A must-have reference book for today's artists and art students. Every artist needs to learn and master the still life. Written by a well-known artist and expert instructor, The Art of Still Life offers a comprehensive, contemporary approach to the subject that instructs artists on the foundation basics and advanced techniques they need for successful drawing and painting. In addition to Casey's stunning paintings, the work of over fifty past and present masters is included, so that the book will do double duty as a hardworking how-to manual and a visual treasure trove of some of the finest still life art throughout history and being created today.

The equivalent of a foundation course in traditional oil painting for beginning to intermediate level artists, this in-depth book uses the still life as a practical way to master oil techniques. The still life is a practical, forgiving genre as it does not require the likeness of a portrait or the accurate proportions of the figure and, unlike the landscape, it doesn’t change with the weather. Instead, it gives aspiring artists ample time to study and the opportunity to look closer. It can be used as a purely formal subject for drawing and painting techniques, or a platform for emotional expression using personal symbolism and imagery. However, though the still life is used throughout as a teaching tool, this is first and foremost a book about oil painting. It begins with simple compositions that build to more complex arrangements. Starting with essential information on how to best set up your studio—including lighting, equipment, materials (paints, solvents, brushes, mediums), and preparing your canvas and paper for oil painting—Still Life Painting Atelier then offers concrete lessons in a logical progressive sequence, with step-by-step illustrations, finished paintings, diagrams and tips. Chapters cover: • How to address composition through thumbnail sketches and line drawings • Using underpainting to study the characteristics of light and shade • The basics of color theory and color mixing • How to use a variety of brushes to create sharp and soft edges • Techniques that are helpful when painting metal and glass • How to apply glazing and scumbling to bring luminosity and texture

MY STILL LIFE ARTText & Paintings by Richard SchmidIn this book, Richard Schmid invites us to enjoy his life-long affair with still life paintings. Although he has painted a wide range of other subjects, such as landscapes, marine paintings, portraits, figurative works etc., it was still life painting that allowed him the privacy and unlimited time to develop and fine-tune his techniques and color perception. But more to the point of Still Life, Schmid shows us how even the most ordinary things can be transformed into objects of astonishing beauty and sometimes of surprising complexity. He explains that the objects in a Still Life need not be thrilling in and of themselves, but rather it is the way they are painted that makes them so compelling. Also, the many close-up images reveal the different ways he uses his palette knives and brushes. As you turn the pages of this book, you will realize how fortunate you are to have a master of painting share his efforts and achievements in capturing not only the world he sees, but sometimes the world of his imagination as well.

*A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK* *A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK* “[A] winsome, large-hearted novel ... [Still Life] pulses from the page.” —Entertainment Weekly Set between World War II and the 1980s, Still Life is a beautiful, big-hearted story of strangers brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, from the bestselling, prize-winning author of Tin Man and When God Was a Rabbit. In the wine-cellar of a Tuscan villa, as the Allies advance and bombs fall around them, two people meet and share an extraordinary evening: Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier from London's East End; Evelyn Skinner is a worldly older art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to rescue paintings from the ruins and relive her memories of the time she encountered E.M. Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view. Evelyn's talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses's mind that night, one that will shape the trajectory of his life—and the lives of those who love him—for the next four decades. Moving from war-ravaged Tuscany to the boozy confines of The Stoat and Parrot pub in London and the piazzas of post-war Florence, Still Life is both sweeping and intimate, mischievous and deeply felt. It is a novel about beauty, love and fate, about the things that make life worth living, and the things we're prepared to die for.

How do you keep the cracks in Starry Night from spreading? How do you prevent artworks made of hugs or candies from disappearing? How do you render a fading photograph eternal—or should you attempt it at all? These are some of the questions that conservators, curators, registrars, and exhibition designers dealing with contemporary art face on a daily basis. In Still Life, Fernando Domínguez Rubio delves into one of the most important museums of the world, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, to explore the day-to-day dilemmas that museum workers face when the immortal artworks that we see in the exhibition room reveal themselves to be slowly unfolding disasters. Still Life offers a fascinating and detailed ethnographic account of what it takes to prevent these disasters from happening. Going behind the scenes at MoMA, Domínguez Rubio provides a rare view of the vast technological apparatus—from climatic infrastructures and storage facilities, to conservation labs and machine rooms—and teams of workers—from conservators and engineers to guards and couriers—who fight to hold artworks still. As MoMA reopens after a massive expansion and rearranging of its space and collections, Still Life not only offers a much-needed account of the spaces, actors, and forms of labor traditionally left out of the main narratives of art, but it also offers a timely meditation on how far we, as a society, are willing to go to keep the things we value from disappearing into oblivion.

