Books: Painting

200 Great Painting Ideas for Artists
Carole Katchen

Amazon Price: £49.95 (not in stock @ Jan 2006)
Used from £17.77

Hardcover - 144 pages (November 1998)
North Light Books; ISBN: 0891347992

Synopsis
An art instruction book featuring works in all media from 56 of today's most successful artists. The 15 sections of the book cover ideas for choosing a range of subjects, including food, flowers, still life, machines, people and animals. Each piece is exhibited with captions to describe the creative process and step-by-step demonstrations.

Note from UK Arts n Crafts: This books seems to have increased dramatically in price over the last couple of years .... does anyone know why?

The Elements of Design
Rediscovering Colours, Textures, Forms and Shapes

Amazon Price: £11.87
Used from £6.66

Paperback 208 pages (April 8, 2002)
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
ISBN: 0500283397

Synopsis
The bark of a plane tree in Paris; a detail of a cotton towel in Japan; sunset in the Egyptian desert; soil in the Yosemite National Park, California; a tiled floor in Bangkok; a wall in Ferrara; an iron cart wheel in Antwerp... colours, textures, forms and shapes are the basis of this unique sourcebook that reveals the elements common to all design and literally teaches us how to see. Hauntingly beautiful and deeply instructive, it surveys our whole environment, natural and manmade, and shows us how it can be defined in terms of basic elements: variable arrangements of dots; lines that are straight, curving, bending or crossing; planes such as rectangles, squares, lozenges, triangles and circles. All these are represented in this book, with telling juxtapositions, in a wide range of materials and techniques, in one sense timeless and universal, in another datable and culturally conditioned. Ever-recurring design elements, they take us to the heart of the creative process: a creative transformation that may involve inspiration or imitation, representation or limitation. Destined to become a cult book for artists, designers and craftspeople of all kinds.