Download or read book Secret Lives of Great Artists written by Elizabeth Lunday and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a tour through the wilder side of art history, and discover true tales of murder, forgery, and trickery—featuring jaw-dropping profiles over 30 iconic artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Salvadori Dalí. With outrageous anecdotes about everyone from Leonardo Da Vinci to Caravaggio to Edward Hopper, Secret Lives of Great Artists recounts the seamy, steamy and gritty history behind the great masters of international art. Here, you’ll learn that Michelangelo’s body odor was so bad, his assistants couldn’t stand working for him; that Vincent van Gogh sometimes ate paint directly from the tube; and Georgia O’Keeffe loved to paint in the nude. This is one art history lesson you’ll never forget!

Download or read book Secret Lives of Great Authors written by Robert Schnakenberg and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The strange-but-true tales of the rumors, idiosyncrasies, and feuds of literary legends—including Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, and more This fascinating—and shocking!—tour through the lives of classic literature icons is the perfect stocking stuffer for book lovers and fans of little-known history. With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your high school teachers were afraid to ask: What’s the deal with Lewis Carroll and little girls? Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine? How many women—and men—did Lord Byron actually sleep with? And why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie’s Angels? Classic literature was never this much fun in school! Authors included: William Shakespeare Lord Byron Honoré de Balzac Edgar Allan Poe Charles Dickens The Brontë Sisters Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman Leo Tolstoy Emily Dickinson Lewis Carroll Louisa May Alcott Mark Twain Oscar Wilde Arthur Conan Doyle W.B. Yeats H.G. Wells Gertrude Stein Jack London Virginia Woolf James Joyce Franz Kafka T.S. Eliot Agatha Christie J.R.R. Tolkien F. Scott Fitzgerald William Faulkner Ernest Hemingway Ayn Rand Jean-Paul Sartre Richard Wright William Burroughs Carson McCullers J.D. Salinger Jack Kerouac Kurt Vonnegut Toni Morrison Sylvia Plath Thomas Pynchon

Download or read book Secret Lives of Great Composers written by Elizabeth Lunday and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover little-known stories from music history—including murder, riots, and heartbreak—in this entertaining tour through the fascinating (and surprising) lives of classical music masters With outrageous anecdotes about everyone from Gioachino Rossini (draft-dodging womanizer) to Johann Sebastian Bach (jailbird) to Richard Wagner (alleged cross-dresser), Secret Lives of Great Composers recounts the seamy, steamy, and gritty history behind the great masters of international music. Here, you’ll learn that Edward Elgar dabbled with explosives; that John Cage was obsessed with fungus; that Berlioz plotted murder; and that Giacomo Puccini stole his church’s organ pipes and sold them as scrap metal so he could buy cigarettes. This is one music history lesson you’ll never forget!

Download or read book The Secret Lives of Colour written by Kassia St Clair and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2016-10-20 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A mind-expanding tour of the world without leaving your paintbox. Every colour has a story, and here are some of the most alluring, alarming, and thought-provoking. Very hard painting the hallway magnolia after this inspiring primer.' Simon Garfield The Secret Lives of Colour tells the unusual stories of the 75 most fascinating shades, dyes and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book Kassia St Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colours and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilisation. Across fashion and politics, art and war, The Secret Lives of Colour tell the vivid story of our culture.

Download or read book The Brilliant History of Color in Art written by Victoria Finlay and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2014-11-01 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of art is inseparable from the history of color. And what a fascinating story they tell together: one that brims with an all-star cast of characters, eye-opening details, and unexpected detours through the annals of human civilization and scientific discovery. Enter critically acclaimed writer and popular journalist Victoria Finlay, who here takes readers across the globe and over the centuries on an unforgettable tour through the brilliant history of color in art. Written for newcomers to the subject and aspiring young artists alike, Finlay’s quest to uncover the origins and science of color will beguile readers of all ages with its warm and conversational style. Her rich narrative is illustrated in full color throughout with 166 major works of art—most from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Readers of this book will revel in a treasure trove of fun-filled facts and anecdotes. Were it not for Cleopatra, for instance, purple might not have become the royal color of the Western world. Without Napoleon, the black graphite pencil might never have found its way into the hands of Cézanne. Without mango-eating cows, the sunsets of Turner might have lost their shimmering glow. And were it not for the pigment cobalt blue, the halls of museums worldwide might still be filled with forged Vermeers. Red ocher, green earth, Indian yellow, lead white—no pigment from the artist’s broad and diverse palette escapes Finlay’s shrewd eye in this breathtaking exploration.

