Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

It has been a good week for the art lover at the library. A treasure trove of new books on artists has arrived. In particular, one book has really grabbed my attention. It is a tribute to Colleen Browning.

As in my previous blog on the surrealist women artists in Mexico, I have more reason to rejoice in the publishers who are now making books about important, but little-known work. Colleen Browning: The Enchantment of Realism celebrates a woman whose paintings have been neglected for many years.

Born in England at the end of the First World War into a military family, she came to the United States in 1949 to marry an American author and scholar. Having survived the blitz in England as a young woman, she resolved that her art would be harmonious and free from fear. “It bears pointing out that choosing to accentuate the positive is a courageous, rather than a naïve choice, as art critics sometimes claim. Browning deliberately banished nightmares from her images – not mystery.”

She had considerable acclaim as a young woman before realism was upstaged by abstract expressionism on the art scene. As an artist, she continued to follow her vision and paid dearly for it in terms of her career. Her work was largely forgotten or dismissed as being sentimental.

To my mind, her compositions are very strong and in line with her mastery of the figure. A meander through the pages of this book left me with strong admiration for this artist and her commitment to figurative work.

- Candace

Country style is relaxed and embraces the idea of a quality of life that’s an antidote to the fast, noisy pace of the city. It’s a style often adopted by city dwellers who want to evoke a little bit of country no matter where they are living.

The country-style books in our collection are generated from all corners of the globe. A newer one, Tuscany: Artists at Home, combines the beauty of an area that is a magnet to travelers with the stories of lives devoted to art. And a delicious pairing it is.

Studios overlook countryside of heart-wrenching beauty with the hazy hills of 16^th Century landscape art. Vine-covered pergolas provide peaceful refuge for a glass of wine. There are terraces massed with lavender and punctuated by fountain or pool. Beyond the terrace, lie kitchen gardens and vineyards.

You learn of a life where time is divided between painting and gardening or perhaps sculpture and carpentry. You see tapestries on mellow stone, cool tile floors and sculptural stucco walls. Most of the homes have lovingly evolved over long, artistic lifetimes.

The artists have also applied their skills to walls and furniture, creating exciting murals and whimsical decoration. Sculpture dots the woods and gardens.

If you are looking for armchair travel and summer fantasy, let this book transport you to Tuscany.

-Jane

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

The library has acquired four out of five titles in the series, The Unheralded Artists of BC. We now have the books about artists Ina D.D. Uhthoff, Mildred Valley Thornton, George Fertig and David Marshall. This artists series is published by Mother Tongue Press which operates from Salt Spring Island. All have fine reproductions printed on good quality paper – a bonus for the bibliophile. They are definitely worth a look.

The newest addition, The Life and Art of Ina D. D. Uhthoff, shines light on an influential woman of the arts in Victoria. Her biography shows how hard she worked to survive and care for her children as she balanced her artistic needs with the responsibilities of family.

Her husband had been damaged as the result of World War I (probably shell shock). Although they lived apart for much of their married life, she appears to have supported him, as well as her children, for many years. An amazing woman, her name is linked with the establishment of the Greater Victoria Art Gallery. She was a respected art teacher who knew Emily Carr. She founded and taught at the Victoria School of Art until forced to return to private teaching by the Second World War. Her paintings attest to her talent.

I suspect that she was formidable.

- Candace

If you have a weakness for the English country style of decorating you will enjoy the newest book from veteran design writer, Ros Byam Shaw: Perfect English Farmhouse.

The homes presented are labours of love. She tells the stories of how they were acquired and the work that went into making them places fit for the glossy pages of a design book.

Often, they begin like the tale of a love story. The house is glimpsed and the person smitten. A house is pursued, or even “stalked”, until the buyer possesses the object of desire.

The houses presented are no longer part of working farms but have been separated from properties that are now consolidated into larger holdings to make them economically viable. The owners tend to be writers and artists, shop owners and antique dealers.

These homes have the character and patina that comes with age and feature many of the characteristics associated with the genre. There are mellow bricks and beams, tiled floors, enameled Aga cookers and faded chintz. Buildings are nestled into charming gardens where hybrid chickens scratch at the bricks in the sun-dappled courtyard.

For those who are fans of country-modern style, the section, No Frills Farmhouse, shows fabulous old houses with interior furnishings that are spare and contemporary.

I want Becca and Bill to invite me for tea in their lovely long kitchen/sitting room. Sigh. It’s all a fantasy world of idyllic English country living.

- Jane

If you think that happiness comes in a paint can (and I do), there’s no such thing as too many books about colour. Here's a new one for your reading list.

In The Right Color: Finding the Perfect Palette for Every Room in Your Home, author Eve Ashcraft undertakes the task of explaining the complexities of colour selection. She is a colour expert who has been dubbed the “paint guru” by the New York Times.

Ashcraft begins with a story to explain the process of creating a colour scheme inspired by a porcelain saucer. You quickly learn that matching is for amateurs and she’s a pro.

In the section called Color in Context, she considers the impact on colour of many elements, including light, setting, contrast and surface materials. She explores other options for ceilings besides white and discusses whether or not to highlight trim. Here, she also explores colour “rules” that may needlessly limit your thinking on the topic.

She looks at colour choices room by room and, at the back of the book, offers a selection of “28 colours that work” from her own paint collection.

- Jane

Dave's Two Cents:

Have you ever wandered into a big-box church of home improvement looking for a simple can of paint and been blown away by the rainbow of colour chips displayed? The author gives us the benefit of her expertise to choose among this amazing variety.

When all is said and painted, the “right colour” is your choice, whether you pay the painter or the paint store. Why not invest a gram of research to prevent a kg of regret?

