I recently received a review copy of Mati Rose McDonough's book Daring Adventures In Paint: Techniques for Painting, Sketching, and Mixed Media, and I've been reading and looking through it for the past couple of weeks.
Let me just say it now.
I LOVE THIS BOOK!
As I have mentioned before, I took Mati and Lisa's Get Your Paint On online class earlier this year, and am currently taking their Get Your Paint On: Beyond The Basics class. Painting is something I've been interested in exploring and these classes have been the perfect way for me to get started. I knew Lisa and her work (which I really love) before this class, but only through these classes have I learned about Mati's work and I am now a huge fan. I love stories of unlikely roads that led them to making art. Mati's naive style of painting, her whimsical animals and her ability as an instructor to make everyone feel that yes they can, in fact, paint and create art, and have fun, and make magic has really resonated with me and where I am at creatively. I never thought putting paint on a canvas was something I could do, let alone do well. But here I am, doing it and enjoying it, and not really caring if I'm good or not. I have become very inspired by Mati and Lisa's stories of coming to art as adults. I, like maybe some of you, just assumed that many successful artists just "did it" from the time they could draw on paper. Not true.
Back to the book. The end papers! They had me as soon as I opened the book. A lot of folks (some I know!) holding the "Show The World Your Magic" print by Mati. Look how colorful and happy!
Daring Adventures In Paint takes you through finding your inspiration and translating that inspiration into a tangible piece of art that has your style, your voice. Mati walks you through not only the process of adding paint to canvas, but using different types of tools to create your art (spreading paint with a brayer, adding metal leafing, spray painting patterns onto your work, adding mixed media, etc).
The book has exercises that will help you through the sometimes intimidating process of getting started. She explains materials, techniques, and processes. And there are lovely photos in the book of her studio. (Mati is one of the founders of and teachers at Tea House Studio in Berkley, CA.)
This book has even inspired my 13 year old into trying some new things in her art. Emma was apparently interested in the metal leafing, and has been referring to that chapter in the book. "I've always wondered how to use that." We have discussed and referred to this book many times in the past couple of weeks.
There are 8 chapters: 1. Beginning Your Journey, 2. Navigating Your Route, 3. Setting Sail, 4. Staying the Course, 5. Anchoring, 6. Finding Flow, 7. Treasures, 8. Tying it All Together. There are also some great peeks into creative spaces of other artists and talk of places to inspire you.
Beautiful book Mati! Well done!
Available at amazon and your local bookstores now.
daring adventures in paint from alakim on Vimeo.
I am giving away one copy of Daring Adventures in Paint to one commenter on this post. I would love to hear something about why this book appeals to you... are you interested in painting? are you just interested in trying something totally new? or do you paint and want to read a book about it in hopes of taking it in different direction? Let me know!
I will keep the giveaway open till Friday, at which point I will close the comments and randomly choose a winner. Good luck!