Download or read book How to Write written by Philip Oltermann and published by Guardian Books. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Guardian's 2008 'How to Write' supplements were a huge success with wordsmiths of all stripes. Covering fiction, poetry, comedy, screenwriting, biography and journalism, they offered invaluable advice and bags of encouragement from a range of leading professionals, including Catherine Tate on writing memorable comedy characters, Robert Harris on penning bestelling fiction and Michael Rosen on constructing stories that will appeal to young people. This book draws together the material from those supplements and includes a full directory of useful addresses, from publishers and agents to professional societies and providers of bursaries. Whether you're looking to polish up your writing skills or you want to ensure that your manuscript finds its way into the right hands, How to Write will prove essential reading.

Download or read book How to Draw Almost Everything written by Chika Miyata and published by Quarry Books. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether you need to draw a coat, a flying squirrel, or someone doing a handstand, this is the ultimate reference for anyone who loves to draw!

Download or read book Kid Artists written by David Stabler and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hilarious childhood biographies and full-color illustrations reveal how Leonardo da Vinci, Beatrix Potter, Keith Haring, and other great artists in history coped with regular-kid problems. Every great artist started out as a kid. Forget the awards, the sold-out museum exhibitions, and the timeless masterpieces. When the world’s most celebrated artists were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. Jackson Pollock’s family moved constantly—he lived in eight different cities before he was sixteen years old. Georgia O’Keeffe lived in the shadow of her “perfect” older brother Francis. And Jean-Michel Basquiat triumphed over poverty to become one of the world’s most influential artists. Kid Artists tells their stories and more with full-color cartoon illustrations on nearly every page. Other subjects include Claude Monet, Jacob Lawrence, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Beatrix Potter, Yoko Ono, Dr. Seuss, Emily Carr, Keith Haring, Charles Schulz, and Louise Nevelson.

Download or read book The Artist s Way written by Julia Cameron and published by Souvenir Press. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A really good starting point to discover what lights you up' - Emma Gannon 'Unlock your inner creativity and ease your anxiety' Daily Telegraph THE MULTI-MILLION-COPY WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER Since its first publication, The Artist's Way has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert, Tim Ferriss, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron guides readers in uncovering problems and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to open up opportunities for growth and self-discovery. A revolutionary programme for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life. 'Each time I've learned something important and surprising about myself and my work ... Without The Artist's Way, there would have been no Eat, Pray, Love' - Elizabeth Gilbert

Download or read book Daily Rituals written by Mason Currey and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 150 inspired—and inspiring—novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians on how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do. Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.” Kafka is one of 161 minds who describe their daily rituals to get their work done, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks. Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”.... Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day ... Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.” Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books ... Karl Marx ... Woody Allen ... Agatha Christie ... George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing ... Leo Tolstoy ... Charles Dickens ... Pablo Picasso ... George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers.... Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to “clear the brain”).

Download or read book Painting Masterclass written by Susie Hodge and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like having 100 of the world’s greatest painters at your side, giving you their own personal tips and advice – Painting Masterclass examines 100 paintings from art history: the way they were made, what they do well, and how and what we can learn from them. Throughout the history of painting, one of the best ways in which many great painters have developed their own personal approaches has been by copying other artists’ work. Learning from great artists helps to encourage a discerning eye, as well as an understanding of colour, materials and perspective, and can inspire further innovation. With the detailed analyses and instructive creative tips sections in this book, you can learn how to convey movement like Degas, apply acrylic like Twombly, and command colour like Matisse. With paintings comprising a broad variety of styles, approaches and materials, the book studies the techniques of many of the greatest painters who have worked across the globe from the 15th to the 21st centuries, using watercolour, gouache, tempera, fresco, oils, encaustic and mixed media, including: Titian, Francisco Goya, Gustave Courbet, Georges Seurat, Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin, Gustav Klimt, Amedeo Modigliani, Jenny Saville, Caravaggio, Egon Schiele, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leonardo da Vinci, Marlene Dumas, Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Marc Chagall, Sandro Botticelli and Jackson Pollock. Perfect for students as well as professional painters, and with a broad historical and global reach, this book is an indispensable introduction to the rich history and practice of painting. Organized by genre: nudes, figures, landscapes, still lifes, heads, fantasy, and abstraction. Includes practical tips and advice, allowing you to weave some of the great artists’ magic into your own work. Selected masterpieces serve as perfect examples of a particular quality in painting: light and shade, rhythm, form, space, contour, and composition are all covered in detail. Explores each artist’s creative vision, describing how they made the artwork. Use it as a guide, a confidence-booster, a workbook, a companion – or simply admire the paintings!