- David Ramsey

Today’s blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

I love looking at images: paintings, photographs or sculptures.

One of the library’s newest acquisitions, In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States has lots to look at; its pages are filled with weird and wonderful imagery.

The book presents the work of well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo, Lois Alvarez Bravo and Louise Bourgeois. One painting, the Creation of the birds, I would love to have hanging on a wall in my house. It was created by the Mexican surrealist, Remedios Varo. I have a particular fondness for the work of Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. These women were close friends, meeting over coffee in each other’s kitchens. (You can learn more about their lives and work in another great book from our collection: Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna.)

Included, as well, is the work of lesser-known artists. It introduced me to a number of great images and artists, such as the exquisitely sensitive photography of Francesca Woodman. She captured haunting images often using her own body in decaying interiors.

Publishers are rediscovering some very fine artists who have had little published about them. What a joy for us to share in this discovery!

- Candace

Creative Display, by Geraldine James, makes a virtue out of clutter. In this inspiring book, objects are imaginatively displayed on every possible surface and every homemaker is an interior stylist. Layered surfaces include artwork, memorabilia and found objects.

Some displays are carefully organized by colour, theme or size and righteously balanced. Other arrangements appear organic and spontaneous, however carefully assembled.

There are displays that feature clever juxtapositions or “unlikely alliances”. On a long table covered by a paint-spattered drop cloth, a collection of expressionist paintings is paired with a loose arrangement of wild flowers.

Books may be the main event or used as props to stage other items.

If you have ever considered cobbling together a house from reclaimed materials, check out Handmade Houses by Richard Olsen. The book is billed the “first comprehensive consideration of the residential design of the back-to-the-land movement.”

It traces the history and origins of the movement and shows houses built by homeowners without architects and well as those designed by the pros.

Fleamarket Chic is another design book that works with vintage furnishings from humble sources integrated into contemporary interiors.

Unlike Homespun Style, which I reviewed last blog, many of the interiors are put together with subtlety and restraint because crafting is not the point of the exercise. Rather, collecting or rehabbing a worthy item that fits well into the decorating scheme is the name of the game.

- Jane

If you love colour and craft and reclaiming vintage furniture, you will enjoy the rooms created by interior stylist Selina Lake. In her new book, Homespun Style, she celebrates the power of hand-made furnishings to create homes that are personal and distinctive as well as welcoming.

She takes “a modern approach to craft” favouring simple creations over tricky techniques. The contemporary shape of a swivel chair is transformed by a funky, over-sized granny square afghan that is casually wrapped around it. Colourful textiles are made into easy cushion covers or simply draped.

The look is light-hearted and casual. In a cheerful dining area, candy-hued finishes are painted onto mismatched chairs. The walls are decorated with pop art trimmed with swags of pin lights and coloured beads. Above the arrangement hangs a bunting of pretty handkerchiefs knotted together at the corners.

Old light fixtures are redeemed with a splash of flowers painted on a lampshade or ribbon streamers fluttering from a chandelier. A modern chest of drawers was customized by refinishing the drawer fronts with pastel paint and vintage wallpaper.

She also demonstrates how to make eye-catching, still-life arrangements from favourite objects.

Lake insists that applying your passion for handiwork to your home does not mean that you need to be handy. She advocates support of your local artist and craftsperson. And good on her.

I’m thinking that if you admire their artistic ablility or tricky techniques mastered, you should be happy to pay for them.

- Jane

This week, a trio of craft books arrived and they’re all pretty with pink.

First, from textile designer and “Queen of Quilting”, comes Quilts from the House of Tula Pink. Her namesake colour appears on the Fade-to-Pink quilt where the design features a gradual transition from one colour to another.

Pink reappears as a punch of colour on the Lollipops Pillow. Here, scraps of fabric cover buttons that are applied to a stitched pattern on a neutral background. The Beanstalks quilt is another charmer where the pop of pink adds excitement to a whimsical pattern.

Quilted Gifts from your Scraps & Stash invites you to use your collection of fabric ends to create a wide variety of pretty projects.

Ruffled fabric roses embellish the patchwork pillow you see on the cover of the book. Narrow pink and violet fabric stripes separate wider sections of floral fabrics to make attractive placemats. Pink energizes a tote bag designed with lots of pockets and trimmed with apple-green rickrack braid.

In Flower Power Patchwork, you find the power of pink in many other clever projects. Pink prints are mixed on a fabric-covered notebook, cute little pincushions and zigzag chair cushions.

All of these lovely books feature good photos and step-by-step instructions.

While sipping ice tea on your sunny summer deck, you can plan some nifty projects for rainy days and colder months.

- Jane

Today's blog comes from Janet Millett, Central Library staff:

Many of us in Calgary feel lucky to live both close to the mountains and to the prairies. However, for gardeners, this often means a double whammy of cold nights and short growing seasons along with the odd freak snowstorm, droughts and dry dusty winds. In other words, growing lush gardens bursting with colour can be a challenge.

Luckily, you don’t have to despair too much about sparse underperforming gardens. Calgary Public Library has a book called Painted Garden Art, by artist Lin Wellford, that allows you to take matters into your own hands. This book will show you how to turn stepping stones into butterfly walkways or cast stone blocks into elegant baskets of colorful blooms. Stone edgings can become a parade of pachyderms or a vibrant caterpillar.

You can also work magic with different sizes and shapes of rocks to scatter turtles, frogs, lizards and even fish ponds throughout the bare spots. And the really great thing about this book is that it’s very easy to paint these artistic creations. Many of the designs are basic and there are step-by-step illustrated directions provided.

Whether nature cooperates or not, it’s good to know that there is more than one way to create and enjoy an interesting and vibrant garden space.

- Jan