1001 Paintings

You Must See

Before You Die

Published by Quintet Publishing

Available at Asia Books, Bt1,195

 In the introduction to this doorstop we're told that it's a visitor's handbook and travelling companion, rather than an armchair guide.

Nonsense! With the vibrant colours and subtle contrasts of the reproductions alone, there's enough to stimulate the eye and pique the imagination of anyone with even a casual acquaintance with the painterly arts. And each is set above half a page of plain-speaking, engaging analysis of the painting, noticeably free of the solemnity or gushing clichés that often weigh down discussions on art.

Beginning with the ancient art of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, the book goes on to devote a chapter to each century of the millennium, from the 1400s through to the 2000s.

Fronting each chapter is a helpful list of the salient features of the century's artistic expression. Baroque, classicism, genre painting, still life and Dutch masters, for the 1600s for instance. Alongside page after page of established masterpieces like Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper", Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" and Munch's "The Scream", there are gems by lesser-known artists like Correggio, Henry Wallis and the symbolist Felix Edourd Valloton to discover.

Two small quibbles: The images are a bit on the small side (they do have the concentrated charm of miniatures, though); and the writers' enthusiasm seems to drop away when we get to the modern art.

That said, if you can afford it, this book is probably the star in this collection.

100 Most Beautiful Museums

Of The World

Published by Rebo Publishers

Available at Asia Books, Bt595

 You'll need to set aside one whole corner of your coffee table for this heavyweight hardback, which is subtitled "The Greatest Treasures of Mankind on Five Continents".

 Two pages equally divided between text and pictures are devoted to each museum.

We begin with a tour of Europe and established centres of culture like Paris, for the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay, London, for the Tates and National Gallery, and Florence for the Uffizi.

We move from the centre of the continent to the edge, for, among others, the Islamic and Byzantine art of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and the emerging cultural identities in the museums of Estonia and Latvia.

Though it's easy on the eye, with three or four reproductions of the superstars of each museum's collection splashed across the page, the accompanying text can be hard work. Translated from the German of the original, the otherwise competent guide to the history of each building and the artworks it houses suffers from a stuffiness of tone and stilted delivery.

For the last third of the book, we travel to the Americas for New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan, the Inca collection in Peru, and then Africa for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and finally Asia for Beijing's Palace Museum, Baghdad's Iraq Museum and Tokyo's Museum of Art.

Overall, despite its weaknesses, this is a good-value guide to the world's culture troves and a worthy companion to "1001 Paintings…".

Acrylic Workbook: A complete

course in 10 lessons

By Jenny Rodwell

Published by David

and Charles

Available at Asia Books, Bt750

 It's Christmas Day - perhaps you've gorged yourself on the "1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die" you were lucky enough to find in your stocking. Sitting back, you wonder how you might fare with a brush in your hand and a blank canvas before you.

Acrylic paint, this book reassures us, is the place to start, being easier to work with than either watercolour or oils.

First, we're introduced to the tools of our new hobby, before being ushered into lesson No 1 on colour theory, followed by lessons on creating textures, washes, form, still life, portraiture and collage.

Each lesson has a useful box of aims - by the end of the first we should have a hands-on knowledge of mixing colours and be able to lay out a well-organised palette.

The simple step-by-step approach is reassuring for the beginner, with pictures alongside the text to illustrate the evolution of a painting from the bare bones of a sketch, through shading and on to the final touches like texture.

Rather than dictating to the reader a single "correct" way of doing things, different solutions for each stage of a painting are suggested. This seems like a good practical guide - free of intimidating jargon or theory, and liberating the reader to experiment and become comfortable at the easel.

50 Great Adventures

By Jonathan Lee

Published by Prestel

Available at Asia Books, Bt1,100

 With this publication and the next - both by the same author - we're firmly into coffee-table book territory: packed with a pleasing froth of pictures, but a bit lacking when it comes to a concept to bind the contents together.

Here, the vague-sounding "adventures" comprise visionary pieces of architecture from around the world. They come under five headings: Live, Work, Pray, Play and Stay, and cover everything from eccentric backwoods follies like the Free Spirit Spheres - globe-shaped wooden treehouses 30 metres above the forest floor in the wilderness of Canada's British Columbia, to world-famous religious centres like Amritsar's Golden Temple in India.

The strengths of such a loose organising principle show through in the intriguing juxtapositions: Butch and Sundance's broken-down cabin sits over the page from Beijing's Forbidden City; New York's modernist Guggenheim Museum gives way to the 2,000 sculptures made from recycled rubbish that is the Rock Garden of Chandigarh. Unfortunately, the writer chose to overlook a good candidate from Thailand - the Sala Kaew Koo sculpture park in Nong Khai.

The lay-out is uncluttered, with a few short paragraphs on each structure and often a personal contribution from the architect responsible. We're also told how to get there and where to get further information.

It's not quite the penetrating insight into other cultures that it bills itself as, but this book should keep you idly thumbing well in to the new year. It's a bit pricey for what is essentially a glossy travelogue, though.

50 Great Escapes

By Jonathan Lee

Published by Prestel

Available at Asia Books, Bt1,100

 Another

travelogue but like its brother above, it takes us well off the beaten track, with an unusual and romantic slant. Here we get to visit spots around the globe associated with famous artists.

The first chapter, Inspiration, includes Joseph Conrad's "heart of darkness" in the Congo. For the next chapter, titled "Creation", a standout is Gauguin's Tahiti.

Paul Bowles' Tangier comes under the heading "Big Break", before the chapter on "Hell-Raising" that brings us Hemingway's Venice side by side with Hunter S Thompson's Puerto Rico.

For the last chapter, "Reinvention", the Beatles are pictured in Rishikesh, India, in the now-familiar pose at the feet of their guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Alongside, the text tells of how their "White Album" echoes with their awakening to the sounds and spirit of India.

Like its companion title, there's lots of great eye candy on offer in the form of panoramic landscapes and local culture, but this time it's usually selected to evoke the atmosphere of the work of the artist in question.

Young intellectuals in heated discussion emerge from a 1940s grainy black-and-white photograph of Jean Paul Sartre's hangout  - the Café de Flore on Paris' Left Bank, while the modern-day photo of Claude Monet's Giverny garden reveals how little it has changed since the painter recorded it over a century ago.

Each chapter is capped with other suggestions for holiday destinations, under headings like Action and Adventure, Chance Encounters and Radical Change.

Relevant website addresses are included too.

If you're given a choice between the two books here

by Jonathan Lee, you might find this one more stimulating.

Rod Borrowman,

Ramona Varma

The Nation