I review children's books from picture books, middle grade fiction, non fiction and young adult books. Formerly the children's book reviewer for The South Wales Evening Post
How is a novel written? A masterpiece painted? A symphony composed?
Benjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts - he believed alcohol was essential to his creative process.
Here are the working routines of more than a hundred and sixty of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived, who, whether by amphetamines or alcohol, headstands or boxing, made time and got to work.
A chance to see what great lives look like when the triumphs, dramas, disruptions and divorces have been all but boiled away. It will fascinate anyone who wonders how a day might best be spent, especially those who have wondered of their artistic heroes, as a baffled Colette once did of George Sand: how the devil did they manage? (Guardian)
An utterly fascinating compendium . . . This book is the ultimate retort to the flaneurs who dream about the novel/screenplay/painting they would create if only they had the time. Its message is that serious artists make the time, and most of them make it at the same time every day (Daisy Goodwin Sunday Times)
My Musings
A fascinating little jewel of a book. These 'amuse-bouche' is a riveting insight into the lives of many of our greatest writers, artists and musicians and their daily rituals. What comes across in these tiny tales is that if you have a passion to create you will make the time and not let life get in the way. As an artist you have to be selfish, determined and have a one track mind.
There is someone for everyone in this from Picasso to Steven King, Georgia O Keefe to Beethoven giving it a broad appeal. I absolutely loved reading about the lives of the great and the good of our cultural giants. It is like spying through a keyhole into their lives for a few seconds. Each artist is given no longer than a page or two depending I suppose on the amount of facts Currey was able to gleen but that is enough.
What you take from the book, (or I did as an artist) is that there is no magic formula to create. Everybody has their own idiosyncrasies. The majority did have very disciplined (and quirky) rituals that they kept to rigorously. However there were some real eccentrics and undisciplined artists and writers who still produced masterpieces. What you take away from this treasure trove is listen to what works for you. We are all individuals and we all work in different ways BUT if you can find the daily rituals that work for you then the world is your oyster.
A great gift for culture vultures and artists alike. Perfect to dip in and out of or read at a stretch.
Synopsis An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.
My Musings
Thinking it was an excellent idea to turn Mr Turner into an art class outing for my students I was a bit put off when 3 of my students, having already seen it said it was awful, long and he was odious. Well, I thought, the tickets have been booked so off we went expecting the worst. At over 2 and half hours I thought it was going to turn into the longest evening ever! However I am very glad to report I was pleasantly surprised and was riveted throughout it all. It is however a required taste and I am not surprised it has had mixed reviews. Timothy Spall as Turner is Brilliant. He grunts, growls and gruffles throughout the film whilst using a wide vocabulary to show off his lurking intellect. He does not portray him as a refined man and the way he grabs his women through out really irked some of my female students. However it shows also his tender side, his closeness to his father and his relationships with Mrs Booth in his twilight years. This is a film about a great artist who has made it but never bends to society rules always sticking to his own path. His own vision.
Talking of vision the film is visually gorgeous. It was my favorite part of the film. The cinematography should get an award by the bucket load. The scenes and the lighting where as if you were in a Turner painting. Beautiful. A little nod to A Girl with The Pearl Earring I think. It was just a delight to let your eyes wander around the sets, especially if your an artist.
This film is a little long and Turner is portrayed as a very bright and astute but still basic, and at times rough man which will be not to everyone's tastes. However I would urge you to see it if you love Turners work or that period to wallow in its visual delights. Oh yes and a shout out for Dorothy Atkinson who plays his long suffering housekeeper and had all the laughs in the film. She started out a bit hammy as did the others but as the film builds they all got into their stride and she was a real joy to watch. Marion Bailey who played his last love, Mrs Booth also added sensitivity and gentleness to the film.
An arthouse film that is an acquired taste but for me insightful, beautiful and a real surprise.
This is a list of fictional books I have read featureing artists and painters is some guise. Some take centre stage , while some use it as a backdrop but is still a relevant part of the story and of interest to anyone interested in art and painting. I will add more as I discover them!
Please feel free to add to my list as I am always on the look out for other books featuring artists.
The Girl With The Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Synopsis
17th Century Holland. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of Johannes
Vermeer in the town of Delft, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry
and the care of his six children. But as she becomes part of his world and his
work, their growing intimacy spreads tension and deception in the ordered
household and, as the scandal seeps out, into the town beyond.
My Musings
Beautiful story of the relationship between the artist and an unlikely muse. Tender, visually stunning and romantic.
Paris in Winter by Imogen Robinson
Synopsis
A deep, dark and opulent tale of Belle Époque Paris, and the secrets and dangers
hidden beneath its luxurious façade.
My Musings
I am not going to lie, this is a book I have not read yet but can't wait to. Superficially love the cover but the story looks great and love this era. Has had good reviews so couldn't resist putting it on!
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
Synopsis
The Amsterdam of the early 17th century has been forever immortalised by the
serene, precise domestic realism of the canvases of Vermeer and Rembrandt. Deborah Moggach's novel Tulip Fever gives this time a compelling fictional twist. Set in 1630s Amsterdam, it begins with a
typical Renaissance love triangle: a wealthy, elderly merchant, Cornelis
Sandvoort, his beautiful but frustrated young wife Sophia and the painter who
enters their life, Jan van Loos. Commissioned to paint the happy couple's
portrait, Jan becomes embroiled in a series of emotional and financial
speculations which are to change the character's lives forever. Interspersed
with 16 beautifully reproduced Dutch paintings, Tulip Fever is a
delightfully conceived story which offers a new dimension to what really goes on
within the apparently placid domestic interiors of such canvases. My Musings
For those who loved Girl With a Pearl Earring. Very evocative, passionate and interesting historical content about the age. Also lovely colour pictures of paintings, which is very unusual in fiction book.
The Very Picture of You by Isabel Wolff
Synopsis
A forbidden love, a life-long secret, and one chance to make the right decision. Ella has always been an artist, jotting down pictures from a young age, and now in her thirties she has made it her profession. When Ella's younger sister Chloe asks her to paint a portrait of her new fiance Nate, Ella is reluctant. He is a brash American who Ella thinks has proposed far too fast, so the thought of spending many hours alone with him fills her with dread. But before long Ella realises there is more to Nate than meets the eye. Beautifully inter-weaving the stories of Ella's sitters - from the old lady with a wartime secret, to the handsome politician who has a confession to make - with Ella's own hunt for her real father and slow realization that she is falling in love with the wrong man. My Musings Set around a portrait artists and her sitters a great insight into the intimacy that can evolve from these sitttings and a really good holiday read and gift.
Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman
Synopsis
RoNA Best Epic Romantic Novel 2013, Festival of Romance Best Romantic Read
2012, and shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year 2013.
'You are a remarkable woman and you deserve all the happiness, contentment
and love in the world. I, for one, know that I have never met anyone quite like
you.'
When Rose Pritchard turns up on the doorstep of a Cumbrian B&B it is her
last resort. She and her seven-year-old daughter Maddie have left everything
behind. And they have come to the village of Millthwaite in search of the person
who once offered Rose hope.
Almost immediately Rose wonders if she's made a terrible mistake - if she's
chasing a dream - but she knows in her heart that she cannot go back. She's been
given a second chance - at life, and love - but will she have the courage to
take it?
My Musings
This book features the artist as Rose's long lost father whom she goes to find. It is more about Rose and her getting out of a very bad situation and rebonding with her father. However it also goes on to describe well how obsessive and selfish artists can be!! A really good read.
The Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb
Synopsis
A spellbinding tale about the power of love, the danger of obsession, and the unfaithful nature of memory. A Half Forgotten Song is by turns haunting, heartbreaking and joyous.
1937. In a village on the Dorset coast, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher has endured a wild and lonely upbringing, until the arrival of renowned artist Charles Aubrey-along with his exotic mistress and their daughters-changes everything. Over the next three summers, Mitzy sees a future she had never thought possible, and a powerful love is kindled in her. A love that grows from innocence to obsession; from childish infatuation to something far more complex. Years later, a young man in an art gallery looks at a hastily-drawn portrait and wonders at its intensity. The questions he asks lead him to a Dorset village and to the truth about those fevered summers in the 1930s.
