This article was originally published on Hubpages in January 2021. 1) Get Moving! Walking costs absolutely nothing, so get outside and explore your local area. Head to parks to imbibe fresh air and green spaces, or walk down streets you've never strolled along before. Discover things which may be entirely new to you, or simply enjoy passing other people's gardens. You'll be burning up calories and releasing your body's natural feel-good chemicals, which is better for your health and much more fun than binge watching TV or doom-scrolling through social media. 2) Novel Indulgence Curling up with a good book is surely one of life's pleasures. Rediscover old favourites on your bookshelves or organise a book swap with friends. Browse second-hand shops for bargain-priced paperbacks, or make use of your local library. There is also an effectively infinite wealth of free fiction and poetry online. Try a genre you've previously bypassed. Give authors who are new to you ...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in May 2021. What's It About? As the introduction to this book clearly states, this is not a 'how-to-paint' manual nor a treatise on art history. If you want those things, the text promptly encourages you to look elsewhere. Instead, in this book Marr asks what attracts a person to a particular painting which not only captures their initial interest, but continues to be inspirational after many decades of viewings. Life, he writes, can be beautiful but mundane, and art can help people to transcend the everyday world of dull routines. Why do we take the time to travel to exhibitions and pay the entry fee in order to look at paintings, when we're all surrounded by so many diverse visual experiences? What makes paintings special? What makes any painter want to paint, to struggle through untold failures in order to create their paintings? How do painters decide how to communicate the idea in their mind to their chosen suppor...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in October 2019. What's it About? Contained within this book are introductions to 50 artists whose work has been largely overlooked due to gender bias. This book does not attempt to present a complete history of each artist's work. Instead, it provides a clear overview of the creative contributions to the art world by women. It begins with Catharina van Hemessen, who was born in Antwerp in 1528 and who was mentioned as a famous woman painter in a book about the Netherlands published in 1567. It ends with Tacita Dean, who was born in Canterbury, England, in 1965 and who is still creating art in the present day. For each artist, there are brief biographical details and a small portrait image, plus a suggested further reading list. Each artist also has at least one full-page quality reproduction of a typical example of their style of art. About the Authors Art historian Christine Weidemann is the author of  Niki de Saint Phalle ,...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in August 2019. What's It About? The Story of Painting  aims to present a comprehensive overview of Western art history. This heavy book features 450 fine art paintings, plus over 200 supporting images. The author, Sister Wendy Beckett, begins with Neolithic cave paintings of animals, then moves immediately to the murals of Ancient Egypt. The text moves onto Minoan and Mycenaean art, and then into Ancient Greece. Next comes early Xtian, then Medieval art. Throughout the book, in small side columns, further images or additional information offer greater social context or historical background to the main text. The easy-going narrative winds quickly through the passing centuries until we finish with 20th-century works, such as those by Frank Auerbach and Mark Rothko. Beckett briefly discusses how painting materials and methods have changed through the centuries, and while she is not an artist herself she clearly has a deep love ...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in July 2019. What's It About? Gallery by title, and gallery by deed. Here we have an image-crammed book dedicated to the popular subject of marine art which presents 136 full-colour pictures of quiet coves, raging storms, elegant regattas and rugged fishing vessels. Some of the chosen paintings are historical in character, depicting paddle steamers and old sailing ships, while others are determinedly contemporary. The media employed ranges from oil paint, watercolours, pastels, acrylics and mixed media. Each reproduced painting is described by media, size, and the support on which it has been painted. Each painting is accompanied by a short description of the work, often with a few words from each contributing artist. About the Author Jerry McClish (1920 - 2008) was the president of the International Society of Marine Painters. He has taught painting workshops in America, Mexico and the Caribbean. He has starred in a video series ...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in July 2019/ What's it About? The Third Witch  is a lively re-imagining of Shakespeare’s internationally famous play  Macbeth, a s seen through the eyes of a young girl, Gilly, who is an apprentice witch. Gilly has spent the last seven years working as a live-in servant for two elderly women, Nettle and Mad Helga, who live in dire poverty in a ramshackle forest hut. Gilly has braved starvation, freezing winters, and misery in order to fulfill her agreed seven years of servitude so that, on completion of this time, she will be taught the secret skills of traditional witchcraft. But are Nettle and Mad Helga really witches, or are they simply lonely, superstitious old women desperate to keep Gilly nearby so she will look after them in their increasing old age? Gilly is tormented by her memories of a happy childhood cut tragically short when Lord Macbeth killed her parents and their fellow villagers. Gilly escaped, but she h...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in June 2019. What’s It About? Marina  tells the story of fifteen-year-old Oscar, a lonely boy who lives at a boarding school in Barcelona, Spain, in the late 1970s. Wandering the old and rambling streets, he comes across a mansion surrounded by a tangled garden and is tempted inside. This is how he meets Marina, who lives there with her frail, elderly father and an aloof cat. Marina decides to share a mystery which she has been secretly witnessing. So she takes Oscar to an old graveyard and together they watch as an elegant lady, who is dressed in deep-mourning black, visits a particular grave which is inscribed with a black butterfly. Seized with curiosity, the two teenagers plan to discover who this lady is and why she enacts this ritualistic visitation at the same time each month. Marina  leads its readers through an engagingly complex plot which features a derelict theatre, automatons which seem to come alive, severa...