Masterpiece Mix

August 28, 2017
“Today I will make a new painting,” declares an artist with cropped hair and glasses (she bears a strong resemblance to Munro herself), before noting the supplies she uses and the inspiration she gathers from the artwork around her. The artist’s pleasantly cluttered studio features reproductions of dozens of works of art from Cassatt, Gauguin, Vermeer, and other artists (the images were digitized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.). Munro touches on possible subjects—still lifes, portraits, landscapes—and a closing cityscape lets eagle-eyed readers spot the 37 featured paintings, drawings, and sculptures on buildings, vehicles, and elsewhere; the works of art are discussed in greater detail in end notes. Rather than focus on a finished masterpiece, Munro makes it clear that the process of making art begins long before the first brush stroke. Ages 4–7.

June 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 3-Munro introduces children to fine art using a search-and-find game and a fun framing device. A fictional artist, possibly modeled after the author/illustrator herself, is gathering her tools and supplies and deciding what to paint. She considers still lifes, landscapes, portraits, sport scenes, and more. The illustrations integrate Munro's colorful ink drawings of the artist's studio and town with reproductions of famous artworks, selected from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, by painters such as Judith Leyster, Robert S. Duncanson, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Peter Paul Rubens, and Johannes Vermeer. The ending unveils the cityscape the artist has created, which incorporates all 37 masterpieces she had previously admired. In the back matter, thumbnail descriptions of each of the masterworks yield interesting tidbits for those who delve further: Winslow Homer illustrated 13 children's books; Mary Cassatt, famous for figure painting, was barred from life drawing classes because of her gender; and Claude Monet did more than 250 paintings of the same pond. This simple story covering the basics of painting and drawing-materials, subject matter, and art history-can be absorbed in a few minutes by preschoolers, but the searching game and the intricacy of the artwork lend themselves to more thorough investigation by older children and those with longer attention spans. VERDICT Recommended as a versatile introduction to fine art for elementary schoolers.-Suzanne LaPierre, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
Looking for a fresh and inviting introduction to academic painting genres such as still life, portrait, or landscape? Why not bring readers inside an artist's studio (perhaps author/illustrator Munro's own?) and actually show them the process? Munro begins with preparations to paint: stretching and gessoing canvas, selecting the right tubes of colors, choosing brushes, palette knives, and solvents, setting up a palette for painting, and so on. It's lots of work...but the really hard part about painting is deciding just what to paint. In demonstrating her decision-making process, Munro uses 37 iconic and inspiring examples of fine art, each illustrating a genre for consideration, all drawn from the open-access collection of the National Gallery of Art and all representing an energizing variety of European and American artists, eras, media, and styles. She cleverly brings all these images together in a detailed, ambitious, culminating ink-and-acrylic cityscape. This signature image of an art-bedecked, lively metropolis also works as an art scavenger hunt. As readers discover the art embedded in a landscape, they can refer to the smart, concise, marvelously amplifying backmatter. A handsome and satisfying companion to Market Maze (2015). (Informational picture book. 4-8)

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