Artists in Residence

This wonderful coffee table book gives readers a look inside the homes of 17 artists, current and past. The illustrations are beautiful and the text is extensive. I thought this was an inspiring read and I would recommend this book to people who like to read about artists lifes and homes.

Beautifully illustrated with fascinating tidbits about 17 artists lives and homes. An intimate portrait into the importance of space to the creative process.

Great illustrated book about artists’ residences. Beautifully illustrated coffee table book about artist retreats is extremely interesting and is art itself. I highly recommend this great book

A fascinating look at the home of these famous artists.The authors share with us the artists home the artistic designs that went into their decorating. Their personal space,Each home was as unique as the artist themselves,The illustrations that accompany the stories add to the beauty of this book. .Would make a lovely gift.#netgalley#chroniclebooks

Artists in Residence is a lovely coffee table book that examines the home spaces of seventeen artists and how these spaces relate to their work and life. Rather than showing photographs of the residences, the book contains beautiful illustrations of the spaces by co-author Kate Lewis. The illustrations were a nice touch to pull together the artists across time period and nationality. I appreciated the diversity of artists featured - the book covers Georgia O'Keeffe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Claude Monet, and Frida Kahlo, just to name a few.

For each story, the authors hone in certain aspects of the artist's space - it was interesting to see how some artists viewed their homes as refuges from their art, while others saw the home as another studio space. As mentioned in the blurb, this book is accessible to the non-expert reader in describing each artist's work. In fact, I found that I wanted more information about each artist, as well as a more substantial conclusion section to tie everything together. That being said, this book is a nice introduction to the homes of multiple famous artists, and it may motivate the reader to take a more detailed look at a favorite artist or two.

Thank you to Chronicle Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love to read biographies and art books and dapple in a bit of painting too so Artists in Residence was right up my alley. I enjoyed discovering some artists that I had never heard of and it was a pleasure to read about the homes of the more famous too. It's fascinating how the passion of the artists for art dictated where and how they lived, and how they decorated or treated their homes.

A few of them lived such unusual lives that it is almost unbelievable – such as the couple who painted on almost anything in their house ha! I just had to search on the internet for photographs!

I loved the colorful and whimsical paintings, but sometimes you just want to see things as they were!

Artists in Residence is a simply and colorfully painted book with scenes and vignettes from 15 famous residences of 17 famous artists. Due out 2nd Feb 2021 from Chronicle Books, it's 144 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

There really is a nice cross section of short bios and glimpses in this collection of artists. There are no photographs, it's all painted sketches and contextual tidbits about the lifestyles and residences of artists from Monet and Matisse, Frida Kahlo (and Diego Rivera), to Van Gogh, and Basquiat. I had never really thought holistically about their works partially being a product of the places they lived and their home lives.

I especially enjoyed reading about Georgia O'Keeffe's simple life and serenity/escape in her kitchen. Somehow I had never really thought of her as particularly domestic or at home outside her own emotional strength and self reliance and the description of the scope, simplicity, and efficiency of her food growing and self-sufficiency gave me a deeper understanding of her life and maybe her art.

The illustrations are simple, in gouache and watercolor, as well as clear and appealing. There are a number of profound takeaways from the artist/authors' introduction which invite reflection and thought.

This is a really well presented and appealing book. I would recommend it unhesitatingly to students of art, art history, biography, interior decor, painting, and allied subjects. This short volume would make a good selection for library acquisition, as well as an appropriate choice for an artist's studio library.

Very well done. Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes..

Stunning - my only regret is that I had to experience it on a Kindle. This is a book that clearly needs to be appreciated in person. What a treat!

What a fascinating book! Instead of just being shown photographs I loved that the paintings and description of the houses and how they reflected events in artists lives fired my imagination and I felt I ‘was there’ . The illustrations are beautiful in their own right. The authors have chosen an interesting mix of artists both modern and classic. Several I had not come across before and am now a fan of at least one of them. The descriptions led me to want to do further research on almost the artists covered. I also felt I had gained a much deeper understanding of the artists I was already familiar with and how events in their lives influenced their work. Definitely recommended!

Beautiful reflection on a wide array of different artists with different mediums and the places they make for themselves. Illustrations by Kate Lewis are absolutely stunning and full of so much life.

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE offers a splendid look at 17 artists and their creative spaces, brought to life by Kate Lewis’ gorgeous illustrations and Melissa Wyse’s thoughtful descriptions. It’s a wonderful mini course featuring such renowned artists as Basquiat, Bourgeois, O’Keeffe, Pollock, Kahlo and Rivera, Monet, and others.

The colorful illustrations made me feel as if I had just stepped into O’Keeffe’s sunny Ghost Ranch, or Monet’s Giverny home awash in yellow, and helped me see how “spaces” impact creativity.

Also intriguing is the story of how this book came to be, as the co-authors magically found each other and realized they could combine what each had worked on alone for years. Highly recommended for art lovers of every sort!

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 02 Feb 2021

Thanks to the author, Chronicle Books, and NetGalley for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.

#ArtistsinResidence #NetGalley

Artists in Residence is the result of the serendipitous meetings between author Melissa Wyse and artist Kate Lewis. Readers learn about how their paths crossed in the book’s introduction.

Together the two put together this title with MW writing beautifully insightful essays about the artists and Kate painting scenes reminiscent of their homes. Included are artists whom I knew well including Georgia O’Keeffe, Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant, Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo & Diego River, Lee Krasner & Jackson Pollock and others with whom I am newly acquainted as, for example, .Hassan Jajjaj, Clementine Hunter, Donald Judd. (I have not listed all seventeen here). There is an alchemy between text and visual that works.

This collaboration will be welcomed by art lovers and armchair travelers alike. I know that I enjoyed my time in these homes and with these insights.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

This was a quick read. Cozy and sweet but not particularly informative. I loved the illustrations but ended up looking for photos of the homes being described.

I really thought the book was beautiful and I love the details about each of the artist, but at no time did I relate what was written to a look at the living space until I read the biographies of the authors. I also kept wanting to see photos of the spaces they were talking about. I know that the photos were not use for a reason, but I kept wanting to reference what was being talked about with the actually space that was painted in the book. I think this would be a great table book and I would love to see another book with different artist, but I would also like to see the actual place if you can.

I would like to thank Chronicle Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this beautiful book.

We express pieces of ourselves in our living quarters, some of us boldly, some subtly. Melissa Wyse and Kate Lewis explore the connection of living space and art for seventeen artists. It's a nicely varied selection. Wyse writes an essay on each, touching on their lives and art as well as the place they inhabited and what she sees as the connections between art and home. It's well written and I learned things. Kate Lewis provided illustrations which are evocative. They are pleasant but not especially informative. 3 1/2 stars

I was so excited to read this book that offers to let readers peek inside the homes of 17 artists (current and past) but I should have read more carefully. The authors chose to write extensively about each living space and then give us watercolor paintings to accompany the text. I understand that in some cases the homes do not exist as they did when the artists were creating in them and the authors also wanted to do something new, but I really would prefer to see the spaces. In one case, Wyse wrote of how one artist wallpapered her rooms by rolling a roll of wallpaper straight up one wall, over the ceiling, and down the other wall. She wrote about how she felt in that space and I really wanted to see it. The paintings for that section show a flowered wallpaper and a few other things but if you're going to describe this cool, cocooned wallpaper effect and won't show me a photo then at least show the whole thing in the painting. Shrug.

The text is extensive and you really get a feel for each artist. There's nice diversity in the artists, and the paintings are sweet. It wasn't ultimately the book I was hoping for but it's a lovely one.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

I feel that the author wrote about the experience of artists' home and studios in the hope of also inspiring. But I believe that we aren't inspired by the same thing. While also liking the illustrations I also googled the interiors of most artists in the book. I think we are inspired by different things and this book illustrates this well. What can be fascinating for a certain artist can be just a piece of furniture for another. We are different which is good. There is always, I feel, this question lingering: what did the artist see in this house and I am seeing the same thing?
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in artists life and homes & good writing.

Renewed vision!

What a great idea! Looking at various artists’ residences. I know similar books have been published but I just really did enjoy this “seeing” through a different lens. Although reading this reminded me that I’d missed visiting Monet’s Giverny years ago due to it being closed for the season. Sigh! Something I’ve had a lingering regret about over the years.
Kate Lewis is to be congratulated on her extraordinary illustrations. She brought the artists’ homes alive. Her illustrative exploration deepened the book’s aesthetic experience for us. What a wonderful way to research! And then, Melissa Wyse’s very different investigative method over the years, of filling notebooks with descriptive prose about those residences!
Only for the two to so serendipitously meet at an ‘artists in residence’ enclave! Brilliant!
Aspects the described homes have in common are colour and movement, a sense of touch, giving a sense of presence. The two very talented contributors reflect that joyously. They talk about their methodology of presenting the book. Hoping that through their joint writings and paintings, sometimes revisiting the homes, as giving them “a new intimacy with the creative life of each artist.” I found it invoked those feelings for me as the reader.
Cameo views from windows, spaces that wrapped the chosen artists and their residences and brought them into focus. From minimalistic to crowded, simple to complex. A gift indeed!
I found myself walking around my home, reflecting on views through windows and pleasing patterns inside and out, on textures and lines, and determining to continue to consider the aesthetic of my personal space. A revisit of the idea of a home for all the senses as Kate and Melissa alluded to. They invite us to explore the aesthetic sense of our own homes—whatever that might be, through the example of some of the artistic legends they’ve shown us.

A Chronicle Books ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)