Artists Books

you can feel the love that went into the research for this beautiful book; the stories and pictures flow so easily; i could almost see ms potter and her mr hellis puttering in a garden or floating in a boat across some breathtaking bit of water. well done.

This book was a real pleasure to read very slowly. It is a room by room description of Beatrix Potter's Hill Top farm house and includes the gardens. Beatrix started journaling about what she loved in a home from the time she was nine years old and this house is the cummulation of a life long interest in interior and exterior design theory. She fit in with the whole Arts and Crafts movement of the time. The house was deliberatly her largest artistic creation, she didn't actually live there very much. Again, it is a beautiful book and has many fasinating details about Beatrix Potter, her family and her times.

Being the big fan of Beatrox Potter, the woman and not just the author I was overjoyed to get this as a gift recently and the book is a treat for the eyes. While it has pages and pages of stunning photographs as well as her own water colours, it is the text and complete history of her farms that is awesome.

That and reading and seeing photographs of her as well as her farms and reading why she bought each property and the breeds of sheep she raised was of special interest to me. I loved seeing the inside of her farms, although I had seen the inside of a few, via the National Land Trust to whom she left her properties.

I loved the photographs of Beatrix and how she was so eccentric, kind yet firm and a woman ahead of her time. And it was nice to read that she was a true homestead style woman who had the waste not want not mentality, as well as a deep appreciation for quality and hated to see old bridges torn down for modern ones, although she was quick to make sure the stones and plants, wood and other things being discarded by some, didn't end up in some dump area but were recycled into new walls and buildings and plantings on her property.

This is a book a cottage gardener, keeper of sheep. painters, stone masons and anyone who loves working with their hands will love. As well as sincere environmentalists and organic gardeners and farmers.

A gorgeous collection of photos and information
about one of my most favorite children story writers.

What a beautiful book. Clear, inviting photos, and interesting information. A book you will enjoy reading and sharing.

I still can't believe this is only 40 some dollars. They couldn't have even printed this book for that, could they have? It's really big and really beautiful. Such a lot of drawings it's overwhelming, printed in great quality and color on all those pages and pages. Wonderful shapes, wonderful creatures, wonderful designs. Very inspiring and interesting. Just makes me want to stop what I'm doing and devote myself to drawing things and making some cool book like this before I'm dust.

The illustrations in this book are so vivid and detailed, it even makes snakes look beautiful to me! I wish there were more books that were made this way.

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765 At a time when unimportant volumes by hack authors sell for around $30 it is extraordinary to find a book this beautiful, this timeless at a price less than an average bottle of Chardonnay. Makes one rethink any list they might have made of books to take to a deserted island.

I'm not a biologist or scientist of any kind. But I am a fan of Taschen's publications and admire his goal of publishing high-quality photo/art books at reasonable prices. I happened to come across this book while browsing in the bookshop, was attracted by the Taschen name on the cover, took a peek inside and bought it on the spot. It was only afterwards that I discovered the history and historical significance of this collection. It's a beautiful book, filled with brilliantly colored illustrations of reptiles, butterflies, plants and animals. Great stuff and a real education for a layman like me.

snakes, bugs, plants, birds and all manner of living creatures. It is really an overwhelming collection. Worth getting a larger coffee table.

I am the author and I invite you to know more about me at my Web Site. There are also additional reviews there for you to read and a blog link about what I am up to as to future books. Join me at www.ChoicesMade.com

A gritty and compelling novel, full of rich descriptions and characters you want to get to know. Choices Made is the perfect name for this story of a young man on the mean streets, and how the decisions he makes (and others make for him) affect his life and the lives of those around him. I'm looking forward to the next installment in this story.

Choices Made: The Street Years is the debut novel of Christine McMahon and clearly establishes her as a gifted storyteller able to take her reader into a gritty world of drug addiction, poverty, and life on the street. It follows a young man who, after his mother's death, searches for his biological father and falls prey to a brutal sexual attack. Pimped and drugged, he eventually breaks out of one type of slavery into the thuggish role of gang leader and protector, the "Street Lord" of the 42nd neighborhood. As a new teen father, he begins to regret his choices and wants off the streets for the sake of his own son, and agrees to work as a "mole" for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in exchange for immunity from prosecution - yet when the undercover agent who gained his trust is in mortal peril, he returns to the streets in hope of engineering a rescue, triggering a chain of events that will cause him to meet his biological father at long last. Grippingly told, Choices Made: The Street Years is forcefully honest in its portrayal of the harsh forces that shape human life for good or ill.

