Reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures. I read constantly and voraciously. I have compiled here a few lists of my very favorite books that most relate to the artist life.
These books are worth their weight in gold, as far as I’m concerned.
MY TOP LIST
Books I Read Again and Again:
(these are the books I turn to constantly, underlining passages and dog-earing the corners)
Still Writing: the perils and pleasures of a creative life by Dani Shapiro
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow LIndbergh
Hawthorne on Painting by Charles Hawthrone
The Art Spirit by Robert Henri
Daybook by Anne Truitt (and her two other subsequent journals: Turn and Prospect)
Letters on Cezanne by Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Glimpsing Another Artist’s Life and Work
The Journal of Eugene Delacroix
The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh selected and edited by Ronald de Leeuw, trans. Arnold Pomerans
Berthe Morisot by Anne Higonnet
Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman (I just finished this and must return it to my friend Elizabeth Snelling)
Matisse on Art (I haven’t actually read this yet, but it was recommended by my friend Rotem Amizur.)
Vanished Splendors by Balthus (not pictured)
Beautiful Art Philosophy
The Quiet Eye by Sylvia Shaw Judson
The Zen of Seeing by Frederick Franck
Paintings and Etchings 1970-2011 by Gillian Pederson Krag (The essays in the intro are amazing.)
Art as Therapy by Alain de Botton
Whole Child/ Whole Parent by Polly Berrien Berends, especially the chapter “Beauty” (not in photo)
More Favorite Books
Letters to a Young Painter and Other Writings by Rosemary Beck
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
To Whom the Shoe Fits by Pat Passlof
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf
Technical Help (highly recommend)
Observational Drawing by Joseph Podlesnik
Drawing from Observation by Brian Curtis
Color: A Workshop Approach by David Hornung
Historical Fiction about Artists
The Fountain of St. James Court by Sena Jeter Naslund (about Vigée Le Brun)
The Passion of Artemesia by Susan Vreeland
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
“We Work Beside the Wind” a short story by me*, Lauren Kindle (historical fiction about Corot)
*I have more art-related short stories here in my blog, most fall under the category “magical realism.”
Books that Deal with Maintaining a Studio Practice
(note: books on writing, by writers, are often very helpful to visual artists, so you will see them included)
Deep Work by Cal Newport (not shown, I gave it to my friend Kristen Peyton)
Keep Going, Show Your Work!, and Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Pen on Fire by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett (my friend Kat gave this to me)
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
A Hundred White Daffodils by Jane Kenyon
Books I Intend to Read Soon
The Sense of Beauty by George Santayana
Search for the Real by Hans Hofmann
Sight & Insight by Alexander Eliot (I started this, it reads like a floating dream, or a long poem.)
My Top-Favorite-Ever Books That Are Not Art Related
Howl’s Moving Castle, and everything else I’ve ever read by Diana Wynne Jones
Quest for a Maid by Frances M. Hendry
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (and all her other books too)
Agatha Christie’s mysteries… and especially her autobiography which I’ve read twice
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
I’d love to hear from you! What would your recommended reading list be? Share your own recommendations in the comments.