Abstract Painting: The Elements of Visual Language Paperback – June 12, 2017

I have a lot of books about art and this is my favorite. Thorough content, numerous images on almost every page and simple explanations can help both beginner and experienced painters wanting a refresh. Bought this around 2017 and it’s my go to book for ideas and information. Not all of the art is my style but it’s still extremely informative. Author’s writing style also makes content very accessible. Well done.

I am getting back into painting after 50+ years away from it. Back then I was hung up on my perfectionist attitude regarding my efforts. I decided this time to get away from representational art and to just have fun with painting. Davis' book is very helpful to a novice as she describes certain techniques and suggests exercises that a beginner can easily do. The pictures of other's works are fun to look at and the author adds short discussions on features to observe.Other reviewers have mentioned the quality of the book itself to be lacking in color reproductions, thin paper etc. None of this troubled me, or I did not see it that way.

This book is relatively complete, and a good introduction to elements of painting and composition and mark making in general. I have been studying art for quite a while, and it didn't meet my needs. One quick criticism is that whatever program the author used to de-saturate the value scales on pp 46-47 isn't doing what she thinks it is doing, that is why she is getting "surprising" results. There is no way that Hansa Yellow Medium is the same value as Cerulean Blue Chromium. Also, cad red dark is not the complement of pthalo green, rather alizarin crimson is, and her whole color wheel is outdated. Modern painters embrace hansa yellow, magenta, and pthalo blue as the primaries.However, in general, with the above caveats, this is a lot of useful introductory material in one place.

I absolutely love, love, love this book. I’ve been painting for years, and knew I loved abstract art, but had no idea how to evaluate a piece — mine or others’. This book breaks down exactly how to do that, and describes the elements of abstract painting in a very approachable manner. In my opinion, this is a great book for both beginners and professionals. Highly recommend if you want to expand your abstract painting knowledge.

A wonderful book It scaffolds each element and principle--a class in a book . It's clear if you do the book you will have all elements and principles down and how to combine them freely as they will be embedded in your brain. You will be able to use them with any genre of drawing or painting when you are done. Totally step up your game and get this little book.Update: Gone through the line exercises and the shapes sampler-just getting to shape collages. Better than I even thought it could be. The exercises are deceptively simple--you can make them as easy or difficult as you like. It is like chess; the rules are simple, but mastering the game is much more difficult. This is a book that one can use if you are a beginner or an expert, or as with most of us somewhere in between. You can go back to this book and do the exercises all over again at a different skill level. It can be as simple or as, or as difficult as one wants to make it. I read a low rating of this book that said it was so elementary that it was essentially for beginners. That person hasn't risen to the tremendous challenge of the author's intent. Prepare yourself to have great playful and/or challenging exercises. How about 6 stars....

As an art educator, I often recommend this book to my students. It does a great job of explaining the primary design elements and principles--the building blocks of all visual art, whether abstract or not. There's some great exercises and lots of examples in color.

I really appreciate this book - Davies has a clear and insightful point of view on how to build the skills and emotional depth for creating abstract art. Her tips and suggestions are tangible and well thought out, and the illustrations make each page more interesting and the concepts easier to understand. I see reviews complaining about paper quality, etc. This is not a coffee table book. It’s an instructional guide. The format, paper choice & design are well suited for this purpose. An excellent investment and an enjoyable read.

Not much different than topics I’ve seen over and over before. Slightly informative for me but had I flipped through it in a bookstore instead of buying blindly online, I’m not sure I would have made the purchase. I’ll probably donate it to someone else who could get something out of it. It might better suit the buyer who is more into collage.