200 Great Painting Ideas for Artists [Hardcover]

Carole Katchen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1998

An inspirational gallery of imaginative painting ideas featuring works in all mediums from 56 of today's most successful artists. Readers will gain practice by following seven step-by-step demonstrations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891347992
• ISBN-13: 978-0891347996
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,339,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful tips, May 16, 2000

By 

gail jacobson (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 200 Great Painting Ideas for Artists (Hardcover)

This is a fabulous book. It helped me to see and want to paint the magic and beauty in ordinary objects. Katchen shows a wonderful selection of artist's works. This book is full of inspiring ideas for choosing and arranging objects and colors for delicious paintings.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful Book, February 20, 2004

By 

anna vosburgh (cambridge, md) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 200 Great Painting Ideas for Artists (Hardcover)

I've owned this book for a couple of years now, and it has helped me many, many times. The "ideas" themselves are okay, but I love this book because of all the paintings. I have tried new techniques, design elements and subjects because I find something inspirational in a painting contained within the book. I browse through it often. The paintings are all very different, which is a plus, not just one style, subject or medium.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ho-Hum..., June 24, 2001

By 

hamsterdance (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 200 Great Painting Ideas for Artists (Hardcover)

Sigh...I was rather disappointed with this book. I expected so much more from it than what was delivered. For a book that purports to give ideas for increasing originality in your own paintings it is surprisingly unoriginal.

You get suggestions such as "Add a Still Lake to Your Landscape", "Paint a Wild Animal", "Capture Animals in Their Natural Habitat", "Paint a Season of the Year" and "Paint an Arrangement of Dried Flowers", etc. etc. etc. I'm not kidding. This is what is passed on as expanding creative boundaries. It is filled to the brim with cliched themes that are supposed to help spark creativity and originality. Some suggestions begin to show promise but there were just too few overall. One of the good things about the book is that at least many of the paintings were beautiful (although boring in my opinion - victims of the cliches they were illustrating).

Which frankly leaves me baffled as to why it was felt to be neccessary to publish this book. Save your change and get books that showcase award winning paintings such as one of the "Best of" books for watercolors, oils, pastels, colored pencil or other media. You'll get plenty of inspired ideas from these type of books and a lot more original ideas for inspiration.