New Releases by Susie Hodge

A celebration of some of the world's greatest dog paintings as well as an enlightening look at the history of dog breeds by art historian Susie Hodge, the book features 50 great paintings from throughout history, each depicting a different dog breed. With an essay about the work of art and the artist as well as a separate piece about the individual dog breeds, the author analyzes the dogs featured in the works of art, explaining the original human uses of specific breeds - such as herding, hunting, defending or lap dogs - and how those dog breeds have changed over time - sizes, colour and uses. It reveals how certain breeds were very popular in history and how the fashions for different breeds changed over time. Featuring many of the world's best-loved works, including Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife by Jan van Eyck, Venus of Urbino by Titian, and The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renior, this informative and attractive new book will appeal to both art and dog lovers alike and form part of a new series.

The Short Story of Contemporary Art is a must-read introduction to this exciting and important period from bestselling author and art historian Susie Hodge. This fascinating pocket guide to art explains the how, why and when of contemporary art - who introduced certain techniques or genres, and why these matter. Simply constructed, the book explores 40 key works - from the iconic sculpture of Barbara Hepworth to the street art of Keith Haring and the performance pieces of Marina Abramovic - and links them to the most important movements, themes and techniques. Accessible, concise and richly illustrated, the book reveals the connections between different periods, artists and styles, giving readers a thorough understanding and broad enjoyment of contemporary art.

An intriguing investigation into over 50 elusive artworks that were stolen and never recovered. Mona Lisa, Starry Night, Birth of Venus. People travel for hundreds of miles to observe these breathtaking paintings with their own eyes. Now discover the artworks that nobody can ever see… and the fascinating stories behind their disappearance. In this collection of daring heist stories, read about: Michelangelo’s Mask of a Faun Caravaggio’s Nativity Rembrandt’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Cézanne’s View of Auvers-sur-Oise Van Gogh’sThe Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring With meticulous research and engaging storytelling, this book uncovers the mysteries surrounding the thefts of these valuable artworks and many more. Each fated work will be discussed to reveal why it, and the artist who made it, was significant. Gain a deeper appreciation for these artists, and the lasting impact they've had on the art world. This book also answers key questions about each missing piece, including: Why and how was it stolen? What attempts have been made to recover it? Leads, red herrings, and suspects. Whether you're passionate about art or drawn to the thrill of solving mysteries, this book offers a compelling narrative that will keep you engaged from cover to cover. It's a must-read for anyone curious about the intersection of art, crime, and history.

The Elements of Art deconstructs great works of art into manageable components so that you can better understand and appreciate them. Knowing how to interpret art is one of the biggest issues facing casual gallery-goers. They may ask themselves questions like: Why is the Mona Lisa so small? Why are some frames gilded in gold while others are non-existent? What can the use of material say about a work, whether it’s an oil painting, collage or made of found objects? And does the life of the artist matter? This book answers all of these questions and more and introduces the key elements with which you can analyse and better understand artwork. From colour, medium and size to where the piece is situated, and the artist who made it, you’ll learn what’s important and what’s not so important. The book includes two parts: Part One introduces the elements using examples from throughout art history, introducing key terms and techniques while giving you the tools to apply lessons learned outside of the book. Part Two puts the elements into practice by breaking down 30 great artworks element by element—from Michelangelo to Frida Kahlo. With the Elements of Art, you’ll learn important information about technique, style, material, location and colour that will shape you to read and interpret art. Whether you're a student, teacher, culture vulture or art enthusiast, this book will help you de-mystify great works of art, making for a more meaningful, fulfilling and enjoyable visit to any gallery.

Draw 30 amazing animals in just 8 easy stages! Learn how to draw a marvelous menagerie of 30 animals, from dogs, cats and horses to those on the wilder side, including majestic elephants, beautiful birds, lions, tigers and bears - to name but a few! Choose your favorite fauna, and build up their shapes from top to tail in seven simple sketches that culminate in a full-color drawing. With its easy-to-follow landscape format, you can see the creatures come to life across the page, then recreate them yourself on paper or in your sketchbook. This book contains material previously published in the How to Draw series, including Birds (2008), Cats (2008), Dogs (2009), Horses (2009) and Wild Animals (2010).

New edition of Gustav Klimt in the popular Masterpieces of Art series. Gustav Klimt, well known for his sensual, arresting depictions of women (The Kiss, Fulfillment, The Tree of Life), was a founder of the Viennese Secession movement at the turn of the 20th century, Vienna's own Art Nouveau. His extravagant work, was an obsessive manifestation of the dazzling intellectual society of his time and he painted very large canvases combining oils with gold foil. This beautiful new book brings together a wide selection of Klimt’s magnificent work.

Take a look inside the homes of some of your favourite artists and explore how each one reflected their spirit and creativity. From William Morris and Pablo Picasso to Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo, Artists at Home showcases the quiet retreats, creative hubs, lifelong homes, and holiday escapes of key artistic figures. Author Susie Hodge introduces readers to each artist's life and work, placing the significance of the home at the heart of their practice before exploring how each residency both reflected and inspired the artist’s creative output. By delving into their homes – the architecture, interiors, the lives lived there, and the work created there – we can see these artists’ private spaces as reflections of their artistic output. For these inspiring people, homes are places where the boundaries between work, creativity and daily life are indistinct – they are as much as reflection of their artistic intention as the great artworks that made their name.

What's stopping you from drawing? Just Draw! A Step-by-Step Guide for Artists offers a simple and effective way to get going and learn to draw in a wide variety of genres. Divided into two sections and offering plenty of space for practice, you can develop your skills in the first section, learning how to plan a drawing with just lines, consider perspective and volume, and how to create different effects. The second section contains 11 step-by-step projects to complete, including landscapes, still-lifes, and animals. Starting from the simplest outline, you'll learn how to create shape and form and add finer features to quickly create an impressively detailed drawing.

Imagine having 5,000 of human history's most amazing artefacts at your fingertips! Go on a trip through the famous Metropolitan Museum of Art without ever leaving your home! Prepare to explore the treasures of the world's civilizations-from ancient Egyptian amulets, Mayan jewelry, and prehistoric tools-to Medieval tapestries, Renaissance suits of armor, and modern-day baseball cards. Each page brings you closer to the past as you learn about the people of different ages through the objects they left behind. Discover hand-picked highlights of the museum's huge collection as you travel through history, one incredible object at a time. This book combines exclusive Met photography with colorful and quirky illustrations in a resource that parents can trust, with a design that kids will love. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Have fun making these amazing paper creations.You’ll find origami models plus puppets and pop-up greetings cards, boxes, a windmill and a picture frame. Get folding! * Includes everything you need. * Perfect projects for a rainy day. * Develop your creative skills.

From Romanesque to Realism; Pop Art to Pluralism, in this series, Susie Hodge introduces the most important art ideas and concepts that form the foundations of Western art.

Learn to draw 28 playful puppies from scratch in 6 easy steps. Choose your new best friend from this cuddly collection of 28 playful puppies. Best-selling artist Susie Hodge teaches you to transform simple shapes into 28 cute and characterful puppies in a range of much-loved breeds. There are 28 different kittens to draw: each project starts with a few basic outlines and progresses into a finished tonal drawing with a final colored version showing you how to develop your drawing even further Perfect for beginners, as well as budding artists, you’ll be amazed how easily you too can bring these playful pooches to life with this inspiring guide.

Offering helpful guidance, this illustrated handbook introduces new ways of viewing art and shows how anyone can use art to work through difficult emotions and improve their mental state. Enlightening, challenging, and informative, visual art can also be therapeutic, reducing anxiety and stress levels, and offering perspective on the challenges that we all face in our lives. How Art Can Change Your Life introduces readers to new ways of looking at a wide range of art. Through careful examination and explanation, author Susie Hodge investigates how engaging with art and drawing can help everyone feel more connected and inspired. From Frida Kahlo confronting her anxieties to Henri Matisse embracing happiness, and from Louise Bourgeois conquering fear to Auguste Rodin finding hope, this book will show how you too can use art to work through difficult emotions and improve your mental state. All art can broaden knowledge, give enjoyment, and challenge our assumptions; but it can also help soothe, calm, enlighten, and uplift the mind and spirit. Even art that leaves us uncomfortable can still help us to think differently and give us new perspective. In twelve chapters, readers will learn how art can dissipate anger, help to overcome sorrow, inspire self-reflection, as well as tackle other mental challenges. Artists have been conveying aspirations, feelings, ideas, and stories for thousands of years, and this book will help everyone “read” those messages with the goal of enriching their own emotional life through art.

Over 100 paintings by artists based in Scotland in the early 19th Century, many influenced by the ground-breaking masterworks of James McNeil Whistler. A group of primarily Scottish artists (mainly William York Macgregor, Joseph Crawhall, George Henry, Edward Atkinson Hornel, Sir John Lavery and Arthur Melville), the Glasgow Boys were active around the turn of the 20th Century. Though they painted in a number of different styles, they are connected by their rejection of classic Victorian painting. Inspired by the luminous techniques of James McNeil Whistler, they harnessed Impressionistic brushwork and livid realism in their work, trying new methods and everyday settings to create stunning works of art. With over 100 images, and broad introduction, this is a fine addition to Flame Tree's ever-increasing series on painting and illustration, Masterpieces of Art.

Why did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, or Rembrandt obsess over painting his own image? What's the secret behind the Terracotta Army, or Andy Warhol's soup cans? Art: Explained offers straightforward and satisfying answers to 100 of these fascinating questions. If you've ever looked at an art masterpiece in awe, but wondered just what it means, here is your guide.

Learn to draw 100 of your favorite animals in 6 easy steps, starting with simple shapes. For all ages. looking for inspiration from a range of diverse habitats including rainforests, mountains, polar regions or the African savannah, you're bound to discover an animal in this book that you will find irresistible – and you will just want to pick up your pencil and start drawing! Each animal is broken down into 6 simple stages that lead you effortlessly through to the finished drawing. There are no written instructions to follow – just basic shapes and pencil strokes. Even if you’ve never drawn anything before, you will be amazed at how quickly you will achieve incredibly impressive drawings. This is the perfect book for budding artists yearning to draw their favorite animals, or the experienced artist looking for a variety of subjects to inspire.

An alternative introduction to modern art, focusing on the stories of 50 key works that consciously questioned the boundaries, challenged the status quo and made shockwaves we are still feeling today.

I Know an Artist is a collection of 84 beautifully illustrated portraits that reveal the fascinating connections between famous artists throughout history.

Featuring quirky illustrations and easily digestible information, this book is a compilation of 100 things you need to know about art.

Create effective portraits in a matter of minutes with this practical drawing guide, written by experienced art educator Susie Hodge. Producing portraits has always been considered an important skill for artists, so Just Draw! Faces in 15 Minutes explains the skills a budding artist needs so that you can try your hand at a variety of projects, all in easy, 15-minute periods. You'll learn: • How to create quick sketches • How to convey age, tone and ethnicity • How to produce accurate features • The difference between drawing a person in profile and face-on With lots of projects to try your hand at, and no matter what your level of skill, this is the perfect way to improve or learn from scratch.

Analyses the extraordinarily varied output of Klee's work, from witty drawings to dreamlike, abstract paintings.

Great paintings cannot be fully understood in a single encounter; there is always more to be derived from them. Art lovers may revisit and reconsider the masterpieces throughout their lives, but a deeper understanding can only be gained by analysing the painting in detail, be it the placement of the subject, the lighting, the style of brushstrokes or the themes. Art in Detail examines 100 iconic paintings from the Western canon and spotlights the finer points a quick glance will almost certainly fail to reveal. These include subtle internal details, such as hidden symbols and artistic tricks employed by the painter to achieve particular effects. In addition, Susie Hodge writes intelligently about external influences on the artist - everything from the socioeconomic context in which he or she flourished, to smaller local difficulties, such as the level of air pollution at the time the painting was created. And she treats each of her subjects not only, to quote Matthew Arnold, 'as in itself it really is', but also as part of a tradition that links the oldest painting to the most recent, as artists pass a metaphorical baton down through the ages. With 700 illustrations

Learn to draw 28 tropical rainforest animals from scratch in a few easy steps. Bring the magic of the rainforest to your doorstep by drawing this collection of colorful animals and birds. Prolific author and artist Susie Hodge teaches you to transform simple shapes into mysterious jaguars, shy butterflies or endangered orangutans in easy-to-follow stages. Choose from a sleepy sloth, a noisy toucan and much more. There are 28 different animals to create, in a variety of poses and styles. Each project starts with a few basic outlines and progresses into a finished tonal drawing, and a final coloured version shows you how to develop your drawing even further. Perfect for beginners, as well as budding and experienced artists, you'll be amazed how easily you too can draw rainforest animals with this inspiring guide.

Acclaimed mixed-media artist Mike Bernard has been at the forefront of collage painting for decades and his work has a sought-after vitality. He brings his latest guidance, ideas and techniques on a subject about which he is passionate: coastal painting. From his home near the Devon coast, he and co author (art writer) Susie Hodge, cover all aspects of mixed media painting. From considering composition and looking for contrasts to reducing elements for greater impact (and even moving towards abstraction). From working with limited palettes to including imaginary colours to a painting. From collaging with torn magazines, tin foil, plastic, newsprint to combining inks, oil pastels, PVA, acrylic and watercolours. From playing with proportion to create mood to using thick and thin oils for effect. And, of course, how to capture the mood and atmosphere of coastal life, from quiet stretches to busy harbours around the world. The authors include several step-by-step projects to demonstrate techniques plus a series of experimental exercises helps the reader try something new. A masterclass from a popular artist with stunning artwork of coasts from around the globe.

