Artists Books

A pre-New Deal Republican, the quintaessential American painter, the painter of the Anglo-Saxon mood. I always liked Hopper's style without knowing why. After reading this book -and enjoying its beautifully binding quality, I like him even better.

His uncompromising confidence in his own art, his unbending individualism, his unashamed faith in the Anglo-Saxon quality of America, that which America-haters like to pinpoint most, all make him an icon of Americannes.

He was against the subsidizing trends the Federal Government took under Roosevelt, the Socialist take over of America under the harmless name of New Deal. While the world was doing propaganda (like celebrities do today), he stuck to his gut instinct, his uncompromising art. Should be a heroe of the people against big government today, a heroe who resisted the monopolizing tentacles of the Socialist New Deal. The Republican Party may have betrayed Conservatism, but Hopper sure didn't.

His "rejection of foreign influence and reengagement with American themes" set him aside (and I would say over) the rest of American painters of his time. And he was no flag waver either. He sold his soul to nobody. He was "successful enough in the 30's not to need the help of these federal programs". While writers like Dos Passos were depicting characters as pawns of business, he believed "in a social contract on individual liberties and property." His characters "like the artist himself ... are silent, absorbed in their own thoughts, lost in their own worlds." And that's exactly it: It's THEIR OWN worlds, not the worlds others would have them live in; it's like if you tried to peek into their lives and bumped into a sign that read: 'Don't trespass', or 'Mind your own business', or 'Don't mess with Texas', that I love America for so much.

Hopper's America is dead alright, since Roosevelt's New Deal came at full throttle. But it still glows in the hearts of individual men, and not necessarily they have to be Anglo-Saxon anymore. The world owes America at least that much.

Wonderfully presented book of a great artist. Personal and career information is contained in a nice format. Art is described in the context of the time and the artist - his influences, the influences of the time.

One of the highlights of my summer was attending the Hopper exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, for which this volume (published by the MFA) was the companion text. At 288 pages, mostly filled with suberb reproductions of Hopper's paintings and sketches, this volume is comprehensive enough for even the most devoted Hopper fan. Perhaps only Gail Levin's "Catalogue Raisonne" offers a more comprehensive look at the artist. No matter how many art books you may own, clear a spot on your shelf or coffee table for this one. You will not be disappointed.

Edward HopperThis book is a great presentation of the outstanding Hopper exhibit at the MFA/Boston. Well worth seeing.

The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition: "Edward Hopper", organised by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Art Institute of Chicago, 2007-2008. It comprises a series of nine essays by different writers, and concludes with Notes, a Chronology, a Checklist and Figure Illustrations and a Selected Bibliography.

This is a handsome volume large in size and almost square in format, illustrated throughout predominately in colour. The informative essays, each dealing with a specific period or genre, discuss the artist, his work and his methods, are illustrated throughout, with the relevant works appearing on or close to the page on which there are discussed. The illustrations are excellent, virtually full colour throughout, the black and white images being mainly drawings or period photographs. Many of the paintings are reproduced half or full page size, with a few full page bleed images of a detail from selected paintings. The quality of reproduction is excellent, often revealing the brush work and surface texture, and the colour rich and vibrant. In total there are 202 illustrations of which 180 are in full colour, they represent works in oils, watercolours and prints. A very desirable publication.

This is a great book to help children celebrate the uniqueness and the special individuals they are.

I love this book. I think every household should have a copy. Great moral to the story.

I stumbled across this book working at a local library and INSTANTLY fell in love with Eggbert. As stated, the illustrations in this book are FANTASTIC. It's detailed as if it were true to life. Many people have mentioned the message of this book, which is accepting things or people that may be different, and realizing the good in everything. I agree with this, but also think it helps develop children's imaginations. It is DEFINITELY one of the personal library.

