This 68 page spiral bound handbook for artists contains six colored prints, two black and white photographs and thirty-six illustrations by Sergei Bongart. The eight chapters cover: Method, Technique, Values, Color, Portraiture, Landscape, Critiques, and Equipment. It is a compilation of lectures, conversations, and quotes transcribed from tapes directly from the Bongart classroom. Humorous anecdotes with questions and answers from students bring the pages alive.

“There are two kinds of artists, the emotional painter and the academician. The academician can paint into old age sitting on his stool licking his canvas until 98 years of age.  The emotional artists burn himself up; he does not live long.  The academician always creates something acceptable, boring, but acceptable.  The emotional artist often misses, but when he hits, it is breathtakingly beautiful… touched by the gods!”

Sergei Bongart 1918-1985

This handbook is the perfect companion to Mary N. Balcomb’s book, SergiBongart. In fact , it is a perfect companion for artists that are finding themselves learning from the works of Sargent, Sorolla, Fechin, Zorn, Bastein LePage, Surov and Rapin. He advocated study of the master painters as essential to any aspiring artist, a self-education readily available to all through books, slides, and museums. He frequently showed slides to his students, especially of Sorolla’s work, to emphasize  the magical play, power, and reach of sunlight, how it fell on an object or convey solidity or transparency. His work is an extension of the master painters of light, but with an added unsurpassed passion and emotion.