This stunning book presents the very best still lifes produced in the Netherlands at the height of the genre, from the early beginnings in the 16th century, with Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer, to the late highlights in the 18th century, with Rachel Ruysch and Jan van Huysum. Despite the popularity and abundance of flower paintings in modern collections, the book includes a wide range of subjects and styles, from the simple to the complex, the charmingly small to the opulent and extravagant, and from flowers to hunting still lifes or objects in the corner of a painter's studio, along with an occasional trompe l'oeil. The visual delights of still-life painting have a strong historical context. Collectors and connoisseurs purchased them because of their realism, visual appeal, and relevance to their own lives. Poets praised the wonders of still-life paintings and evoked the power of painting to transcend the seasons and the passing of time. Contemporary observers lauded the expensive and elaborate objects often on display. The book therefore considers the visual achievement of the Netherlandish still life painters in the context of contemporary reactions to pictures, art theory, and issues of patronage. Numerous artists were tempted to try their hand at still life, drawn by a new and enchanting genre that allowed an artist to create independent worlds of inanimate objects on the flat surface of a picture -- imaginary realms that had an exceptional following among connoisseurs of the time. These images continue to work their magic on present-day art lovers.

Capturing the boundless creativity of the LEGO® brand, this colorful book recreates objects and scenes from everyday life using LEGO bricks. Transforming handfuls of bricks into minty toothpaste, eggs and bacon, lush houseplants, and more, LEGO Still Life reimagines the mundane and sparks playfulness in everyday life. Featuring unique, clever, and captivating original art, these deceptively simple but meticulously executed images are full of surprise and delight—and remind us that the world around us is, too. • Recreates commonplace scenes from everyday life using LEGO® bricks • Creatively reimagines the everyday objects and scenes • Presented without text, these clever images speak for themselves, offering joy, surprise, and creativity on each spread LEGO Still Life is the perfect gift for LEGO lovers and art lovers alike. Watch LEGO bricks transform into everyday objects, turning the humdrum into a delightful surprise. • Great not only for LEGO fans who are feeling nostalgic, but for anyone who appreciates quirky art projects and creative spirit • This is a book that makes you look twice and enjoy the artful effort. • Perfect for fans of The Art of the Brick: A Life in LEGO by Nathan Sawaya, The Greatest Brick Builds: Amazing Creations in LEGO by Nathan Sawaya, and Beautiful LEGO by Mike Doyle

The stunning beauty and diversity of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting raises many questions about developments in style and technique. What materials did artists use to produce these works? How were they made? Did all the still-life painters of the period use the same methods and materials? Can we relate differences in materials and methods to differences in style? These questions are explored by the conservators and curators of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and scientists attached to the Molart project (Molecular aspect of aging in art) in an examination of paintings by Jan Brueghel, Balthasar van der Ast, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Willem Kalf, Rachel Ruysch, and Jan van Huysum.

"Published on the occasion of the exhibition Audubon to Warhol: the art of American still life, Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 27, 2015-January 10, 2016"--Title page verso.

In this, the only up-to-date critical work on still life painting in any language, Norman Bryson analyzes the origins, history and logic of still life, one of the most enduring forms of Western painting. The first essay is devoted to Roman wall-painting while in the second the author surveys a major segment in the history of still life, from seventeenth-century Spanish painting to Cubism. The third essay tackles the controversial field of seventeenth-century Dutch still life. Bryson concludes in the final essay that the persisting tendency to downgrade the genre of still life is profoundly rooted in the historical oppression of women. In Looking at the Overlooked, Norman Bryson is at his most brilliant. These superbly written essays will stimulate us to look at the entire tradition of still life with new and critical eyes.