Hi All :) Today's post has a few interesting reading reference picks I thought I would share. These three are art and design related; two are about color and one is about object placement and composition. The first is one I absolutely love, which is Choosing Colours by Kevin McCloud. His work in this book and also his palettes for Fired Earth paint company are nothing short of awesome ! I originally learned of Kevin's color palettes after having gotten a freebie copy of his Fired Earth Paint palette in some British interiors magazines I had bought while in the UK. I loved the subtlety to Kevin's Fired Earth palette and the descriptions of how the colors behaved in certain sorts of light. I love Porter's Paints colors here in Australia and I even mapped my favorite Fired Earth colors to Porters which I have used in a fair few decorating projects. Then when I saw this book in the bookstore, I just knew I had to have it !
The palette's shown in this book are amazing. Kevin researches the colors thoroughly and presents really sophisticated insights to the nature of the color, what it works with and complements, and its depth and versatility. I highly recommend this book to anyone doing work with color for interior decorating, textile arts, and artwork. There are great ideas of how colors work together, palettes of related colors and also of color themes, and also lovely photos of decors done in certain colors or themes. I find lots of inspiration and insights from this book, over and over again !
The next book is a new acquisition for me (today's stop at Border's !), and it looks fascinating. Colorist: A Practical Handbook for Personal and Professional Use by Shigenobu Kobayashi
delves into color aesthetics and offers tools and techniques for determining color preferences and harmonies. The book is a small size one, so it will be jumping into my suitcase for the upcoming epic round the world biz trip in June-July ! I found the charts and color insights fascinating and will be enjoying having a few good reads and also using this as a reference.
The last book pick in today's post is a very nice little study on still life object arrangement theory and practice called Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement by Leonard Koren (Paintings by Nathalie Du Pasquier). This is a cool little easy-to-carry around book that decomposes compositions and analyzes objects in them in a very intelligent way. A really great read for anyone arranging objects for aesthetics, interest, or to generate curiosity or intrigue !
I find it is important to read as much as I can, and constantly look at new ideas, concepts and techniques or principles. I also have a mad and crazy magazine habit, especially when I travel. Then I buy off news stands or in book stores, especially in the UK and USA. Usually I have a definite bias and affinity for interiors mags ! Not that I deliberately limit myself though, every so often it is good to look at something different, you just never know what you might find or learn... I also LOVE buying magazines in India (check out Vogue India--it's stunning !!!) So many cool and different things in the features and even the adverts, and fabulous colors, fabrics, jewelry, accessories, and makeup ! Though I read serious news too and am a voracious reader of local newspapers and news magazines too (especially appreciate The Economist--very well presented pieces in it ! And in USA, I like the WSJ for a good news balance between politics and business, and excellent editorials). But back to my magazine habit. I buy them and read and dog ear and scribble notes on whatever pages appeal, for whatever reason. And before moving on (as in checking out of a hotel or leaving an airport transit lounge, I rip out the keepers pages, articles, images. Magazines are heavy--but I do recycle the discarded bits in recycle paper bins :) Later on return home I file the ones I want to retain as references and inspiration in big binders. I now have a formidable set of volumes of reference materials for renovations, interiors makeovers, fashion, art and anything else (I also keep travel articles, in case I ever go to where the feature is ). As part of my mental and visual immersion and stimulation while spending waytoomuchtime in airports, this is pretty tame and safe--works for me ;)
Have fun checking these out, or let me know what books related to art, aesthetics, and design you are loving right now !
Bye, more soon :)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment