Between the shorter days of winter and the stay-at-home period, now is a wonderful time to get cozy with one (or 100) books about painting landscapes, painting en plein air, and art in general. This list of books for artists is a great place to start!
The following art books are our reader favorites and are listed in no particular order. To learn more about any title, click the image of the book cover or visit your local book seller. Check out more books for artists in the December/January issue of PleinAir Magazine. Happy reading!
25 Books for Artists:
1. Composition of Outdoor Painting
2. Landscapes in Oil: A Contemporary Guide to Realistic Painting in the Classical Tradition
3. Plein Air Painting in Oil
4. A Painter’s Journey
5. Oil Painting: The Workshop Experience
6. Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
7. Maine Sublime: Frederic Edwin Church’s Landscapes of Mount Desert and Mount Katahdin
8. Hawthorne on Painting
9. Oil Painting: Develop Your Natural Ability
10. Unlimited Color with a Limited Palette
11. Color Choices: Making Color Sense Out of Color Theory
12. Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist
13. Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice
14. Painting on Location: Secrets to Plein Art Painting
15. Thomas W. Schaller: Architect of Light – Watercolor Paintings by a Master
16. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
18. Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
19. California Light: A Century of Landscapes Book
20. An Excuse to Draw
21. Alla Prima II
22. Landscape Painting Inside & Out
23. Plein Air Painting Tips and Tales: (Memoirs of a Michigan Plein Air Painter)
24. Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting
25. Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting
What’s your favorite art book? Share it with us in the comments below!
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I have three of them, but there are some on there I didn’t know about, so they’ll go on my list.
James Gurney is freakin brilliant. His quick, outdoor gouache studies are better than many more famous artists can do on a large scale. He’s an excellent teacher as well.
Thanks for posting that.
So true!!
Glazing