Download or read book The Artist s Garden written by Jackie Bennett and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Artist’s Garden will feature up to 20 gardens that have inspired and been home to some of the greatest painters of history. These gardens not only supplied the inspiration for creative works but also illuminate the professional motivation and private life of the artists themselves – from Cezanne’s house in the south of France to Childe Hassam at Celia Thaxter’s garden off the coast off Maine. Flowers and gardens have often been the first choice for artists looking for a subject. A garden close to the artist’s studio is not only convenient for daily material and ideas, but also has the advantage of changing through the seasons and over time. Claude Monet’s Giverny was the catalyst for hundreds of great paintings (by Monet and other artists), each one different from the one before. Sometimes a whole village becomes the focus for a colony of artists as at Gerberoy in Picardy and Skagen on the northernmost tip of Denmark. This book is about the real homes and gardens that inspired these great artists – gardens that can still be visited today. The relationship between artist and garden is a complex one. A few artists, including Pierre Bonnard and his neighbour Monet were keen gardeners, as much in love with their plants as their work, while for others like Sorolla in Madrid, his courtyard home was both a sanctuary and a source of ideas.

Download or read book Hackers Painters written by Paul Graham and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2004-05-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author examines issues such as the rightness of web-based applications, the programming language renaissance, spam filtering, the Open Source Movement, Internet startups and more. He also tells important stories about the kinds of people behind technical innovations, revealing their character and their craft.

Download or read book Caravaggio A Life Sacred and Profane written by Andrew Graham-Dixon and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-11-10 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year "This book resees its subject with rare clarity and power as a painter for the 21st century." —Hilary Spurling, New York Times Book Review Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. This commanding biography explores Caravaggio’s staggering artistic achievements, his volatile personal trajectory, and his tragic and mysterious death at age thirty-eight. Featuring more than eighty full-color reproductions of the artist’s best paintings, Caravaggio is a masterful profile of the mercurial painter.

