Customer Reviews

Hawthorne on Painting (Dover Art Instruction)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a collection of notes from students of Charles W. Hawthorne, instructor at the Cape Cod School of Art. The Introduction alone is worth the price! Statements like "Beauty in art is the delicious notes of color one against the other" are strewn throughout. Mr. Hawthorne clearly wanted to teach his students to see more beautifully, to know that subconscious thought counts and that the only way to learn to paint is by painting. He critiques the students' work on subjects of an outdoor model, landscapes, still life, indoor model and watercolors. Although there are no pictures in this book, as an artist, it is not difficult to picture from his description what the student's work looked like. I learned so much from this book. My issue is thoroughly marked up with my own notes. This will surely be one worn-out book by the time I'm through with it! A very useful book, I read it into my tape recorder so I could listen to the wisdom on my way to paint on site. This has become a "bible" for me as a plein air painter.

Having purchased Louis Griffel's "Painting the Impressionist Landscape," which illustrates Hawthorne's way of "seeing things", I was delighted to find this little gem which compiled Hawthorne's comments on painting. This small volume is packed full of wisdom. One can imagine sitting with Hawthorne as he describes the various paintings, their good and bad points. There are no illustrations in "Hawthorne on Painting" but Griffel's book provides ample opportunity to see what he was saying. The two together provide a wonderful look into Cape Cod Impressionism. Hawthorne models with paint instead of drawing with it on the canvas. Form is achieved through proper color value placed side by side. The book is truly inspiring for any painter.

I read the entire book in one sitting and was amazed at the content. I can only imagine what it would have been like to study with Hawthorne. This book has Hawthornes narratives as well as his critiques. I wish they had included pictures of the works being critiqued, that would be so much more useful. but as it stands it's still a great book. It's something you can read over and over. I was suprised how much of his advice applies to life in general, not necessarily painting.

Would gladly have paid more to see examples . While the statements are fascinating I needed to see more of what he did , not just what was on the cover.

There are very few books to help painters (even fewer for sculptors) that are of any real use. This is the only book, of which I am aware, that sucessfully deals with the challenges of outdoor painting in an honest (i.e. non stylized in terms of hue and value) manner. Hawthorne encourages his students to de-emphasize drawing and focus on learning to see and mix colors of the proper hue, intensity and value. He insists that it takes very little drawing information to convey a figure or landscape (even the time of day and weather) if the relationships among the large regions of various colors are correct. Yes, Hawthorne does repeat himself regarding "the mechanics of putting one spot of color next to another - the fundamental thing". Obviously he considers this paramount, but there is so much more in this small, inexpensive book. Here are a few examples: "The only way to learn to paint is by painting. To really study, you must start out with large tubes of paint and large palette and not stint in any way as far as materials go" ... "Always be looking for the unexpected in nature" ... "Know when you are licked - start another. Be Alive, stop when your interest is lost" ... "Don't be too reasonable, get a little bit excited" ... "Put on one or two traces of pure color as pace setters" ... "hold up the black handle of your palette knife to compare it with the darks in the subject" ..."You are too careful-but, of course, you can never be too careful. I expect you were careful about the wrong thing." Bottom line, it's a great book packed with useful advice by a real painter/teacher. You will have to read it carefully, think, and be open to new ideas, in order to really learn from it, but you can't do better for advice on honest, representational, outdoor painting.

Easily the best book ever written on painting from life. In addition to Hawthorne's excellent commentary on painting, the book contains comments that he made on his students' paintings. These works are not shown (only briefly described) but the notes offer tremendous insight into his teaching philosophy about the importance of color relationships in paintings. No other book I've ever read is as juicy as this one with pure painting common sense. An absolute must for a painter's library. In fact, order a dozen and give them to your artist-friends or students.

Charles Hawthorne was a very good painter in both oils and watercolors , and a very well respected teacher.In his book his philosophy and approach are made clearer and he gives a pretty good explanation of what he feels the difference is between the drawing and painting points of view in art, but unfortunately there is a complete lack of illustration except for the cover.You'll have to search the web to find some extra images of his work.His paintings range in style from realistic to expressionistic .I particularly like his watercolors and when I first read the preview here on amazon.com as i read I could imagine scenes in watercolor as illustration for the text and while my paintings vary considerably from hawthorne's personal style I think the lack of images in the book forces you to see what you would do with his advice.Not as a rehash of other's work, but your own personal vision.Can you put a price on that?
I recommend you read this book, work with it for a long time and then seek out hawthorne's work and that way you can see what your interpretation is like first .I think it's a really good book and it's inexpensive too!

While this tiny book does offer some important truths, it could be made even smaller if the author's central theme of color "spots" was not on nearly every single page.
My only other complaint is about that the reviews of students' paintings which comprises a large part of this small work. They are not nearly as helpful as they would be if there was some attempt at describing them a little more thoroughly than "Model in red sweater." (There are no graphics of any type in the entire book.)
Still, there is enough truth in this booklet to make it a must if you paint in anything approaching a representational style, (or want to).

How good could be an advice or critic if you dont see the pictures that goes
along with it. I did appreciate the reading of this book, but I'd say half of
it is wasted due to the fact that there is no artwork to base judgement for
yourself and understand the views of Mr. Hawthorne.

It's a good to hear the comments from this wonderful artist expressing what makes an artist. The books modest cost is worth it, just to feel how he processes the visual world. His constructive reviews of students is enlightening. What I really missed was pictures of the works he is reviewing. The book is devoid of any pictures. You have to visualize what he is talking about. I really wanted to "see" what he was seeing.