I can't say enough about Eggbert. When my daughter was two, we checked this out from the library and for four weeks we had a new friend, Eggbert. The peppers and tomatoes and milk and other eggs became a part of our home also. Then one day the book had to be returned. For months we drove past the library and each time my daughter would wail for Eggbert. Then one day she stopped. I did find Eggbert available again, brought it home and for the second time we fell in love with Eggbert. Now I am on Amazon to buy our own copy because we can't bear the separation anxiety once more.

This is an enjoyable book for kids of all ages to enjoy. The art work is hilarious! Celery stands with arms akimbo along with the other angry vegetables who throw Eggbert out of his home in the refrigerator, into the world. It is a message of hope and acceptance of yourself that spans the ages. I bought it because I fanned through the book and loved the art work, but the story that goes with Eggbert's tale of self-acceptance makes this book a classic for children. I want to see more of artist Rex Barron's work and hope he pairs up with the author, Tom Ross, again.

Powerful is the word that comes to mind. The writing, the plot and the dialogue. The character of Carrie is as different from me as night and day and yet when she needed to be strong she totally came through for herself. I didn't agree with many of the choices she made yet by the end of the novel I was rooting for her like she was a best friend.

The husband is truly irredeemable and I am glad to say I have not in my lifetime been around anyone so domineering, condescending, insufferable and without self-awareness. In fact, his whole life revolved around him, he can't grasp why everyone around him wasn't focused at all times on his needs. Loathsome. The author does a terrific job of making him so real that you hope never to cross paths with him.

I absolutely adored Val. I could totally see why Carrie was drawn to her. I loved the way Val was written as so very strong and unique yet not without flaws.

This is a book that will stay with you forever.

I was quite disappointed in this book - it was the first fiction of its kind I have ever read and sadly it lived up to all the negative stereotypes. The husband character in the book is such a cardboard-cut out villian the lesbian lover is a virtual saint. However the author has a real talent for making sex scenes erotic. Definitely a book for flicking through ...

Katherine has done it again, with her usual finesse, she's brought characters to life with writing so clear and descriptive it was as if I had been scooped up by some force and surreally planted in the midst of the events of EMERGENCE. I am in awe! I only wish there were some sort of epilogue, to give me some sense of closure to Val and Carrie's relationship, and especially to the evil that befalls Paul (Carrie's ex-husband). No complaints; just wishes. Truly remarkable!!

I began reading Katherine V Forrest's mystery novels and I hate to admit... but I wasn't terribly impressed. Yet so many of my friends said she was one of their favorite authors. So I finally picked up "An Emergence of Green" and now she is also one of my favorite authors.
This is a wonderfully touching story of how the friendship between two women blossom into something more. I highly recommend this book to anyone, gay or straight.
It reads very fast, and I was on the edge of my seat through many chapters not wanting to wait to find out what happens next. The setting is a bit dated, but the story refreshing. You won't be disappointed

Alice Street Editions has released a new edition of this 1986 novel by author Katherine V. Forrest, originally published by Naiad Press. If you read this novel long ago, it is worth the purchase price just to read the foreword from the author and the afterword written by Victoria A. Brownworth. But the book is worth rereading for its own merits.
Set in 1984 in Los Angeles against the backdrop of the Olympics and the presidential campaign involving the first (and only) woman candidate for vice president, the novel is not dated at all by this, nor is it dated by its subject matter. It is as fresh and nuanced and topical as if it had been written today.
The point is made in the afterword that Ms. Forrest writes about lesbians for lesbians. In this novel, among the first in a new genre of lesbian fiction, Ms. Forrest carefully and skillfully presents the male character, the antagonist, as fully drawn and as sympathetically as one could, a man trapped by his upbringing and his past and the social mores of his time. One may not feel sympathy for him, given the inevitable and violent denouement, but we can certainly understand him.
In fact, a reader might even begin to feel less sympathy and more impatient with the main character Carolyn Blake than perhaps might be expected. She is a trophy wife, married at nineteen to a man ten years older who is already well established in his corporate career track. She sublimates her own education and career to his, leaving jobs to move with his transfers, seemingly accepting without question that her career is less important. A friendship with the woman next door, Val Hunter, a divorced artist with a son, allows Carolyn, and the reader, to begin to draw comparisons.
One of the most interesting things about this novel is how close we get to all three main characters. We see Val through Carolyn's admiring eyes and growing affection, and also through Paul's growing resentment and jealousy as he comes to understand she is his rival. We see Carolyn both through her husband's idealistic view as a possession of which he inordinately proud, and as Val comes to know her, a vibrant woman who has spent far too much time acquiescing to Paul's idea of the perfect wife. Carolyn struggles to continue to believe her husband's possessiveness is a product of his impoverished childhood, the early loss of his mother, and his love for her, which she believes is genuine. Val sees a grown man who is domineering and arrogant in his presumptive male superiority. She instinctively feels there is something infantile about Paul's need for Carolyn, and Carolyn herself often refers to her husband as a little boy. Once she thought of this as an endearing trait, but she begins to feel his need to have her with him as clinging, suffocating, and ultimately controlling.
The tug of war that ensues between husband and friend for the heart and mind of Carolyn Blake slowly escalates as the sexual tension and awareness between the two women increases.
For those who haven't read this book before, a few words of caution. The nature of sex itself is at the heart of this novel. There are no pulled punches here. Ms. Forrest is not shy about delineating the intimate sexual details of a marriage and, exquisitely, the sexual and very sensual relationship between the two women. Nor does she back away from the same attention to the excruciating unraveling of Paul Blake and his eventual recourse to violence as the familiar world he has created starts to crumble.
I once had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Forrest, and found myself peppered with questions about this book, then yet to be released by Alice Street. On the eve of the release of her thirteenth book, the eighth in the Kate Delafield detective series, she wanted to know about a book she had written almost twenty years ago, as nervous as a first time author. Perhaps recalling the critical reviews of many years ago, she asked whether the main character, Carolyn Blake, was too weak.
The answer then and now is an emphatic no. Many women may recognize themselves in Carolyn, guided by the accepted precepts of her time, who believed that in placing their husbands' lives and careers first, they were perhaps doing the hard work often assigned women, that of balancing the cementing of family and home against their own sometimes unspoken desires; to be a woman meant doing what had to be done, and then doing more, if one wanted to also have a career. It takes some time for Carolyn Blake to realize her own needs and to leave behind the conventions to which she adhered but in which she found no rewards for her loyalty, no comfort or room for herself.
The afterword properly places this novel, and Katherine V. Forrest's body of work, firmly in the history of a genre she helped to create, both as an author of great skill, and as senior editor at Naiad Press for ten years.

Very well written
Extrodinary life of Lois Gibson
I would recommend it to all

I sat down and read the entire book in one night, it was a Christmas gift from my husband. It ranks as one of the top 5 books I've ever read, and I am an avid reader. It was excellent, raw human emotion, but at the same time, like talking to a girlfriend. I just loved it. I felt a strange sense of inadequacy after reading it, like I wasn't doing enough in my own life. It really made me stop and think about my own life. If you get satisfaction out of watching "Forensic Files", "The New Detectives", "America's Most Wanted" and the like, then you will love this book. Lois is an author with a rare combination of sass, softness & wisdom - she knows her stuff but still makes you remember she's a mom and wife.

Truly amazing book. If you are interested in Forensic Art, Compositry or are just a crime story buff who loves to see the bad guys get caught, read this. It's an easy read and completely engrossing.

The Faces of Evil is a very compelling book about how a tenacious forensic artist can help to put murderers, kidnappers, and rapists behind bars. The story of Lois Gibson is a very interesting one, as a victim of a violent crime herself, she brings much more when she visits when a crime victim than a person who was not a crime victim.