Download or read book Secrets of an Art Dealer written by James Henry Duveen and published by . This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ART DEALtR JAMES HENRY DUVEEN New York E. P. DUTTON CO., INC. To THAT BEING WHICH OCCURS ONLY ONCE IN LIFE A MOTHER CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. REMAKING A RELIQUARY FOR 30,000, 9 II. THE PRINCE WHO LOST HIS TAPESTRIES . 28 III. THE TRAGEDY OF THE JABAGH VASES . 45 IV. THE FATAL PLATE OF BERNARD PALISSY . 64 V. THE TITLED KLEPTOMANIAC . . 77 VI. THE MADDEST COLLECTOR I HAVE EVER KNOWN ...... 88 VII. THE BLACKMAILING OF AN EXPERT, . 102 VIII. How PIERPONT MORGAN BOUGHT MIS TAKES, . . . .118 IX. How A V. C. EARNED A ROYAL SNUFFBOX 134 X. A LOVE-INTRIGUE THAT RUINED AN ART DEALER . . . . . .146 XL How A TWENTY MILLION WIDOW LOST ME 2 7,000 . . . .160 XII. THE SECRET OF NAPOLEON IIs CASKET . 172 XIII. THE DRESDEN PORCELAIN CASE . 184 XIV. THE ART DEALER WHO ESCAPED PENAL SERVITUDE . ., . .196 XV. WHEN CONNOISSEURS Go WRONG . . 208 XVI. How I LOST FIVE 2o, loo VASES . . 224 XVII. THE TRAGEDY OF VAN OLDENBARNE VELDT 238 XVIII. DOUBLE CROSSED BY A FRIEND . .251 XIX. THE CURSE OF THE MALEVOLENT GODS 260 XX. SAVED BY THE CAMORRA . . . 272 ILLUSTRATIONS FACE PAGE GOTHIC TAPESTRY THE CREDO TOURNAI ... 36 THE HEESWIJK CASTLE SET OF AZURE CHINESE VASES WITH THREE COVERS . . . . . . 37 A BERNARD PALISSY DISH ...... 68 A SNUFF Box 69 DRESDEN PORCELAIN SLEIGH GROUP .... 92 FRAXJ HERMINA FEIST ...... 93 GOTHIC SUIT OF ARMOUR . . . . . 108 THE FAMOUS GUZMAN CROSS . . . . .109 THE SNUFF Box OF FREDERICK THE GREAT . . 138 CHEVALIER JACOB VAN Esso THE RIDDER, . 139 THE Louis XVI WRITING CABINET . . . .166 NAPOLEON II KING OF ROME . . . . .167 EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN OF AUSTRIA, . .180 THE FREEMASON GROUP OF DRESDEN PORCELAIN . 181 THE COUNTESS COSEL, DRESDEN CRINOLINE FIGURE . 198 FIVE CHINESE PORCELAIN FAMILLEROSE VASES . 199 A Louis XV FAN ....... 212 STUART HIGH-BACK CHAIR . . . . .213 FAMILLE NOIRE VASE 230 JONKHEER VAN OLDENBARNEVELDTs HOUSE IN THE NoORD ElNDE AT THE HAGUE . . . . .231 OLD DELFT POTTERY BY ALBERT DE KEYSER . . 246 CLARET WORCESTER PLATE 247 THE MALEVOLENT GODS ..... 262 WORCESTER DISH 263 vn SECRETS OF AN ART DEALER SECRETS OF AN ART DEALER CHAPTER I REMAKING A RELIQUARY FOR 30,000 THE Combes law which, at a stroke, converted all the ecclesiastical treasures of France into State property, was one of those upheavals which, like the War, brought objects into the art markets of the world which had long been thought quite safe from any chance of dispersal. Thirty odd years ago no one dreamed that such wonderful goldsmiths work, pictures and other treasures, would ever be freed from the dead hand, and the result was startling. The Loi Combes taught me that even the Church would steal its own property rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the State despoilers. Priests, devout citizens, not quite so devout or so respectable ladies afid a host of hangers-on intrigued and conspired one against the other, linked only by the common trait of feverish greed. As I was motoring with an artist friend on the Continent I happened to be amongst the first to be caught up into this maelstrom I say motoring, for although we were aiming for the Riviera we had only got one third of the way in ten days We could have walked it faster, but those were the days when io SECRETS OF AN ART DEALER tyres were only guaranteed for about 500 miles and the motorist spent more time under his car than in it. Near Auxerre Sydney Watson, my companion, sat down on a roadside bank and hitched up hiselegant trousers. He paid no attention at all to a small crowd of loafers and children who goggled alternately at him and me. My dear Duveen, he exclaimed, the more I see of motor cars the more I congratulate myself I know nothing about them Especially in this tropical heat. Kneeling in the dust with the sweat trickling down my face, and wrestling with a burst tyre, I only just avoided losing my temper, 1 must have looked a Harry Tate figure, clad in I regret to say a suit of dark purple leather...

Download or read book How to be an Artist written by S. Natalie Abadzis and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A fun-filled art activity book that will encourage kids to express themselves while teaching them about key artistic styles and a selection of pioneering artists from history"--

Download or read book Renoir s Dancer written by Catherine Hewitt and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2018-02-27 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catherine Hewitt's richly told biography of Suzanne Valadon, the illegitimate daughter of a provincial linen maid who became famous as a model for the Impressionists and later as a painter in her own right. In the 1880s, Suzanne Valadon was considered the Impressionists’ most beautiful model. But behind her captivating façade lay a closely-guarded secret. Suzanne was born into poverty in rural France, before her mother fled the provinces, taking her to Montmartre. There, as a teenager Suzanne began posing for—and having affairs with—some of the age’s most renowned painters. Then Renoir caught her indulging in a passion she had been trying to conceal: the model was herself a talented artist. Some found her vibrant still lifes and frank portraits as shocking as her bohemian lifestyle. At eighteen, she gave birth to an illegitimate child, future painter Maurice Utrillo. But her friends Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas could see her skill. Rebellious and opinionated, she refused to be confined by tradition or gender, and in 1894, her work was accepted to the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, an extraordinary achievement for a working-class woman with no formal art training. Renoir’s Dancer tells the remarkable tale of an ambitious, headstrong woman fighting to find a professional voice in a male-dominated world.