Christine has spun a very intriguing yarn! The story takes place in the 60's, and the dialog, setting, and ambience captures the era perfectly. It has a rawness and grittiness that contrasts with the innocence of young Jamy, the main character. His innocence, however, doesn't last long, as he's catapulted into a seedy world of sex, drugs and violence. The characters' struggles had me quickly turning the pages to find out what happened next. It seems, though, the end of the book is only the beginning of this saga. Hopefully, Christine will be sharing the next chapters with us very soon!

I must say from the very first page I was hooked into it. I couldn't put it down. The characters in the book seem to be real. I could hardly wait to find out what happened to them next. My imagination was spinning. The ending is only the begining to the next step in Jamies life. This is a must read novel.

The author, Pat Murphy has been one of my favorites for years. Lately I got to tracking down all that she has written and came upon this wonderful gem.
Other reviewers have reiterated the story for you - don't believe any of it until you have read it for yourself. The tease I will give you - I could not put it down.
I think it is the best book I have read in awhile (maybe 2 or 3 years) and I am an avid reader; at least a book a week sometimes a book a day. And I have read some good ones.
This book filled me with unaccountable glee and random bouts of laughing and crying. It was philosophically intellectual, artistically rendered in joy and hope, intertwined with magic and possibility. But mostly it is a story of the absolute reality of art and the responsibilities of artists; to change the world, make it over in the image that delights them the best, and nothing is ever the same afterwards. That is what this book did to me, and I am grateful.
But I am not selling my copy; it goes into the save forever to read over and over group.

I first stumbled upon this book some seven-odd years ago, when I was just moving into the beginnings of a proverbial intellectual 'awakening.' I spent perhaps four months tracking it down, as it was out of print and not carried at my library; read it at least a half-dozen times while it was in my posession, and only begrudgingly gave it up when the time was due (though it was rather tempting to keep and fess up the library fine).

In hindsight, this book is idealistic in nature: It is a peaceful, love-beaded dystopian novel with more than its share of hope. It tells the story of a community of citizens who have migrated to San Francisco, in an event to both continue with their crafts (There are painters, sculpters, just plain tinkerers). They also attempt to organise themselves against the "General," a militaristic dictator-esque figure moving across America.

This settlement comes in the wake of an outbreak of plague, as a result of an altruistic attempt to bring peace to the world, and to the United States.

Although a children's book, this novel still stands out in my mind as being one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Rarely do a book's details stay with one for the better part of ten years, in the clarity that this one has. Well-worth tracking down, or buying used.

This is a wonderful and refreshing subversion of the post apocalyptical tradition, for which David Brin's The Postman stands as a paradigm for. Though at times The Postman is spiritual, it does portray the issues of national reunification after a catastrophe as a given and the achievement of that reunification (or resistance to it) as inevitably violent.

Though Kim Stanley Robinson's Wild Shore critiques this patriotic urge deliciously, only Murphy has managed to outright attack it. There are no natural or artificial forces making survival a struggle in Murphy's post-civilised Utopia. Instead, the San Francisco of this unspecified future is alive and well - albeit very underpopulated - and is in fact flourishing after a plague has indiscriminately wiping out all but an anarchic cross-section of artists. Cries for `Progress' and `Order' are the exception, and the majority feel "disorder works just fine."

Through her characters, Murphy could be imagined to be having an argument with other speculative fiction writers: "It seems we have very basic disagreement ... You seem to think that joining together into a larger and more powerful nation is automatically good ... Personally, I've always thought that nations were tremendously overrated."

The City, Not Long After asks what we would become outside of civilisation, and what San Francisco would be without the U.S. It provides a lovely answer.

So there's this plague, see, that wipes out about 99.9 percent of the population. San Francisco is a big artist commune - one group paints the Golden Gate Bridge blue. An army decides to take over. The ensuing war is one of the oddest battles ever fought - soldiers, cut down by tranquilizers, have the word DEAD painted on their cheeks, and are warned via a letter that if they don't consider themselves hors-de-combat, they may very well die for real next time. Other soldiers are dived-bombed with water balloons full of jasmine perfume and LSD. Probably the lowest body count of any book featuring battle scenes. I read this book on a whim and fell madly in love with it. I have to reread it again soon.

I've read this book a number of times since I first discovered it a few years ago. The story & characters stay at the edge of my memory and as the details get blurry, I take it out & read it again. Pat Murphy's description of San Franscisco as the artists transform it, is so vivid that I can see their art and understand its impact. It's an entrancing book -- I wish it had a sequel.

I bought this for my four-year-old daughter, and this has become a favorite bedtime story book for her. It is perfectly gear for the younger ages with many colorful examples of coats of arms along with some elementary explanations of why they existed. The stencil is great and allows the youngest artist to make their very own arms. (I recommend make copies fo the blank shield and letting the wee ones mark up the copies.)