Lois Gibson fell into becoming a forensic artist. Her early training was drawing portaits at an amusement park. In her early career she spent time specializing in portraits, not foresenics. She would go on to pester the police department until she could prove that she could draw someone from description. Once allowed to do this, she proved she could do the job. While she wasn't immediately hired on at the Houston police department she would convince them to hire her full time, and later they did so.

She has drawn pictures of many different criminals that the end result was bringing many different criminals to justice. At times these pictures were the only way to bring in criminals. She has helped to catch abusive parents, murderers of children, rapists, and so much more. This is a story of one woman's journey to aide the public is solving crimes as well as a personal story of what can happen if you set your mind to succeede.

Welcome true crime lovers to an inside treatment of a forensic artists' skill and tenacity in bringing down the bad guys. It is refreshing to see that some very special people are out there fighting crime, one stroke at a time. Together with the Houston Police department, this forensic artist is taking her brush against crime. The story is well written and insightful. Don't miss this exciting inside account of what is good about our law enforcement professionals!

My nine year old daughter loves fairy books about Tinkerbell and her friends. She absolutely devours them as soon as I get them. What a boost for her imagination!

We own all of this series! Started reading them when my daughter was 4 (she just turned 5 now), and they are age appropriate. Not too scary and always a happy ending. One book only takes us about 4-5 nights worth of reading together. The longer ones are good too "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" and "Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand", but they are a little bit scarrier than the short books (more appropriate for ages 5-7 I would think).

Fira is outnumbered by her triplets and has to apologize to her townsfolk a lot. (Single mom + 3 bickering kids = go away now please.) But the day is saved when her kids disobey her instructions to stay home and follow her deep into a dangerous mine! Yay!

Actually, the story was pretty good. A fun read.

The CD version is read by the talented Debra Wiseman.

The book arrived and was practically brand new. My daughter loves it. It came in the mail very fast.

My 8 y.o. has fallen in love with these books. You typically can't fail with Disney products and these are no exception. The stories are interesting and unlike some series books for this age range, these books stand alone and are not "formula" books where only the names and places are changed, but the same event takes place. Each fairy has a talent and her talent solves the problem in her book. The illustrations are vivid and imaginative. Apparently there's a movie about Pixie Hollow that will be coming out soon and there are also toys starting to come out with the fairies.

I purchased the book "The Art of Jonathan Green' with the desire to capture and keep some of the southern charm felt and beauty witnessed on a recent visit to Charleston, South Carolina. The book is simply amazing from cover to cover. It is one to be displayed so that all can be captured by the beautiful imagery that reaches from beyond and through each page and touches the soul.

of color and of life. His vivid paintings make you feel glad to be alive

It is given to particular artists to do the impossible. Claude Monet paints light. Andrew Wyeth paints time passing. You can hear Jonathan Green's paintings. In "Bessie Mae", he paints not only the singer, the song itself springs from the canvas. "Silence With The Birds" transfixes the mind, making common imagery so new that you may as well have just been born. Green belongs with those rare artists whose work leaves you seeing and feeling the world in a new way. You can spend an hour with this book, go for a walk and see fresh grace in the movement of the human body, sense something new in your step. All that and more, you will find in this book. There is in every painting the identifiable signature and the present quest - something that goes to your belly, and makes you whole. This is world-class art, visionary, accomplished, redemptive. Green's work expresses the spirit of a people who endured hundreds of years of brutal oppression, created the greatest religious songs in the language and fought a revolution without guns. Here is love, made visible. As in Rilke's poem about Apollo: 'You must change your life."

