart shows artists how to draw exaggerated musculature of super-sized figures in action poses.

    From extraordinary highs - patronage by the Medicis, friendship with Galileo and, most importantly of all, beautiful and outstandingly original paintings - to rape by her father's colleague, torture by the Inquisition, life-long struggles for acceptance by the artistic Establishment, and betrayal by the men she loved, Artemisia was a bold and brilliant woman who lived as she wanted, and paid a high price.

    From facial expressions to creative coloring, this book contains all the know-how you need to create anthropomorphic cat, dog, horse, rodent and bird characters.Step by step, you'll learn how to:- Draw species-appropriate tails, eyes, wings and other fun details - Give your characters clothes, poses and personalities - Create the perfect backgrounds for your furry antics--with two start-to-finish demonstrations showing howPacked with tons of inspiration--from teeny-bopper bunnies and yorky glamour queens to Ninja squirrels and lion kings--Draw Furries will help you create a world of crazy, cool characters just waiting to burst out of your imagination.

    Having finally earned the money and gained the respect he sought in his early days as a struggling painter, Monet designed and built the home and gardens in the village on the Seine that would be the site of the famous "Grain Stacks" and "Water Lilies" paintings that would secure his reputation. A good, affordable introductory study of the pioneer of modern art.

    You'll also find character profiles, promotional artwork, rare concept art, and a detailed look at the origins of the "Blue Blur".

    While acknowledging the many women whose contributions to visual culture since the Middle Ages have often been neglected, Whitney Chadwick's survey reexamines the works themselves and the ways in which they have been perceived as marginal, often in direct reference to gender. In her discussion of feminism and its influence on such a reappraisal, the author also addresses the closely related issues of ethnicity, class, and sexuality.This expanded edition incorporates recent developments in contemporary art. Chadwick addresses the turn toward autobiography in much recent women's art. She considers issues such as the personal versus the political and the private versus the public, and analyzes the differences between women's art today and the seminal feminist work of the 1970s and 1980s.

    Since then, painting has been declared dead several times over, and contemporary art has now expanded to include just about any object, action, or event: dance routines, slideshows, functional hair salons, seemingly random accretions of waste. In the meantime, being an artist has gone from a join-the-circus fantasy to a plausible vocation for scores of young people in America.But why--and how and by whom--does all this art get made? How is it evaluated? And for what, if anything, will today's artists be remembered? In The Contemporaries, Roger White, himself a young painter, serves as our spirited, skeptical guide through this diffuse creative world.White takes us into the halls of the RISD graduate program, where students learn critical lessons that go far beyond how to apply paint to canvases. In New York, we meet the neophytes who assist established artists--and who walk the fine line between "assistance" and "making the art." In Milwaukee, White trails a group of friends trying to create a viable scene where rent is cheap, but where the spotlight rarely shines. And he gives us an intimate perspective on three wildly different careers: that of Dana Schutz, an emerging star who is revitalizing painting; Mary Walling Blackburn, whose challenging art defies market forces; and Stephen Kaltenbach, a '70s wunderkind who is back on the critical radar, perhaps in spite of his own willful obscurity.From young artists trying to elbow their way in to those working hard at dropping out, White's essential book offers a once-in-a-generation glimpse of the inner workings of the American art world at a moment of unparalleled ambition, uncertainty, and creative exuberance.

    In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light.  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—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.