Classical Painting Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice

A beautiful and most informative and well written book. I would recommend it to look at or learn from.

This is the most inspiring art book I've purchased in a long time. Full of insights and observations and instruction, not to mention stunning high quality color images on every page. This book has introduced me to artists I hadn't heard of, namely Jacob Collins and especially Walter Murch whose atmospheric oil paintings of common and overlooked objects has encouraged me to paint the more common objects that fascinate me. I'm taking my time working through this delicious book - I also purchased Juliette Aristides equally inspiring book 'Classical Drawing Atelier'. This is a vital addition to the serious artist's desk - don't leave it on the shelf!

WHAT CAN I SAY ,THAT HAS NOT BEEN SAID ALREADY. A FANTASTIC READ, AND SIMPLY EXPLAINED. A BOOK THAT YOU WILL WANT TO READ OVER AND OVER AGAIN.CLASSICAL AND YET INSPIRATIONAL TO ITS COVER.

The two things I got the most from the book were compositional theories, theories I didn't know existed but have proven to be very helpful, and direction for practice and study. With the exception of graphics training and a couple workshops, I'm self taught. Though I have had much success in both ability and sales I have always wondered what the old masters did to learn their craft and I think this book has shown me. As this book implies it is very sad that thousands of years of accumulated artistic knowledge and beauty was completely tossed out the window a hundred years ago in the name of so called liberation. I feel artists and our culture in general have been greatly deprived as a result. This book will hopefully help resurrect what we have lost and what was stolen from us.

In my opinion I still think the best book on the concepts of painting is Alla Prima by Richard Schmid, however Alla Prima does not have much focus on composition; this book does. Alla Prima focuses more on direct painting where this book teaches more of the steps on slowly developing the skills to become a great artist. I don't think it gives as many of the straight forward artistic concepts as Alla Prima does but unlike Alla Prima it gives great exercises to work on. Like anything else I think the person who purchases this book has to put these exercises to creative practice and hard work. You cannot become a better artist just by reading it; you have to set up your own atelier program and get to work on it. Though a lot of the book is about art philosophy and history but I think if a person seriously puts the ideas and exercises into practice it will be of great help in growing as an artist.

This book is an essential addition to the bookshelf of any serious representational painter or student.