Last month I went to Charleston, South Carolina for the first time and discovered the art of Jonathan Green at Gallery Chuma. If I could be a piece of art, I would be painted by him. The art is shown in chronological order and the evolution of style through his career is evidenced. There is one color plate per page so each piece is easily viewed. All are in color. The art section is prefaced by three lyrical, thought-provoking chapters about the artist, the relationship of Gullah heritage, African American aesthetic, and his art as an expression of the layers of experiences mixed cultures bring to humanity. One chapter mentioned the flowing movement in the artwork which is also what first piqued my interest. I just can't help but wish that all that is good in the world of Jonathan Green's art could be in everyone and make our world a better place.

a beautiful book of green's work
if you are a fan of his artwork--this book is an excellent compilation in both presentation and accompanying text

Glenn Barr's atmospheric paintings are well represented in this thick, hardcover book. The reproduction quality is top notch, I can actually discern the brush strokes. If you just like to view paintings for the sake of viewing paintings, this is an excellent representation of his work. I'm glad I bought it.

Glenn Barr visited Melbourne, Australia last year (2007) and i was lucky enough to meet him at Outre galley where he had a showing of his work. It was great to see the original paintings close up. His paintings have a lightness of touch that add to their haunting quality. This is an artist who knows when to put down his brushes.
Among the beautiful reproduced paintings there's plenty of close ups, sketches, doodles to pour over.
This book is a simply a must have if you like this art.

This is a wonderful art book by my favorite of the "lowbrow" artists-- or, as I like to call them, Exploitation Painters. His technique is at once cartoony (he used to do some of the shock paintings for the first season of Ren & Stimpy) and very painterly. His subject matter is a kind of a mix of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, Jack Hill blaxploitation flicks and a little of the early David Lynch. Wall to wall screwball surrealism against a backdrop of urban decay!

Just a few pages into this beautiful overview of Barr's work and you'll want to take up residence in this seedy, steamy world he's envisioned. Gorgons, apes, Astroboy, fez-wearing beetles, darkened alleyways in the wrong part of town, ladies of questionable repute - it's all here in this must-have for fans of illustration. Pick up a copy now, but don't say I didn't warn you. You'll be having your mail forwarded tomorrow...

I discovered Glenn Barr at a bookstore. This book did it. Now he is one of my favorite. I love his style--it's very edgy. It's a great book to add to your collection of art books. I flip through it when I need inspiration.

This is a darling book for girls and boys of ALL ages! It was given to my girls as a gift and now we give it as a birthday gift regularly! Cute and a little educational.

A story about a very special little dog which should appeal to all ages.. Beautifully told & superbly illustrated.

My daughter and I both fell in love with this charming story. Henley and his owner, Lulu are both absolutely fabulous! The artwork and poetic storyline is charming and imaginative. I am planning on stocking up on this wonderful book as Christmas presents for my family.

What a darling book about a Japanese Chin and his adventures. The art work is wonderful. Although it is officially a children's book, I appreciate it for the art work and the cute extra details put into the book. If you love dogs you will love this book, especially if you know about the Japanese Chin breed.

This is a must-have book to add to your holiday shopping for children of any age. My 6 year old and 3 year old boys have an extreme love for all sort of dogs and instantly fell in love with Henley. We hope Henley and the author will make more journeys together.

Anyone who grew up in the 60's-70's should read this book ... it is very inspiring!

One need not be African-American to love this book. It is a deep insight into a tough time. She talks of things usual life
does not include, as the powerlessness of women doing full nude strip dancing when one or a few refused to have customers give them money in a particularly intrusive way--what awaited such women and what choices did they really have. Neitzsche called Evil, "All that which proceeds out of weakness." He could have had this book in mind. Yet Ethel Water's life has more than defeat.

If you are not moved by this book, you must have a large problem.

Whew, what an upbringing, what a life. Waters goes into great detail about her rearing in the slums of Philadelphia, her life as vaudevillian Sweet Mama Stringbean and finally the Ethel Waters of stage, screen, and records. I didn't really know much about Miss Waters other than her role in the movie Pinky, so this book provided great insight into her life. Pretty good. The conversational tone makes it easy to read.

