Artist's Books

With all the Kindle love on here lately, I didn't want you to think that I no longer buy any "real" books!  There are some books that a Kindle (even a color one) just can't do justice to.  Especially when it comes to books on creating art.  Two new ones have joined my library this past week.


I have lots of books in my library about creating Art Journals.  But none of them were quite what I was looking for, as I wanted something more focused on drawing and sketching in watercolor and ink about my daily travels, nature, or whatever happens to suit my fancy.  Most of the books out there are more about fancy art collage scrapbooking types of things, which though fun and lovely, weren't quite what I really enjoy doing.  So, when I saw Artist's Journal Workshop: Creating Your Life in Words and Pictures at Barnes & Noble earlier this week, I knew it had to come home with me!  I read it through in one long evening.  The next day, I went out and added a couple of art supplies to my travel pouch and then spent the afternoon putting some of the tips and techniques into play.  I loved it!  Then I came home, re-read part of it and today, spent more time playing with some of the ideas!  If you want to create and Artist's Journal filled with art, sketching, watercolors and some journaling ~ then this is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it!


Most books about watercolor painting are more about the large wet on wet techniques.  But what I do is more of a dry brush technique suited to small scale work.  It's nearly impossible to find good books on these types of techniques.  They are outnumbered probably 500 to 1 by the wet on wet technique books. So when I found Painting with Watercolor, Pen & Ink and saw the nice variety of techniques presented, it also came home from the bookstore with me.  While it is a great technique book, I don't find it as inspiring as Artist's Journal Workshop, but I'm sure I'll refer to it now and again as I search for a technique to render an idea.


As I perused my bookshelves at home, I realized that I already have a book by each of these author/artists!  I purchased The Sierra Club Guide to Painting in Nature (Sierra Club Books Publication) on one of my trips, either at Sequoia National Park or at Rocky Mountain National Park.  I've read through it a few times and found it quite inspirational (though not as much so as Artist's Journal Workshop).


I also have Painting Weathered Buildings in Pen, Ink & Watercolor (Artist's Photo Reference S.).  Again, I have it mostly for the techniques it shows.  I have an abiding interest in vernacular architecture and love to sketch buildings, though I usually end up sketching the nature around them instead.

On my Kindle 2/18/2012

While I love the feel of holding a book in my hand and seeing books on the shelves, I am also learning to love my Kindle!  It fits so easily in my purse and makes it easy to take my reading material to and from work and everywhere I go.  I love that I'm never without something to read!  I also like that I don't have to purchase more bookshelves or have to think about hauling still more boxes of heavy books the next time that I move.  And with that in mind, it fits right in with the current books I'm reading on my Kindle.


Living in a small to moderate sized apartment, I constantly deal with clutter.  As someone who loves books (lots of them!) and as someone involved in various arts and handcrafts, as well as someone who loves dishes, I am constantly in danger of becoming totally engulfed in "stuff".  I make list after list of my "essential" items and dream of downsizing to the extreme, while at the same time realizing that with the activities I enjoy, this is probably one of those castle in the sky dreams.  But I still need to keep my stuff in line and learn how to live with less of it.  As I prepare for a major purge in the next month, I've been reading, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life by Francine Jay. This book, first helps one think about their stuff in terms of why we own what we do (is it useful, beautiful, or do we have an emotional tie to it?) and then helps us think through whether or not it is an item that gets frequent use ("20% of what we own gets used 80% of the time") or is it an item that belongs in our "outer circle" (gets used less than once a week but more than once a year).  Or is it something that belongs in deep storage, such as the things we only use once a year (seasonal decorations, tax returns, etc.)   The first half of the book deals with these types of things, our attachments to stuff and what makes it hard to let go.  The second half of the book focuses more on specifics, or exactly how to go, room by room, and separate our stuff into Treasure, Trash, or Transfer categories and how to think through what goes where.  I love her concept that "Life is the space between our things."  If I have to spend too much time taking care of stuff, I am not free to live and do.


Miss Minimalist: Inspiration to Downsize, Declutter, and Simplify is another book by Francine Jay, the same author of "The Joy of Less".  It is a collection of posts on the topics of downsizing from her blog.  While the ideas are similar it is complementary to the first book.


Simplify by Joshua Becker is yet another Kindle book on the topic of de-cluttering in order to live more fully.

In the past, I have read other books on this topic that are on my bookshelf rather than on my Kindle.  One of my favorites is It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff  This book also helps one work through the emotional attachments that we have to our stuff and helps to think of concrete ways to break those attachments and live happier with less stuff.

I find that it helps to re-read these from time to time, as it's all too easy to fall back into old habits and suddenly, one finds their self swimming in stuff again.