This book is great! It has lots of color, very kid-friendly. It has explanations of the colors and many designs or pictures you may find on a coat of arms. Very helpful for coat of arms lessons and as a tool to help a child create their own coat of arms. My homeschool group used this for children aged 4-11 and they all loved looking at it!

Catherine Daly-Weir has done an excellent job of presenting a general and yet fairly complete introduction to Heraldry. The illustrations are beautiful and attractive. Obviusly written for the younger reader, adults will enjoy just as well. If you are working on a club/class project and need to creat a Coat of Arms, this book and Rosemary Chorzempa's "Design Your Own Coat of Arms" are all you need! You will have no trouble creating your own Coat of Arms expecially with the plastic stencil which is included in the book. A must have!

This book is great. It covers several aspects of heraldry (history, battlefield, heralds, tournaments, rules, positioning, meaning of designs etc.) without being overwhelming for children. I have used this book with my art therapy students, and my sister has used it with her students with art class...all the students loved it. Even those who can't read can get alot from the book as illustrations are excellent. I highly recommend. Ages 6-adult...I have even used this book to design a shield for myself. For those interested in other sources...Heraldic Design by Hubert Allcock is also a great sourcebook.

I think this is excellent for younger children. It is a good basic introduction.

If your a Vampire Hunter D fan, I say get this book. Goes nicely to any collection in that series. tons of pages on art work done over the years from the artist. I say a must buy ^^

As for content and art this book is fabulous, but I was kind of expecting more prints. The layout they chose for the book is interesting and I don't really find it necessary other than for a wow factor. To me it really didn't add anything to the prints inside, but to be fair, it didn't necessarily take away either. This book defiantly features what I enjoy best about Amano's art.

A good buy for Amano fans or any artist interested in graphic art and/or inking.

I bought this book for my boyfriend, who is a huge fan of the series. I cannot speak from my own experience with it, but from his near fainting reaction upon receiving it, I would say it is definitely worth the money. From what he has said, the artwork is incredible. I would recommend it for any fan of the series or the art.

The art in this book is detailed, beautiful, and breathtaking... I was blown away by even the pictues which were only sketches.

I recommend it highly to fans of Vampire Hunter D... as well as anyone who is an art fanatic or art book collector... or even just someone who loves Vampiric things in general.

This book is HUGE, which it should be to show off the fantastic artwork. Loved it! All Vampire Hunter D fans should get it, just don't expect it to fit in your book shelf.. lol! Pay close attention to the dimensions in the item description. It also comes in a slip case to protect the book.

In this hardcover artist's guide, "Creating Nature in Watercolor," author and artist Cathy Johnson provides a stunning, illustrated overview about enjoying and translating the beauty of the natural world through watercolor. From the basics of keeping a sketch journal and a full list of materials and supplies to a run down on natural habitats and useful ways to capture the essence of each with various colors and techniques, this guide proves useful to beginner and advanced artist alike. Ms. Johnson inspires her readers to enjoy nature from the standpoint of keen observer and translator through art. Her book is as lovely to look at and page through as it is full of invaluable tips. A treasure!

I found this newest Cathy Johnson book to be every bit as informative and entertaining as her many previous books. The artist's love of nature shines gloriously within these pages. Not only does she give clear and easily understood instructions to 'capture nature', she also inspires you! This book is both working text and entertainment.

Having used 2 of Ms. Johnson's books before ("Creating
Textures in Watercolor" and "Watercolor Pencil Magic-sadly
out of print") I had great hopes for this new volume, and it
does not disappoint. More than a collection of pretty
watercolor studies to be admired -though it is full of
them! - this book breaks down the process and tells you
how to get the result you're looking for. Ms. Johnson even
gives tips on the practicalities of capturing the
uncooperative moving creatures of nature on paper! I have found something valuable on every page.

Cathy Johnson's newest book, Creating Nature in Watercolor, is a most delightful read and it's filled with tips and techniques on appreciating nature and capturing your interpretation of that observation in watercolor. Whether you want to learn how to document botanical samples in a journal or compose an extensive landscape on a full sheet of watercolor paper, this book is a must have! Cathy has a teaching style that encourages everyone to jump right in and have fun learning. This book contains short exercises as well as step-by-step lessons for painting landscapes. A beginner will find this book to be a tremendous start off point and a professional will find many useful tips and notes to help them progress in their treatment of nature and landscapes.

