Thomas Paquette: Gouaches (Perfect Paperback)

by Sally E. Mansfield (Author), Thomas Paquette (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
If the idea of stopping by woods on a snowing evening sends shivers up your spine, wait until you step into Thomas Paquette's new book, "Thomas Paquette: Gouaches" (Eyeful Press, 2007) and its frosty painting, "Veil of Snow." Like many of the works in this published collection, the mysterious landscape is revealed in scattered light and layers of color, drawing you deeper inside the natural world. Paquette's paintings are more like conversations, he says, and he revels in the places that inspired the creative process. He was, after all, a naturalist before he became a painter. Known for his large-scale oil paintings and singled out by art historians and contemporary critics as a master painter, he will remind you of the Explorer Artists of the American West, the forward observers who captured the grandeur of places like Yellowstone and Yosemite in the late 1800s. But the wild places in Paquette s book of 110 full-color paintings are different. They tend to whisper, not roar, and it's no wonder these paintings, made from layers of opaque water color paint called "gouache," are tiny. How an artist can compress such spectacular vistas into what amounts to only a few square inches is beyond me, but Paquette manages to render you speechless, the same way a visit to the rim of the Grand Canyon can, whether you are looking at his painting of a blueberry bog in Maine or clouds over Hungry Jack Lake. Choosing from hundreds of fine brushes, he meticulously details the cotton rag paper with of layers of pigment suspended in water, and once it dries, scratches through the delicate surface again and again until he is finally satisfied he has created something entirely new from the original he painted on the scene, or "en plein air." The art, like nature, is in the details. Paquette's work is housed museums, galleries and collections all over the world, including U.S. Embassies in Athens, Chad, Phnom Penh, Rome, St. Petersburg, San Salvador, Santiago, Taipei and Vienna. --Erie Times, 12/04/06, by Lisa Gensheimer

Product Description
Image-rich book of small gouache paintings (opaque watercolors) by nationally recognized artist Thomas Paquette. Often described as gemlike, 115 of his gouaches are reproduced full-size in this book which includes an essay by art historian and curator Sally E. Mansfield, and a preface by the artist. Art critic Philip Isaacson wrote that these gouaches by Paquette are "irresistible paintings."

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Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Eyeful Press (March 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978567919
• ISBN-13: 978-0978567910
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #871,774 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Hesitate, April 12, 2007

By	Tosh Hopkins "Tosh Hopkins" (Wildwood, Georgia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an absolute must for the artist and non-artist alike. The tiny paintings reproduced here so beautifully are gateways to a world of huge artistic vision. Mr. Paquette is master of color, master of composition, master of draftsmanship, and master of light, all in one accessible artist. His appeal extends through an enormous range of artistic tastes and will certainly compel many of its readers to investigate the larger works displayed on his website. A careful look at this book can teach aspiring landscape painters as much as can many art courses. I carry a copy with me for inspiration when painting plein-aire. I also keep a few copies on hand to share with others. The gouaches you will see are sumptuous, sparkling with time-of-day and atmosphere, and expansive in scope. It is downright amazing to feel you could step into a painting that measures just a few inches square. If you are interested in seeing art with something truly fresh and dazzling to offer, by all means do buy this wonderful volume.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Landscapes in Gouache by Thomas Paquette, April 18, 2009

By	Roslyn M. Stendahl (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I recently purchased this book from Amazon and like the previous reviewer think it is an essential book for painters and non-artists alike. I can't say enough good things about the book. I wrote the following on my blog and I would encourage anyone interested in landscapes, gouache, and use of color in art to purchase this book

On my blog I wrote:
Whoever suggested to oil painter Thomas Paquette that he work in gouache is a friend to us all. Now we have an absolutely essential book of his gouache paintings available: Thomas Paquette: Gouaches, 2007, Eyeful Press.

Paquette is a landscape painter who typically works on large canvases (80 x 60 inches for example). According to the introductory essay in his book of gouache paintings, his helpful friend made the suggestion to use gouache to free Paquette "from his habit of overpainting." You can read Paquette's artist statement in the book and on his website and understand that the searching and developing he does in his oils has become an integral part of his approach to gouache.

What Paquette creates are enticing, balanced, glowing images which don't look overworked or fussed over at all. They look rich, filled with light, and are composed in such an eye-pleasing way that the viewer can't help but want to wander around inside them.

And so here's the surprising thing, that knocked me over by surprise, Paquette's gouache paintings range from 2 x 1-3/4 to 5-1/2 x 7-1/4 inches! For me that means they are "bijou," and if you had seen me after I walked out of the miniatures collection at the Victoria and Albert you would know I can't think more highly about any painting than to describe it so. Into these tiny "frames" Paquette has packed forests, mountain ranges, the infinity of a reaching road, and the intimate companionship of an enclosed garden.

I don't care if you don't like gouache (actually I do care, and very much, and we will have to straighten you out on that at some point), but if you paint, you need to have this book to learn how to SEE. What makes something worthy of the attention of a painting? What captures an artist's eye? How does an artist compose what he sees? How does the artistic eye edit the massive variables in a landscape? The answers take shape in this selection of paintings. And all the while you get a wonderful visual tutorial on mass and light and how to define form. You could study one a day until you had gobbled them all up. Then, talk of the Impressionists and the Fauves would start to make sense to you viscerally instead of intellectually.

Do yourself a favor, if you like to look at landscapes as an artform get a copy of this book. If you paint landscapes, get a copy of this book. If you love color, composition, and you want to take a visual trip, get a copy of this book. (You get the idea.)

People are always asking me to recommend a book on painting with gouache. I've never found one, until I opened up this book. There isn't any text on how to apply paint and mix colors, there's just image after image for you to study. (The book is essentially a record of a traveling art show that would have been great to have seen in person.)

Maybe if we are all very lucky indeed, the same friend who told Paquette to start working in gouache will tell him when he retires that he needs to write an instructional book about gouache or make a video so we can enjoy watching the painting process and take the journey step by step with him.