How Turner Painted

by Joyce Townsend, Tony Smibert (Contributor)

A detailed examination of the painting techniques J. M. W. Turner used to create his masterpieces. Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was a prolific master of landscape and marine painting in nineteenth-century Britain. His attention to color and atmosphere produced breathtaking images of nature, now immortalized in oil paintings, exquisite watercolors, and works on paper. How Turner Painted guides readers through the artist’s groundbreaking techniques, including experiments with modified paint media, innovative uses of watercolor, and painstaking processes for creating a composition. Author of the acclaimed Turner’s Painting Techniques , Turner expert Dr. Joyce Townsend returns to the subject with two hundred high-quality color reproductions and cutting-edge X-ray photography. Tasmania-based artist, writer, and teacher Tony Smibert also contributes a chapter about Turner from a contemporary painter’s perspective. Gallerygoers, artists, museum educators, curators, art historians, and conservation professionals are sure to treasure this authoritative guide to one of Britain’s most important painters. 200 illustrations

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[Tea73 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extensively illustrated including many details of both Turner's oils and watercolors. The author has an easy style and is careful to describe terms and materials that may not be familiar to the average reader. The author puts Turner briefly in context then discusses the specific ways that Turner worked. There is also a chapter from a contemporary artist with demonstrations of how you can paint like Turner with step by step examples in both oil and watercolor. The book ends with a chapter about how Turner's methods and materials aged - sometimes due to fugitive pigments or ones that yellowed or darkened with time, sometimes due to his impetuous painting methods adding too much medium or overpainting before a previous layer was dry. Fascinating.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok so I start from the position of being a big fan of Turner’s work, so I am an easy sell on this book. I picked it up on a whim from the local library.

It is written in a wonderfully clear and simple style - very approachable for a dilettante like myself. All of the questions I’ve had about Turner’s work were answer, and all the snippets of information I’d picked up over the years from galleries etc sorted out.

The book has very little in the way of biography, focussing almost exclusively on Turner’s painting style, his move from watercolor to oils, the tools he used and the colours he worked with. All these details are supplemented with fascinating historical information about the art world of the day.

The author even undertakes the task of painting a canvas Turner-style, to test out all their theories.

I’d heartily recommend this to anyone interested in Turner, painting, or both! 😊

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting delve into the techniques and materials used by Turner. Though he was quite revolutionary in his use of materials, I wish this book has been more of a biography of him rather than just focusing on very detailed descriptions of materials and painting techniques. At times, it could get quite tedious.

[Flor Geldhof · Rating 4 out of 5]

How Turner Painted geeft een helder kijkje in de technieken van J.M.W. Turner, van zijn schetsen tot zijn meesterwerken. Het boek legt duidelijk uit hoe hij licht, kleur en sfeer gebruikte, en laat zien wat zijn schilderijen zo uniek maakt. Een aanrader voor kunstliefhebbers en wie Turners proces beter wil begrijpen.