Product Description

A superb collection of Robert Taylor's maritime paintings, accompanied by commentary on each one by the artist, makes this volume a must for lovers of both ships and fine art alike Robert Taylor enjoys a level of popularity rare among living painters. With an obvious love for his work, his paintings exude a strong sense of atmosphere and a clear understanding of his subjects. Indeed, his unmistakable style is much influenced by his long-standing appreciation of the early Dutch maritime masters, and has matured over nearly thirty years as a professional painter. This, his fourth book, is the first devoted solely to his maritime paintings. More than 30 works are shown in full colour, along with a host of fascinating pencil drawings. Robert Taylor's anecdotal, relaxed style of writing is a pleasure to read, and together with the breathtaking impact of the paintings, this new volume completes a visually stunning record of his artistic achievement for lovers of ships and the sea.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #376823 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

About the Author
Robert Taylor has long been established as one of the world's leading marine and aviation artists, enjoying unparalleled demand for his original paintings and limited edition prints. He has exhibited with the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Guild of Aviation Artists. His one-man exhibition at the Smithsonian, Washington DC, was its most popular ever, viewed by more than ten million people.

Customer Reviews

maritime paintings
This is the first maritime painting book by the author who is better known as an aviation artist.
After a prologue by the author there are 32 paintings of naval sscenes or ships covering the period 1798(the battle of the Nile)to 1998 (the decomissioning of the Britannia)
Two pages are devoted to each painting,the first page gives a short account of the subject with some subsidary drawings while the other page illustrates the ship or scene.My favourites are a)HMS York and b)the battle for Malta.
Three pictures -the Queen Mary,the East Asiatic Squadron and the Channel dash have their impact totally destroyed by being printed over one and a half pages with the crease down the middle.(when will publishers ever learn to present their product in the best possible light)
The forward by Edward Heath does the book no credit and the painting of his yacht is quite out of place with the other paintings which are excellent.

wide range, detailed and soulful treatment
Robert Taylor is well-known for his aviation paintings, which are gorgeous - but originally, he was a marine painter, inspired (as he says in the intro) by 15th and 16th century Dutch maritime artists. He is a true follower in that his paintings are very detailed as to the ships, but with a very true-feeling treatment of the sea in all her moods, and wonderful skies as well.

The earlies ships treated here are from the Napoleonic wars, going through the clipper era, some very evocative turn-of-the-century (19 to 20, I mean!) windjammers and barques, a glorious treatment of the German East Asiatic squadron in 1914, and a whole series of WWII paintings: German, American and English, from trawler to U-boot and from destroyer to battleship; and to top it all off the South Atlantic Task Force (the Falklands one), HMS York in 1984, a few ocean racing yachts and the royal yacht Brittania.

A very versatile artist, consistently high quality, and able to bring out real emotion - see HMT Sapphire battling the Atlantic swell, or three Spitfires seeing off German bombers over the Ohio on her way to malta. Wonderful stuff!

The Marine Art of Robert Taylor- A Review.
Having bought many books showing the work of maritime artists I can honestly say that Robert Taylor,s work stands against any. His rendering of sea and sky is unsurpassed, with a subject matter ranging from the Battle of Trafalgar to World War 2, Falklands and modern day shipping. I would have prefered though a more explanetory write up on the actual painting process and how he managed to render such fantastic paintings. I wish the book was bigger but I know that the artist usualy paints aircraft. I bought the book for £20 which seems a bit overpriced for the amount of pages. Around £13 is fine though......