I've had the hardback 1951 copy of this book for some time, just picked it up to read last week. It is an astounding story of faith, determination, and strength;It is also an excellent insight into Black History pre-Martin Luther King. I hope the paperback version of this is being read. (and I wish Nikki Giovanni would read it as well).
Highly recommended.

When I was a kid, I knew Ethel Waters as that gray haired old lady that sang at the Billy Graham events on TV... In reading this autobiography I discovered the incredible legacy of her recordings and films.

"His Eye Is On the Sparrow" reads just like you're sitting in the room talking with this remarkable woman... The book not only shares the details of her fascinating career, but it is also an absorbing historical record of early 20th century show business and American society. Absolutely fascinating, warm, funny and poignant.

To any of you who have fallen under the spell of Jack Vettriano's beautiful work, this book is a must have! I started buying Jack's prints about 5 years ago for my wife and recently found that a work colleague is a collector too. I ordered two of these books, one for my wife and one for the co-worker, so that we could explore the full range of Jack's talent. It was a revelation to all of us to see how varied his subjects have turned out to be!

I viewed this book personally in the UK where I live and since my daughter is a big fan of Vettriano, I purchased this book as a present for her. It shows the various aspects of Jack Vettriano's work, both the well known (printed on cards) and the not well known. It is very insightful of the different sides of a wonderful artist, and his work is well represented.

I got this as a present to sister who couldn't decide which piece of art to hang on her wall. It was perfect and beautiful. Great on coffee table, Never tire of flipping through it.

You may well have seen Vettriano's "The Singing Butler," or other of his elegant paintings - but that doesn't mean you've heard of him. This book takes care of that. It covers eighteen years of his career, 1987 to 2004. It shows what you missed, and probably a few images you saw but never connected to the others.

Vettriano's images go beyond Hopper's. They have much of the same graphic quality but, where Hopper so often addressed solitude or loneliness, Vettriano frequently depicts depicts desperation under a cracking veneer of elegance. Many of these paintings capture some moment in a story of intimacy for sale, or of intimacy between the wrong people - the moment that culminates the story so far, and that sets the direction of the story to come. In those pictures, the underlying cheapness of motiviation contrasts sharply with the graciously dressed (or graciously undressed) actors moving their roles forward. The anachronism of ballroom grace and mid-twentieth-century fashion gives the modern viewer enough distance to see the glossy finish as well as tawdry underside. Without asking forgiveness, Vettriano explains how beauty and a moment of passion can lead people down paths that they'll later regret.

Not all of the imagery carries that dark edge, though. Vettriano does equally well with sunny couples in happy, if adult kinds of love. In many cases, only the painting's title tells the viewer whether or not to approve - and somehow, that makes disapproval that much harder. Vettriano's work has been called "populist" and "undemanding." So be it. Holding wide appeal isn't such a bad thing, and neither is work that easily yields its meaning.

-- wiredweird

The introduction and subsequent text is very brief, and provides a glimpse into the artist's background and rise to success. The text makes little if any critical comment about the artist's work, perhaps leaving the paintings to speak for themselves. The book concludes with a list of the artist's paintings and exhibitions. The book really is all about the pictures.

There are about 160 full colour reproductions of Vettriano's paintings of which about half dozen are small images illustrating the text, there are over thirty full page bleed pictures many of which in fact amount to a page and a half and include one double page spread (the best in the book?). However the bulk of the illustrations range from almost full page images to those which occupy about half a page or occasionally less. The quality of the reproduction is excellent, and the varied and attractive layout suits the images well, bold yet without detracting from the work.

For those of us who are perhaps used to seeing Vettriano's paintings merely as small reproductions adorning cards and the like, it is a revelation to see them produced so well and to a good size. Seeing them so it is easy to label his technique as commercial and slick; but there is no denying the immediate appeal and impact. Whether or not you are a fan of this Scottish artist this is a book worth having, it shows the range of his work, from the dark and sensual to some very appealing high key paintings. Altogether it is a most sumptuous volume.