Paintings in Progress

From dust jacket notes: "One of the best ways to learn how to paint is to look over the shoulder of a professional as he creates a painting - to listen to him talk as he works; follow his thoughts, his vision, and his intentions; and watch a painting in the process of becoming a work of art. Bernard Dunstan, a renowned British painter and teacher, invites you into his studio for a realistic look at the ups and downs of the creative process, the excitement as well as the mistakes and potential problems facing a painter, and how to correct or solve them and put them to work for you. His style - both in painting and writing - is fresh, relaxed and personal. This is a rather unusual book. Although the author presents his ideas as step-by-step painting progressions, he works intuitively from a series of notes or sketches, and lets them develop naturally into a single painting, or even a series of paintings. After a brief introduction to his methods, Dunstan describes his highly personal approach to materials, both for studio and outdoor painting. Then, in a series of illustrated stages, he traces the development of various paintings: a figure in a room, a portrait, direct painting from the model, townscapes, interiors and even one of musicians, an example of painting groups of figures. In a subsequent chapter, he discusses drawing as an end in itself as well as for studies. Then, inspired by interiors ranging from bathrooms to hotel rooms to auction rooms and picture galleries, Dunstan designs a series of pictures in the same setting, using some unusual compositional devices. In the final example, he works several unrelated sketches of figures into a flowing chain of movement, a single unified composition....160 pages. 8 1/4 x 11. 23 full color plates. More than 75 black and white illustrations. Index."