The Woodblock Painting of Cressida Campbell


Book Description

Cressida Campbell is a renowned and gifted artist who depicts the essence of her familiar subjects in water colour, painted woodblocks and woodblock prints. Conscious of the legacy of Margaret Preston, Campbell portrays beauty in everyday scenes such as domestic still lives, industrial maritime scenes and rooftops overlooking Sydney harbour. Her work is given depth through solid composition and vivid colour. A fine draughtswoman and strong designer, her works show graphic elements reminiscent of Japanese prints. WOODBLOCK PAINTING OF CRESSIDA CAMPBELL is the first comprehensive survey of her work in print. It spans pictures produced from 1984 to 2007 to guide the viewer through the imaginative world of one of Australia's most uncompromising artists




Japanese Woodblock Bird Prints


Book Description

Numata Kashû's wonderfully lifelike images of birds and flowers first appeared in a three-volume, 1883 portfolio. His woodblock prints were so popular that dealers sold them individually, destroying most complete sets. A collector's delight, this exquisite edition reprints a 1930s facsimile, alive with 150 color illustrations of the highest quality.




Margaret Olley


Book Description




Japanese Woodblock Flower Prints


Book Description

Extraordinary collection of Japanese woodblock prints by a well-known artist features 120 plates in brilliant color. Realistic images from a rare edition include daffodils, tulips, and other familiar and unusual flowers.




Emblems in Scotland


Book Description

Emblems in the visual arts use motifs which have meanings, and in Emblems in Scotland Michael Bath, leading authority on Renaissance emblem books, shows how such symbolic motifs address major historical issues of Anglo-Scottish relations, the Reformation of the Church and the Union of the Crowns. Emblems are enigmas, and successive chapters ask for instance: Why does a late-medieval rood-screen show a jester at the Crucifixion? Why did Elizabeth I send Mary Queen of Scots tapestries showing the power of women to build a feminist City of God? Why did a presbyterian minister of Stirling decorate his manse with hieroglyphics? And why in the twentieth-century did Ian Hamilton Finlay publish a collection of Heroic Emblems?




Still Life


Book Description

A rich survey of the work of more than forty still life artists, which presents the genre in a uniquely contemporary light. Still life painting is a practice that goes back centuries but has recently been reinvigorated by a new generation of contemporary artists. Still Life explores the diverse practices of more than forty contemporary artists and documents their styles, subjects, visions, and philosophies as they reinterpret this art form for our age. While flowers and food are mainstays of the genre, more anomalous objects—such as books and beer cans, birds and balloons—can be found within these pages, adding an energy and intrigue to both the composition and the story of the work. This book captures the inanimate beauty of the everyday in the twenty-first century, and offers a meditation on human experience as well as the brevity of life. Featuring interviews with each of the artists, this accessibly written book is as appealing to established artists as it is for artists who are just starting out. Quoting John Bokor, author Amber Creswell Bell shares that “A collection of objects—no matter how mundane—tells a story. They are like a little world; you can get lost in them.” As a survey of stunning work or as an inspirational volume for the budding artist, this book presents in full color the art of today’s most original artists.




William Boissevain


Book Description




Blooms and Brushstrokes


Book Description

Blooms and Brushstrokes takes you on a unique journey through the history of Australian art, one flower at a time, examining the blooms depicted in still lifes, floral portraits, decorative interiors and botanical illustrations by a long line of Australian artists. Mother-and-daughter team Penelope and Tansy Curtin start this fascinating journey in the late eighteenth century, when the traditions adhering to the Western art canon were transplanted into the newly colonised Australia. They follow it through the rapidly developing artistic styles of the early twentieth century, to the new media of the contemporary period. These works of art also shine a light on the role and importance of plants and flowers in everyday life. They illustrate changing floral fashions, as well as highlighting flowers in their various forms - cut flowers, pot plants and gardens. And along the way you'll encounter many of Australia's most significant artists, including John Glover, Arthur Streeton, Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, John Brack and Margaret Olley, as well as some of Australia's most beautiful, and sometimes intriguing, native flora, such as the waratah and Sturt's desert pea, not to mention perennial garden favourites like roses, sweet peas and daisies. Spectacular, intimate, engaging and meticulously researched - and full of interesting and quirky facts about the flowers and the artists themselves, Blooms and Brushstrokes is a book for art, flower and history lovers alike.




The Bulletin


Book Description




Studio


Book Description

'Studio' presents an extraordinary anthology of visual and verbal insights into the way paintings are made, and the complex blend of motivation and inspiration that sustains the painter in his or her solitary search for meaning.




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