COLOR IS EVERYTHING - Book by Dan Bartges

If you’ve been wrestling with color in your artwork, help is on the way when you order this remarkable new book by artist/author Dan Bartges with the cooperation of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and The Color Wheel Company. A must-read for any painter determined to capture color harmony in every painting (regardless of artistic style or medium), Color Is Everything clearly explains how to master color in a concise yet conversational style. “I designed this book,” comments the author, “with just one purpose in mind: To make color your strongest, most dependable ally at the easel.”

The high-quality, 96-page book features more than 100 full-color illustrations, photographs and paintings by the author as well as master works by world-renowned artists including Cezanne, Picasso, de Kooning, Goya and Sargent. The book’s series of suggested assignments will accelerate your understanding and add strength to your color competency by applying the color wheel’s time-tested core principles, employed by most accomplished artists. Color Is Everything is now available here on The Color Wheel Company’s website, at most art-materials retailers, many book sellers, and from the publisher (www.OakleaPress.com).

BARTGES, Dan. Color Is Everything: Master the Use of Color in Oils, Acrylics or Watercolors. 96p. charts. diags. illus. photos. reprods. bibliog. glossary. notes. Oaklea Pr. 2008. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-1-892538-36-9. LC number unavailable.

Reviewed by School Library Journal

Adult/High School—This accessible book offers the equivalent of an introduction to both color theory and art appreciation worthy of a high school or community college course. Bartges provides clear explanations—well illustrated with both color wheels and famous paintings—of how color schemes work and how to achieve color balance in one's own paintings. His choice of emblematic works to deconstruct are better varied than in traditional textbooks, offering works by women, self-taught painters, and people of color as well as the expected Picasso, Sargent, and Degas. Exercises include images teens will appreciate, such as a slice of blueberry pie that looks truly mouthwatering. Although there are write-in spaces for some of the exercises, these are few and the volume is not a workbook. The small bibliography suggests texts librarians will recognize as standards but may lead novice teen artists to them for the first time. A final section called "Ten Quick Tips from the Studio" provides real gems that even first-time painters can appreciate.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia   (8/01/08 issue)