Explore the landscapes and places that inspired great art: find peace in Monet’s lily-filled garden oasis, climb Mount Fuji on a printmaker’s pilgrimage, sail with Gauguin to the South Pacific to stretch your imagination, or contemplate light and the changing seasons on Chelsea Embankment. Artistic Places is a stunningly illustrated, visionary guide for seekers of beauty, rare tales and cultural riches. Find yourself instantly transported to the places where great artists have sought refuge, found their inspiration and changed the course of art history forever. Susie Hodge, bestselling author and art historian, presents 25 famous and forgotten artistic destinations around the world, and connects these to the masterpieces that celebrate them. None of these unique locations are merely backdrops to the insightful stories told, but are characters in their own right. So take a leaf out of your favourite artist’s sketchbook and delve into this book to discover the places they loved best. Artists and locations include: J.A.M Whistler in London, England John Constable in Suffolk, England Barbara Hepworth in St Ives, England Paula Rego in Cascais and Estoril, Portugal Pablo Picasso and Guernica, Spain Salvador Dalí in Catalonia, Spain Claude Monet in Giverny, France Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France Rene Magritte in Brussels, Belgium Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland Michelangelo in Florence, Italy Canaletto in Venice, Italy Johannes Vermeer in Delft, Netherlands Anni Albers in Dessau, Germany Caspar David Friedrich in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Germany Gustav Klimt and Lake Attersee, Austria Edvard Munch in Oslo, Norway Hilma af Klint and Lake Mälaren, Sweden Henri Matisse in Tangier, Morocco Hokusai on Mount Fuji, Japan Paul Gauguin in Papeete and Papeari, Tahiti Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York, USA Grant Wood in Iowa, USA Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico, USA Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán, Mexico Each book in the Inspired Traveller's Guides series offers readers a fascinating, informative and charmingly illustrated guide to must-visit destinations round the globe. Also from this series, explore intriguing: Spiritual Places, Literary Places, Hidden Places and Mystical Places.

The Short Story of Women Artists tells the full history - from the breakthroughs that women have made in pushing for parity with male artists, to the important contributions made to otherwise male-dominated artistic movements, and the forgotten and obscured artists who are now being rediscovered and reassessed. Accessible, concise and richly illustrated, the book reveals the connections between different periods, artists and styles, giving readers a thorough understanding and broad enjoyment of the full achievements that female artists have made.

He did not paint his pictures; it was like he exhaled them in a gasping, boiling breath - Julius Meier-Graef Van Gogh's distinctive style of expressive brushstrokes and bold colors is now world famous, but during his lifetime the artist was met with cold disinterest from his contemporaries. This book explores the fascinating life story of this tortured soul, who came late to art and suffered throughout his life from anxiety and depression. It unravels the influences behind his artworks, from the luminous landscapes of the south of France to the Japanese woodblock prints he so admired, and explores how he developed his own unique style. This detailed monograph features Van Gogh's major works and examines the light they shed on this enigmatic character, serving as a wonderful introduction to one of the best artists of all time. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Great Artists series by Arcturus Publishing introduces some of the most significant artists of the past 150 years, looking at their lives, inspirations and techniques, as well as presenting a selection of their best work.

THINK YOU KNOW BOSCH FROM BOTTICELLI? MONDRIAN FROM MIRO? THINK AGAIN... Turn art history on its head by testing your brainpower and perception on some the world's most iconic paintings. Journey from ancient Egypt to 1980s New York solving riddles, discovering hidden secrets and challenging your general knowledge. Esteemed art historian Susie Hodge and leading brain trainer Dr Gareth Moore introduce you to 36 iconic pieces of art – including Botticelli's Primavera, Van Gogh's The Starry Night and Picasso's Guernica. For each painting, they reveal fascinating facts about the work and artist (and give clues on what to look for), before challenging you to decipher the art for yourself through carefully crafted questions. Look at art in new ways as you: Decode the hieroglyphs from the Book of the Dead Find new symbols in The Arnolfini Portrait Solve riddles based on The Garden of Earthly Delights Navigate M.C. Escher's gravity-defying staircases Reassemble the Mondrian With over 300 questions, The Art Puzzle Book is designed to entertain and perplex, whether you're an art novice or an art connoisseur. Featuring artworks by Botticelli, Hieronymus Bosch, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Diego Velazquez, Johannes Vermeer, Francisco de Goya, Hiroshige, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Sonia Delaunay, Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, M.C. Escher, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and more.