A beautiful volume and the first to explore the full range of Cincinnati-born Edward Potthast's art, including his European works.

Alla Prima is a comprehensive guide to direct painting, characterised by bold, expressive brushwork and a painterly, atmospheric surface. It covers the history of the direct methods in both Europe and America. From there, it includes detailed step-by-step lessons and discussions on drawing structure, broken and smooth brushwork, and colour development.

In the late 19th-early 20th century American artists began to gather in summer colonies that stretched from California to New England. In focused recognition of that development, this exhibition groups selected pairs of paintings or prints by artists who worked at very different north-east art colonies at Cape Ann (Gloucester and Rockport), Massachusetts on the one hand, and Monhegan Island, Maine on the other. These locations separated by a hundred miles of ocean became, as did many other contemporary art colonies, important crossroads in the history of American art as they hosted major artists through the years. In the case of these two colonies, figures such as Theresa Bernstein, Eric Hudson, Leon Kroll, Hayley Lever, James Fitzgerald, Lester Stevens, Stow Wengenroth and others visited, and sometimes lived, in both locations. This exhibition includes works by these and other artists from the collections of the Monhegan Museum of Art and History, the Cape Ann Museum, the Rockport Art Association, and private collections. Works by each of these and other artists depicting aspects of either location reflect the differences between the city-size Cape Ann, with its large industrial Gloucester harbor, sizable fishing fleet, and extended Rockport seashore, and by contrast the tiny off-shore island with its amazing cliff formations and smaller harbor and lobster fleet. Published by the Monhegan Museum of Art & History, Monhegan, Maine, to accompany the exhibition of the same name organized by the Monhegan Museum of Art & History and the Cape Ann Museum on view at the MMA&H from July 1 to September 30, 2021, and at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts, from October 23, 2021, to January 16, 2022.

Aelian's Historical Miscellany is a pleasurable example of light reading for Romans of the early third century. Offering engaging anecdotes about historical figures, retellings of legendary events, and descriptive pieces - in sum: amusement, information, and variety - Aelian's collection of nuggets and narratives could be enjoyed by a wide reading public. A rather similar book had been published in Latin in the previous century by Aulus Gellius; Aelian is a late, perhaps the last, representative of what had been a very popular genre. Here then are anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers, poets, historians, and playwrights; myths instructively retold; moralizing tales about heroes and rulers, athletes and wise men; reports about styles in dress, foods and drink, lovers, gift-giving practices, entertainments, religious beliefs and death customs; and comments on Greek painting. Some of the information is not preserved in any other source. Underlying it all are Aelian's Stoic ideals as well as this Roman's great admiration for the culture of the Greeks (whose language he borrowed for his writings).

A classic Little Golden Book—with a summertime theme! Nancy and Timmy hop out of their beds one summer morning and help pack their swimsuits and lunch. And then it's off to the seashore! In a charming rhyme, this Little Golden Book from 1951 (then titled A Day at the Beach) describes what preschoolers will find there: "You can catch little crabs—if you're quick! You can draw great big pictures right on the beach with a piece of a shell or a stick." Oh, what fun! From Kathryn and Byron Jackson, authors of the popular Little Golden Book The Saggy Baggy Elephant, and Corinne Malvern, illustrator of the Little Golden Books Doctor Dan the Bandage Man and Nurse Nancy.