Book notes: a few favorite books on art

So I am still unpacking, a bit at a time. This morning I spent a half hour organizing my art books. I think I have too many... but as I consider which to give up... well... can't pry my hands off of any of them!

I have always been very reading oriented - when I get interested in something I immediately get books on the subject. So it has been with Art. Perhaps to a fault (when I read rather than paint!) I have a pretty significant collection of books on artists who have interested me, as well as a few on the history and techniques of painting. Art technique is, I think, an especially tough subject to explain effectively in a purely written format, even if illustrated. So, fresh from a good look across my collection, I share here a few that I have found truly helpful, sometimes inspiring:

-- Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting by Richard Schmid

-- Problem Solving for Oil Painters: Recognizing What's Gone Wrong and How to Make It Right, by Gregg Kreutz

-- John Singer Sargent : The Early Portraits (Volume 1), and the Late Portraits, (Vol 3) by Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray;

-- Bouguereau by Fronia Wissman

-- Joaquin Sorolla by Blanca Pons-Sorolla

-- 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship by Salvador Dali

-- Rembrandt: The Painter at Work

-- Classical Painting Atelier by Juliette Aristides

And now I am going to stop... and pick up a brush, which is always more fruitful than reading a book about art no matter how lovely!