Macpherson Books Review

Frequently people ask about purchasing the Kevin Macpherson books: "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color" and "Landscape Painting Inside Out".  These are two excellent books for learning about direct painting.  They are both available through North Light Shop (www.northlightshop.com) which was originally a book club, but now is just a publisher from which anyone can make an online purchase. 

Note: Usually shipping is free from this site with purchases of more than $25.

In brief review: "Light and Color" was published first.  It covers basic painting and is a good resource for this information.  "Inside and Out", although focused more on plein air painting, has assignments for practice.  As a teacher, I probably use "Light and Color" a bit more frequently as an example to explain a concept that I am teaching.  As for "Inside and Out", as with all books (and teaching for that matter!) that comes with step-by-step instruction, be certain to use the lessons to guide you in your process but not govern your final choices in a palette (choice of colors of paint) or style of painting.  In the end, I like both books and cannot recommend either one over the other.  For the price, it seems quite affordable to purchase both if you are interested. 

Here's the address for these books: http://art.northlightshop.com/search?w=kevin+macpherson&asug=