For Artists and Art Lovers

Bob Henry’s new book, For Artists and Art Lovers: A Handbook, is a treasure for those of us involved in the arts. I came to my career as a painter via my training in the world of fine furniture building. Thus, I like to think of his new book as the ultimate compact and portable “tool kit” for the making and the understanding of great painting.



Henry has a gift for succinct eloquence. He explains with great clarity ideas that underpin fine art painting-both conceptual and in regard to technique. He has worked alongside and discoursed with giants of modern painting-figures like Hans Hofmann. He skillfully distills their approaches and philosophies for creating paintings. Like every great teacher he explains and unpacks these ideas so that we may understand them and appreciate the weighty history of painting they are derived from.



Henry provides us with constructive approaches and insights to untangle the typical challenges encountered by both artists and viewers of fine art. I have grappled with for many of these concepts for years, but I could not adequately express them by myself.



Finally, Henry shares his expertise in areas like composition, negative and positive space, surface, attitude, expressing oneself, etc. to both inspire and, importantly, nourish us. His ideas are presented with the strength that comes from simplicity, but none of the baggage of a master trying to convince his audience. He does not need to convince us because his ideas thrive on their own because they make so much sense.



His approach is collegial from the very start; this is refreshing and encourages the reader to continue on through this wonderful book…and to return to it over and over again.

– Daniel Alan Gordon

Born in New York in 1933, Bob attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn but soon realized that he was ‘studying at the wrong place for the wrong thing.’ Eventually, he became close friends with the creative crowd and realized that art was a ticket to a more welcoming counterculture.