March 09
Terry shares his passion for painting rustic buildings in this inspiring book. He shows how to paint the beautiful details of windows, doors and wood grains that bring life to lovely old cottages and barns.
This book is divided into sections of Cottages, Mills, Sheds, Shacks and Huts and a variety of styles of barns. Within each section he breaks down the entire picture down into small sections such as starting with the roof he shows how to paint a thatched roof, a tiled roof and a slate roof. Having completed that the artist can work on further sections such as the doors and windows. Having completed this there is a lovely demonstration of a cottage garden, and a thatched cottage using many of the techniques already explored, followed by some inspirational completed paintings of Terrys' of other cottages and watermills.
The barn section begins with some lovely illustrations of different types along with some techniques for painting weathered walls and various roofs. It goes on to show many different types of country structures that can be added to paintings or made into complete paintings in their own right. There's a short section on animals and figures that are so useful for adding life into paintings. This is followed by two detailed demonstrations of how to paint both an American and an English barn.
Throughout this book there are many excellent examples of completed works both to inspire the artist, and to give ideas for their own works. A useful addition for landscape artists.
* JeannieZelos.com *
April 09
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Terry Harrison is not the greatest painter in the world. What he is, however, is an excellent and generous teacher who has a great gift for explaining what he does in terms that the aspiring painter can understand and learn from. He is also amazingly versatile and there a few subjects that he doesn't turn his hand to with pretty much complete success. Buildings are a popular subject, partly because they appear in almost every landscape, but also because of their huge variety and the opportunities they present for colour and texture. A well executed building can make a painting. There's a nice pace to this book, with detailed step-by-step demonstrations interspersed with complete paintings that are there to emphasise the point being made in that particular context. There are also buildings of every type and a lot of information on how to capture brick, stone and woodwork as well as the many texture these throw up. From what sounds like quite a limited subject, Terry has conjured up one of his best and most varied books. Maybe that's what he is: a magician and he paints pictures that, in truth, just make you feel good about the world. There's one more thing. Tucked away on pages 90 and 91 is a gem so valuable it's worth the price of the book on its own. It's called Adding Life and it's two pages of animals and people that will show you better than anything else I've seen how to populate your paintings. It's brilliant in its simplicity.
* Artbookreview.net *
May 09
Paintings of the countryside are always popular, and however remote a place you choose, there is often a building of some kind in view. This book shows you how best to depict all kinds of rural buildings, from huts and barns to pretty cottages, mills and farms in all kinds of repair-and interesting disrepair! Despite insisting that the only paints to buy are the most expensive ones, this is another good primer from Mr. Harrison. It is quite a fat book too and at first I wondered what on earth he could find to put in it, but even a swift glance showed me just how many different building textures and types there are to portray. Each of these presents its own challenge to the painter, and thus there are plenty of staged projects on painting thatch, different roof tiles, walls, doors, windows and even things like windmill sails. This is predominantly a book on how to capture the unique charms of the English countryside, but there are various Continental and American scenes too. Invariably after mastering the basics there are more involved staged projects that build up into whole pictures, and these also serve to illustrate some particular point. At the back is a gallery, plus a short chapter showing some other elements to add in, such as rustic figures, farm machinery, and animals. This is treated only cursorily, but this is a book on painting buildings. If you are looking for instruction on this type of painting, look no further.
* Myshelf.com *
