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You are here: Home / Archives for art

Rembrandt Conspiracy by Deron R. Hicks

January 2, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

“A suspenseful mystery romp with art appreciation and heartening trust in readers’ intelligence.” KIRKUS, on The Van Gogh Deception, a previous Lost Art Mystery by Hicks.

Something’s brewing at the National Portrait Gallery Museum in Washington, D.C. twelve-year-old Art is sure of it. But his only proof that a grand heist is about to take place is iced mocha, forty-two steps, and a mysterious woman who appears like clock work in the museum. When Art convinces his best friend, Camille, that the heist is real, the two begin a thrilling chase through D.C. to uncover a villainous scheme that could be the biggest heist since the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum theft in 1990. With a billion dollars’ worth of paintings on the line, the clock is ticking for Art and Camille to solve the conspiracy.

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

 

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: adventure, art, mystery

Art Is Life: The Life of Artist Keith Haring by Tami Lewis Brown ill. Keith Negley

January 2, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

Keith Haring believed that art should be enjoyed by everyone, not just those with the money or inclination to visit museums. When Keith moved to New York City in 1978, he rode the subway and noticed that the crowds were bored and brusque, and the subways were decayed and dreary. He thought the people of New York needed liberating, illuminating, and radiating art. So he bought a stick of white chalk and started drawing. This picture book biography explores Keith Haring’s life and shows why his art continues to resonate with people. You can still see his ubiquitous designs gracing billboards, posters, clothing, and more. Keith Negley’s bold, energetic illustrations evoke Keith Haring while maintaining a style all their own.

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

Filed Under: NonFiction Tagged With: art, artist, biography

Yves Klein Painted Everything Blue and Wasn’t Sorry by Fausto

December 16, 2019 By achuka Leave a Comment

“In each book, the Italian author  and illustrator combines inky black and white with a single pop of colour… while his bug-eyed, zany artists recall the Minions from Despicable Me but with art history degrees and sharp suits.” Imogen Carter, The OBSERVER

A clever, quirky read-aloud biography of a leading modern artist…
Artist Yves Klein always thought about how he could surprise his audience. One day, he decided that he would only paint in one color – blue. He painted canvases, globes, branches, gallery floors, and even covered people in blue paint. Klein’s story is told here with wit and eccentricity, perfectly paired with black-line illustrations and blue splashes galore. Fausto Gilberti brings movement, life, and whimsy to the true life story of one of the most important modern French artists of our time.

Waterstones

Filed Under: NonFiction Tagged With: art, biography

Everyone Can Draw by Fifi Kuo

August 29, 2019 By achuka Leave a Comment

New title from Fifi Kuo who is currently shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize with The Perfect Sofa.

A colourful and airy celebration of drawing (in all its forms) for the very young. 

Waterstones

Filed Under: Illustrated Tagged With: art, drawing

Chalk Eagle by Nazli Tahvili

May 15, 2018 By achuka Leave a Comment

A richly evocative sequence of silkscreen illustrations using a limited palette of green and blue creates a wordless picture book that is a beautifully produced work of art.

“The story of Chalk Eagle is based on a memory of my husband’s childhood. His name is Amin and he loves bird and horses. When he was a child, Amin often drew with chalk on the rooftop of his house. His favourite drawing was a big eagle. He would draw the eagle and look at it from the window of his small room on the roof. Or he would lie on it and spread his arms like the eagle’s wings, and fall asleep with the dream of flying.”
Nazli Tahvili

Waterstones

Filed Under: Illustrated Tagged With: art, wordless

Tove Jansson: Beyond the Moomins?

November 14, 2017 By achuka Leave a Comment

…over time, Jansson came to feel exhausted by the Moomins and that their success had obscured her other ambitions as an artist. In 1978, she satirized her situation in a short story titled “The Cartoonist” about a man called Stein contracted to produce a daily strip, Blubby, which has generated a Moomin-like universe of commercial paraphernalia—“Blubby curtains, Blubby jelly, Blubby clocks and Blubby socks, Blubby shirts and Blubby shorts.” “Tell me something,” another cartoonist asks Stein. “Are you one of those people who are prevented from doing Great Art because they draw comic strips?” Stein denies it, but that was precisely Jansson’s fear.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in Jansson’s work beyond the Moomins. Much of this has focused on her novels for adults, which she began writing in the late 1960s and include short, crystalline works like The Summer Book (1972) and The True Deceiver (1982), which have been reissued in English since her death. Less attention has been paid to her range as a visual artist—something the Dulwich exhibition aims to rectify.

via Tove Jansson: Beyond the Moomins? | by Simon Willis | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: art, exhibition

Tove Jansson At Dulwich Art Gallery

October 23, 2017 By achuka Leave a Comment

The Moomins may not … have been how Jansson would have chosen her work to be defined. Their pottering around their flowery valley, and hibernating through the fierce Nordic winters until a messenger brings news of spring made her famous the world over, but they have completely overshadowed the reputation as a serious painter that she yearned for all her life, and which the Dulwich exhibition will try to rescue.

“The pictures are wonderful,” said the gallery’s director, Jennifer Scott. “I’ve surprised myself at how drawn I feel to them. She fits perfectly into one of the things we do best at Dulwich, which is to take a very unfamiliar name, or a name people think they know, and show a completely different aspect of their work.”

  • Tove Jansson 1914 – 2001, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 25 October 2017 – 28 January 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/22/moomins-and-more-uk-show-to-exhibit-tove-janssons-broader-work

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: art, Finland, Finnish, painting

Walker Books launches Studio imprint

April 3, 2016 By achuka Leave a Comment

Walker Books is to launch Walker Studio, an imprint that will produce “books for book-lovers”.

The ethos behind the imprint is engaging design, high-quality illustration and superior production values. It will feature books by the company’s current authors and illustrators as well as debut artists and books in translation.

“We hope that even from across a bookstore, these titles will entice book-lovers of all ages to come close – and that in the hand, the books will offer tactile appeal, fascinating content, and beautiful images that linger with the reader.  The exciting opportunity now is to bring these one-of-a-kind books together under a shared umbrella,” said Karen Lotz, m.d. of the Walker Group. “This imprint will be an expression of our love for the printed book.”

The imprint will launch this autumn with four titles: The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan (published with a foreword by Neil Gaiman), out in September, priced at £15; Animals by Ingela Arrhenius (September, £14.99); A World Of Information by James Brown and Richard Pitt (October, £14.99); and An Artist’s Message by Norman Messenger (October, £14.99).

via Walker Books launches Studio imprint | The Bookseller.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: art, design, studio

How About: The School of Art by Teal Triggs and Daniel Frost

October 7, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

schoolofart

This book published in August but officially launched just yesterday at an event and talk held at the Royal College of Art, is aimed at anyone, young or old, who fancies getting a handle on the theory and practice of art in 40 quick, accessible lessons. The audience yesterday consisted of a large number of Royal College of Art students, each of whom will be studying and practising these self-same concepts and techniques, albeit to a much deeper, more intense degree.

Let's-Talk-about-Art-lineup

l-r: Jenny Broom of Wide Eyed Editions, Pam Dix of IBBY UK, Professor Teal Triggs, Daniel Frost and Rachel Williams of Wide Eyed Editions.

The book itself, produced by Wide Eye Editions to their usual high standards of production (the illustrations are by Daniel Frost), is quite wordy, so realistically is best given to children old enough to have developed reading fluency. It would certainly be very useful for KS2 primary teachers, both for helping them to become more able to teach art and design terms and techniques with increased confidence.

Ros Asquith & Jane Ray

Ros Asquith & Jane Ray admiring The School of Art

Although the text is written by one author, Professor Teal Triggs of the RCA (who has other books on art puvblished by Taschen), the conceit is that the 40 lessons it contains are delivered, usually jointly, by five different Professors: the professor of ideas (female); the professor of form (male); the professor of senses (male); the professor of making (female); with the fifth and last professor providing some politically correct ballast. The (male) ‘professor of the planet’ champions “ways in which art and design can improve people’s lives and protect our planet for future generations”.

Full-house-ready-to-Talk-about-Art

 

“Part picture book, part nonfiction guide, this playful hybrid offers a wide-ranging and engaging introduction to core elements that go into the creation of art.” Publishers Weekly

Filed Under: Blog, Books, How About Tagged With: art, educational, picture book

My favourite painting: Jacqueline Wilson – Country Life

August 31, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

Long ago, I endured a disastrous book tour of America (just two children and a shopper taking the weight off her feet at one venue). I had less than an hour to myself in Chicago, but I ran to the Art Institute, determined to see its famous Seurat. I only managed a few minutes in front of it because I was waylaid by Renoir’s painting of two circus girls. I’ve never admired Renoir’s salmon-pink fleshy ladies, but I loved these girls in their white-and-gold costumes, collecting oranges as a tribute to their performance. There’s such an immediacy about the painting that it was a surprise to discover it was painted in Renoir’s studio. The real girls, Francisca and Angelina, were 17 and 14, but the girls in the painting seem much younger. I looked at this painting and decided to write about a Victorian circus girl one day. And now I’ve written five books about circus star Hetty Feather.

via My favourite painting: Jacqueline Wilson – Country Life.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: art, ciurcus, girls, inspiration, painting

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