My musings
This is loosely based on the artist Augustus John I believe. A very dark but brilliant tale of obsession.
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Synopsis
Set in the Paris it tells the story of three sisters, one of whom becomes the model for Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. A Darkly Beautiful read on theatre life in The Belle Epoque.
An outstanding debut about a love affair between artists that endures professional rivalry, alcoholism and betrayal
My Musings. Totally forgot about this book until I was tidying up my bookshelf. I remember it being deeply evocative and the wonderful descriptions of time and place were haunting. Definately a great gift for a lover of art, spain and beautiful prose. Some more reviews below. 'An Equal Stillness is pitch perfect. Kay describes Mallow's painting with an arresting intensity' (Eithne Farry DAILY MAIL)
An enchanting life story... Exquisitely written: the descriptions of Jennet's work, paintings that never existed and the descriptions of colour are breathtaking. (DAILY EXPRESS)
it's the freshness of the prose, the insightfulness of the author, that makes this a very special book... A startlingly accomplished debut. (newbooks magazine)
a masterful portrait of a woman forging an unexpectedly dazzling career against the backdrop of familial duty (EASY LIVING)
Kay writes about art with a wonderful sensuality and relish (THE TIMES)
Kay's writing is beautifully intense (FINANCIAL TIMES)
a compelling, vivid portrait (THE GUARDIAN)
Francesca Kay's impressive first novel is a fictional biography... The descriptions of artworks are remarkable. Colour is evoked with amazing subtlety. (THE INDEPENDENT)
the most beautiful, accomplished debut I have read for a long time... It is a powerful novel by a supremely talented artist. (Francesca Segal THE OBSERVER)
the author successfully shares with us her delight in the world. (DAILY TELEGRAPH)
This is a story of genius amid domesticity that will resonate with readers on a fundamental level. We're thrilled to recommend this book and are excited to see what Francesca Kay does next (Mishal Husain Orange Chair of Judges, BBC World News presenter)
Ms Kay has an unusual ability to ignite the imagination. A passion for art and a gift for depicting the landscape of paint are what make the book stand out. (THE ECONOMIST)
Francesca Kay has won this year's Orange Award for New Writers and a real star has stepped on to the stage... Lyrical, sensual, sharp - this is the most impressive contemporary novel I have read for years. (A.N. Wilson READERS DIGEST)
Laura Knight Portraits at The National Portrait Gallery, London until Oct 13th 2013
My musings
This is a wonderful exhibition by one of my favourite artists. I really admire her because she was a pioneer for women artists and painted a variety of fascinating subjects portrayed in her own strong style. she painted the theatre, circus, gypsies, ballet dancers and was even captured the ww11. In the exhibition you can see her style become more refined never losing her strong sense of line and design but her paintwork becomes more confident over the years. How lovely to see an exhibiton of storng drawing, pastel, watercolour and oil. These are mediums usually not exhibited but these for me are my favourite pieces of work. Laura captures the character and strenght of her subjects as well as showing their setting, cirsuc giving the auienc a glimse into their lives.
National Portrait exhibition
Dame Laura Knight (1877 –1970) was one of the most popular and pioneering British artists of the twentieth century. Her artistic career took her from Cornwall to Baltimore, and from the circus to the Nuremberg Trials. She painted dancers at the Ballets Russes and Gypsies at Epsom races, and was acclaimed for her work as an official war artist.
Knight used portraiture to capture contemporary life and culture, and her paintings are remarkable for their diverse range of subjects and settings. This exhibition of over thirty portraits will reveal Knight’s highly distinctive and vivid work, and also illustrate her success in gaining greater professional recognition for women in the arts.
Points of Interest
Laura Knight (1877-1970) was the first woman artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire.
* She was a figurative Painter who was renowned for her drawing and graphical art skills and her paintings of the ballet and theatre and portraits of people at war.
* She was an official war artist at the Nuremburg Trials after World War 2.
* She was the first woman to be honoured with a retrospective Exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1965.
This website provides links to all the available online material which tells the story of Dame Laura Knight and shows you where you can see her paintings National portrait exhibition webiste
