Conversations in Paint: A Notebook of Fundamentals

A fresh introduction to the fundamentals, CONVERSATIONS IN PAINT is part painter's sketchbook, part philosopher's journal, part instructor's primer. If you paint, it will give new insight into your work. If you don't paint, it will inspire you. Open to any page and learn to see.

Library Journal

Dunn, a marketing consultant, took his first art class at the age of 35. Thus, this volume, in the form of a "notebook," is written by and for the amateur painter with the attitude that all one needs to paint is desire. However, one of his major tenetsthat talent is a mythis a fallacy. Dunn covers the basic principles of design, contrast, theme, and perspective, but the design of the book itself muddies his intent. Structured more like an M.B.A.'s organizational chart, without chapter numbers as guides, the book is frustrating to work with. There is no lack of alternatives on the subject, such as Rex Brandt's Seeing with a Painter's Eye (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984).

Charles Dunn describes himself as a perpetual student. He took his first art lesson as a self-conscious adult at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967 and has been actively studying, teaching, painting, and showing work ever since.