Cathy Johnson's newest book is a work of art in itself. The inside page design is simply beautiful. The illustrations by Ms. Johnson are very inspiring. And her tone is one of gentle encouragement ("yes, you can do this too"). I just received my copy recently and have already spent hours savoring it. Many of Ms. Johnson's books seem deceptively simple. One could quickly glance over her notes and paintings and then set the book on the shelf. The real value comes from taking her books, page by page, and actually DOING the exercises she provides. Pay attention to her teaching, follow her examples, and wonderful things will happen with your artwork. Creating Nature in Watercolor is a wonderful book and I am thankful that the artist took the time to create it.

I have a wall of this calendar, love it - got a lot of compliments from visitors. the beautiful designs brighten my dinning room.

I cannot believe I STILL have not recieved my calendar. Today is Feb 1st and still no delivery. It still says it's in route, but it can't possibly be..what a let down..

I am a BIG victorian nut! I have to have this calendar every year, it is soooo pretty, and very useful, has big blocks so I can write in each day what I need to remember. You will love it :)

We discovered Cynthia Hart's Victoriana Calendar a good few years back. Before the arrival of the internet, it was always a major search to find the two copies we like to obtain. It brightens the wall in both our kitchen and bedroom and I would recommend this as a room improver for anyone. Thank you Cynthia.

I buy this calendar every year from my Mom and she just loves it. The pictures are really beautiful and it comes with some nice extras too like a smaller desk calendar and a few other things. It's less expensive from Amazon than the bookstores too!

I am an artist, multiculturalist and a child of immigrants. As an artist, I was greatly impressed by the author's ability to articulate much of the feel of the painting process itself. Learning more about Master Zhu, his work and life, especially through such skilled storytelling was a special treat. As a multiculturalist, I was happy to swim in the waters of Chinese culture and history---learning new things along the way. Finally, as an artist child of immigrants, Tony's parents reminded me of my own parents in some ways, and Tony, in some ways of me. So much so, that in the scene where Master Zhu and Tony say goodbye, Master Zhu, the mentor, presenting Tony, a student artist, with his parting gifts, I cried. Every good novelist is part psychologist, having to delve into the complexities of the human soul. In this, DEEP INTO THE MOUNTAINS has succeeded. The writing, story and historical data are all quality---and Master Zhu's art, transcendent.

I will hold on to to this book because it reminds me of my blossoming as an artist (writer). The book traces the path of Tony's discovery of himself and his art. Mr. Zhu was a mentor, someone who helped Tony pull the artist out of his troubled soul. I got to see Tony's struggle as he faced the person he was becoming and remembered my own fight with my art and how good (or not good) I really was. I kept on reading because I, like Tony, yearn to perfect my strokes, and leave an impression that speaks of my dedication and passion. I enjoyed the book -- I read it in a few hours the day I got it, because I was at odds with myself and needed the perspective that the book gave to me.

I have been waiting for another publication by Mr. Cheng since I read his first book, Sons of Heaven. His style of writing is so wonderful and captivating. The reader feels as if they truly get to know the characters upon completing his books!!

This particular novel was such a fast read-- I could NOT put it down. Despite having nothing in common with Tony, I felt as if I could relate to him on some level. I think that this novel is appropriate for all age groups from teen to adult, and should be included as part of a school curriculum.

The story takes him from his unfulfilled, and troubled, life in the Bronx, to a completely enriched coming of age in China. It was an enjoyable and profound journey for Tony, as well as for me!

I can't wait for another masterpiece by Terrence Cheng-- he has quickly become one of my favorite authors.

An amazingly well written book that depicts a young chinese teen's struggle to find his identity in America and express himself as an artist.

Early in the book we feel Tony's pain as he is rejected and abused by the social elite in his school. Graffiti art is Tony's sole outlet and the author does a masterful job of portraying the history, techniques and scope of the grafiti art world.
Tony struggles with his desire to be a good son and this rebellious art form that he has grown to love. Plus graffiti may be the only path this young man has to gaining peer acceptance and friends.

After an explosion of frustration, the type of frustration we can all identify with from our own teenage years, Tony is sent to work for his Uncle in China.

Through a well crafted storyline, Tony meets the master painter Zhu Qizhan and learns about his culture's hsitory and art. Zhu Qizahn's character is so deftly written and intimately detailed that it is at times hard to remember this is a fictionalized account of this important artist.

The author succeeds in weaving together a story of the growth of a young boy's mind, body, spirit and art, with the history and works of a master painter and the last 100 years of chinese history. He then presents it to us like a 4 course gourmet meal that you wish would never end.

I highly recommend this book.

I was instantly drawn in by Tony's story and his struggles with his parents and other classic teen issues. The fact that he is into graffiti (he lives in the Bronx) is very cool, and graffiti culture is brought to life in the early section. The writing throughout is vivid and tight and I could genuinely feel Tony's world, and his pain. The plot moves quickly, but never feels too thin, so it's almost like a page-turner, but not in a cheap or bad way.

