Daily Studio Photograph. April 18, 2012.

April 18, 2012.

This is something that is in my studio and has become strangely valuable to me. It’s a list of all the books I’ve read since I started keeping the list in 1999. There are art histories, and art related books of course, and there are the classics such as War And Peace, Crime And Punishment, Lord Of The Flies, and Catcher In The Rye. There’s also all of Patrick O’Brian, Ian Rankin, Terry Pratchett, and J K Rowling, and many other works of history and fiction. I would be hard pressed to say what is my favourite book in the list. I would have to say Simon Schama is wonderful, as are Patrick O’Brian, Terry Pratchett, also I’m oddly addicted to the work of Matthew Collings.

Anyone have any interesting reading suggestions?

An Artist’s Bookshelf Review. Sean Scully.

Bookshelf.

I’ve had a long love of books, and some of my most prized books are art books. This is a review of books from my collection that can be found on shelves in my studio. I will provide links when possible.

Sean Scully.

Thames & Hudson have published several books about the work of the Irish-American painter Sean Scully.

Sean Scully by David Carrier is a fine introduction to the work of this great painter. It has 200 illustrations, 190 are in colour, and covers all aspects of his career, from his earliest work, to his work as a printmaker and photographer. Sean Scully is an abstract painter who takes his inspiration from the world around him. There is an interesting section of his photographs of the fronts of buildings, showing doors, windows, and shadows on pages 162-163, called Atlas Walls.

Atlas Wall.

In these photos I can see his inspiration for much of his recent work. Scully is an artist whose work gets better with age. His painting is much looser, and his use of colour is subtle and lush.

“This book is the first fully illustrated monograph to present an account of the artist’s life and career to date, from his childhood in 1950s London, via New York and Barcelona, to the present day in Munich. Lavish reproductions of his major works illustrate the text, while photographs taken by Scully on his travels show some of the forms that inspire them. Photographs of Scully at work in his studio demonstrate stage by stage how he creates his pictures, from blank canvas to finished work.”