The Texture of Books

Books are common objects in still life paintings, traditionally signifying learning, or the futility of mastering a vast amount of knowledge.  Rather than placing the books as incidentals in the composition, I used them like building blocks to form an architectural whole that fills the canvas in an abstract, geometric formulation. 

Most of the books I've depicted in the paintings above and below are 200 years old - a series titled "History of London."  The leather bindings look like tree bark, to me.  The browns and blacks and tans remind me of painters like Rembrandt, and while I was painting, I took books off my shelf on Andrew Wyeth whose work I began looking at again more closely last year when he passed away.  MOMA put "Christina's World" on display when we were in New York more than a year ago, to mark his death, so I felt fortunate to have seen it in person. 

In the still life with twelve books, I used the "History of London" books, but also some from the early 20th century.  Most of these have canvas bindings rather than leather, and the rubbed texture of the canvas is an interesting counterpoint to the rough, bark-like leather binding.  The newer books stand out and are almost startling.  I used cerulean blue with a touch of phthalo blue and lamp black for the shadows, with lead white for the highlights.  The dull brick red on the bindings was achieved using cadmium red deep with lamp black for the shadows.  I've put a touch of burnt umber or yellow ochre in the colour to warm it up and to blend tonally with the other colours. 

I'm finding I layer the paint more to depict the cracked leather whereas my usual technique is 'alla prima' - one layer of paint.  I find that adding highlights or scumbling thin glazes over areas is necessary to get the subtle tonal transitions that I'm after in the leather bindings.  Glazing a bit of cadmium yellow medium over dark brown gives that worn leather look. 

To paint the shadows I used burnt umber and lamp black. This gives a solid dark shadow, but with a warm undertone.  I like the fact that lamp black is made simply from carbon, collected from burning animal bones, usually fish bones, and mixed with linseed oil, to make a new substance.  Similarly, burnt umber is exactly that - literally soil that has been roasted to darken it.  To paint the highlights I used yellow ochre, flake white, and cadmium yellow light and then touches of a muddied white.

While I painted these two images, the texture of the books reminded me of a topographical map hung on a wall near a window, with the raking light revealing the texture in the late afternoon.