When Tony goes to Shanghai the cast of characters continue to be strong and believable and Tony's intensifying problems become even more engaging. Shanghai is also graphically depicted, makes you feel like you're there. And when Zhu Qizhan enters the picture, his character and his words are filled with imagination and a pure artistic spirit. Master Zhu's life story as a slice of Chinese history is extremely moving, and inspiring. I also learned a lot about Chinese art and painting, which is described in an engaging and informative way, and never feels stiff or boring. I think this book would be great for junior high kids because it it relatable on all levels: characters, plot, and style. But it's a good solid book for any reader because it is done so well on so many levels.

It has been said that the Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. This evokes a hearty laugh or two. But Maude Schuyler Clay's Delta, this land of her black and white photograph collection, bears little humor at all.

Clay, the contributing photographer for The Oxford American (the nearly defunct glossy southern literary magazine) is a Sumner County, Mississippi, native. Back to the Delta to live and work after a decade in New York City, Clay combines landscapes, or the Delta flatscape, with the stark loneliness of the occasional roadside dog. Few humans don the pages of Delta Land.

Mississippi writer Lewis Nordan, a Delta native himself, writes a provocative and interpretive introduction to the book, one that is witty and piercing in its critical and story-like style.

The book's sepia-toned landscapes show the one constant in a region dominated for millennia by the mighty Mississippi River. That constant is erosion. Many of the photos recall decay and loss. Such is the depiction of the Tallahatchie Bridge of Billy Joe McAllister's jump to the depths below.

This coffee table book, a collection of minimalist and postmodern art, promises to deliver a true, honest, dispassionate and yet emphatic view of the Delta for all who read its words and view its pictorial depictions. The book, not far removed from the documentary eye of Walker Evans, is about memory and the hard, melancholic road that memory often takes us. I recommend it for all who love or long for the land it memorializes.

---------Reviewed by Dayne Sherman

If you feel a special attachment to your particular place on the planet, this book is for you. If you feel a great longing for a place that was once home, this book is for you. If there is no such place for you, but you wish there were, this book is for you. If you simply want to see a place, any place, through the eyes of someone who feels *place* keenly, deeply, naturally, this book is for you.

In *Delta Land*, Maude Schuyler Clay shares her love of place, warts and all, with you. The photographs are luminous and tender and crafted strongly, and filled with a deep, genetic understanding of the Mississippi Delta. If place has any meaning for you at all, you will find your own sensibilities on every page.

Place matters most perhaps to those who no longer have a place. Maude Schuyler Clay's *Delta Land* shows why.

Currenting residing in Germany (and England before that), I often think about the Mississippi in which I grew up with mixed emotions. Maude Schuyler Clay's stunning photographs, with their dark aesthetic, render visible some of the emotional landscapes and scenes that I visit occasionally in my dreams (which border on the nightmarish). Her photographs are, in my opinion, meditations on loss, on some truth of the past that slips irrevocably beyond grasp at the moment of its apperception. The artist shows us ash-covered, post-nuclear landscapes whose projection of annihilation is terrifyingly beautiful and profound. As Lewis Nordan's wonderfully written introduction points out, there are no pictures of cotton pickers in this collection of Mississippi images. The subject of these photos is far more interior and complex, inspiring reflection on the passage of time, memory, death, guilt, and the fragility of the human condition.

As a child of this place called the Delta, this was my world. This was home. Ms. Clay has captured it as it was in my childhood - and as it, to some extent, continues to be. The scenes she portrayed were classics. I may not have seen a particular church or bayou, but I have undoubtedly seen its twin. The black-and-white photographs add a timelessness that color could not. These photographs could have been made in the 50's as easily as the 90's. Much remains the same in the Delta today. Delta Land is a must for all who call this place home. Thanks, Ms. Clay. This book is what I was looking for - even though I didn't realize it until I first turned its pages.

... to borrow a book title from a few years back, is what Maude Schuyler Clay captures for the reader in this lovely work. The Delta is also the most un-suburban place in America. Many artists (including other photographers) have tackled the subject before. However, I know of no one who has transmitted the visual essence -- at once quiet and powerful -- of what this place is quite like native daughter Clay: she has given us a glimpse into the other-worldliness of her home. While distinct qualities of American regional identity fade elsewhere, the Mississippi Delta remains our wild country, where the land and its knowing tenants make no mistake that they are in an untamed place of severe beauty, devoid of sentimentality. The photographer from Sumner has gotten all of this right.