Paintings of California

This is a thin book, but it's cover to cover inspiration for the plein air artest, photographer, or folks who just enjoy art. The book is a tour-de-force of California art in the last 150 years, it touches about every thing, the Yosemite Vally, the coastal vistas, the desserts, the city's, in most of the painting styles. Bios of the artists, and the use of writings of California authors, add depth and dazzle to the readers enjoyment. I bought this book used. It's inperfict condition save a lost dust cover. It will not be sitting on my coffee table, it will be in the camper van with the paint, paper blocks, brushes, my field camera, and mud covered boots . A working referance/tool of a California Artest Want-to-be. You can place it on your coffee table or book shelf. However it's best enjoyed open in your hand.

This is one of two paperbacks on California which I ordered for Christmas 2008 and they arrived here in Stirling, Scotland just after New Year and made my Christmas doubly pleasurable! My favourite kind of art book: paintings on every page in full colour and appropriate quotes from wriers and artists strategically distributed throughout, in other words not too much text. A history of Californian art over the last 150-odd years, covering every kind of view. I'm a self-taught artist myself and this handy wee book has introduced me to lots of new artists:- William Wendt, Astrid Preston, Simeon Lagodich, Selden Connor Gile to name three plus old favourites : Hockney, Childe Hassam, Millard Sheets, George Bellows and Albert Bierstadt. Just great for dipping into time after time. Right now, winter is still with us in Scotland and I'm hibernating away from my easel. This paperback is full of edible work, the colours zing and tell me to be bold next time.

The introduction considers what it is about California, the light, the landscape and flora that attracts the artist. It very briefly discusses the artistic growth of the area along with its social and economic development. However the real attraction of this modest, by art book standards, publication is the sheer diversity of the work, the contrast as each page reveals a new aspect; occasionally a familiar image but more often something new. From these pictures, presented roughly in chronological order, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, one gets an image of the rapid growth of the area, and the richness of the environment and of course the variety of work that it has inspired. The images, over seventy in total, are presented in full colour, one to a page, occasionally with a literary quote on the facing page from the likes of Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac and many others. They include oils and watercolours. The book concludes with some very brief biographies of the artists included, just three or four lines each; and details of some selected California museums. The lists of artists includes: Albert Bierstadt, George Inness, Chile Hassam, Elmer Wachtel, Granville Redmond, Elmer Bischoff, Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn, Edward Ruscha, George Bellows, David Hockney and David Park to mention just a few.

I bought this book years ago at an art museum bookstore. It was one of those books that I nearly didn't buy because I didn't think I would look at it more than once, and it was an impulse buy, but it is one of my favorites now. Every now and then I take it off the shelf and look through it, and each time I do I am glad. It reminds me of all the beautiful parts of my home, California. It is a great collection of lesser-known works which capture our landscape perfectly, beautifully. It would be nice if it were a larger book because the pictures would then be larger, but if it were, I might not pick it up so often, and I might not have bought it. The print and paper quality is excellent, so perhaps it is fine as-is.

I love this book. I lived in California for 10 years and became totally enchanted by it. This book brings back pleasant memories of sites, sounds, and smells from the Golden State. The total sensory experiences of the Sierra foothills covered with wildflowers in the spring, the ocean's edge at Big Sur, the hills above San Louis Obispo, the sierras in the summer, and many others come flooding back while browsing this book. My only complaint is its size. These images deserve a big coffee-table style book.