Painting Landscapes in Oils by James Horton

Painting Landscapes in Oils by James Horton

James Horton explores the landscape with oils in this great book. Brimming over with step-by-step demonstrations of many aspects of the landscape - from beaches to mountains to vineyards; there is something for every taste. This book is ideal for everyone from complete beginners through to experts looking for new inspiration and helpful hints.

May 07

After all the quite innovative books on oil painting that have started to appear, it's rather nice to find something that takes a rather more traditional approach

Working largely in impasto and using more subdued colours than some of his contemporaries, James Horton paints a broad selection of landscape subjects both in the UK and across Europe. His demonstrations are fairly compact, showing the main stages of the construction of the painting rather than going into a lot of detail about individual brush-strokes and this well suits his style of painting which is not, itself, over-detailed. Each section - skies, water, trees & foliage, hills & mountains, seas & beaches, seasons - finishes off with a small gallery of complementary works which also illustrate the subject in question.

This is not a basic introduction to oil painting (there are plenty of those), but rather a look at a particular style that's worthy of further investigation by those with a basic grasp of the medium.

* Artbookreview.net *

July 2007

I agree with this author when he says that teaching painting comprehensively from a book is impossible - there is just too much to learn. But a good primer can point a person in the right direction, and there is much that can be learned by reading about it, and then having a go.

Getting to know what you need, and then getting to grips with it is vital and there are quite a few pages devoted to this in here. These made for useful reading, and although there is quite a list of items it is made plain that you don't need them all. It is also explained what they are all for, something frequently absent in how-to books containing these exhaustive lists. Here it is all out in the open, and is akin to being part of a class which is surely about the best thing for a practical book of this type. Preparing canvas, working out of doors, what colors you need for certain views, viewfinders, composition are all covered in the same avuncular tone, which is just what is required. The staged paintings are always useful, and there are quite a few stages to each one showing how the work progresses and again taking the mystery away. This is a useful book for beginners and improvers who want to get under the skin of a notoriously elusive subject.

* Myshelf.com *

James Horton is an experienced artist with a particular love of working from life. He has written numerous practical art books, including Learn to Draw the Figure, Pastel Techniques and Skin Tones. He teaches art in colleges around the UK, and has exhibited his work widely, including mixed exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy and Royal Portrait Society. James works a great deal in India and since 2000 has been taking art groups to other locations including Tuscany, Venice, North Africa and Jordan. James lives in Cambridge, UK.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781844480401
ISBN 10	1844480402
Title	Painting Landscapes in Oils
Author	James Horton
Series	Oil Painting Tips And Techniques Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Search Press Ltd
Year published	2007-04-27
Number of pages	96
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.