A newly married couple surrounded by the beauty of Paris, each in their own way struggling to define what marriage could and should look like. A high school teacher confronting echoes of his past as his current love negotiates the place of art in her own life. An artist explaining why the work that should have been the pinnacle of his career fell unexpectedly flat. A rich young man exploring and painting a new landscape and perhaps creating an alternate...

Imagine writing a novel about a man named Jacob Printz who lost his purpose in life. Imagine describing the one constant in Jacob's life, the image of Seated Woman he first viewed as a much younger person, an image he comes back to over and over to make sense of the loves and losses in his life. This is the image by de Kooning that you, as the author, saw in the same museum several years before, an image that intrigues and haunts you, informing your...

The effects of World War II resonate through the lives of two families, one American and one European, living outside of Boston. As Jenny grows up in the shadow of her parents' dark experiences in Trieste during the war, she is pulled to the haunting art and ironic gaze of her next-door neighbor Jonas, whose own father, preparing for deployment as an army medic, died before he was born. But when, the mysterious Eric Stram enters her life unexpectedly,...

Without the means to support herself after her father dies, Carrington Brouwer receives the opportunity to use her artistic talent at her friend's father's carousel factory. But the men at the factory are not happy that a woman has been given the very desirable job of painting the elaborately carved horses. When mishaps occur at the factory and jewelry disappears from the home of the factory owner, accusations swirl. Is the handsome young factory...

Pairs of circular shapes convey opposite relationships in the arc of a day.

The locals in the southern Italian town where he lives call him Signor Farfalla-Mr. Butterfly: for he is a discreet gentleman who paints rare butterflies. His life is inconspicuous-mornings spent brushing at a canvas, afternoons idling in the cafes, and evening talks with his friend the town priest over a glass of brandy. Yet there are other sides to this gentleman's life: Clara: the young student who moonlights in the town bordello. And another...

Vashti believes that she cannot draw, but her art teacher's encouragement leads her to change her mind.

"After a long, cold winter, doors finally open, and children spill out like candies from a box. Amanda is the last one out of the apartment building, with a carton of chalk in her hands. On every inch of the pavement outside, the children draw pictures of flowers and trees, mushrooms and snails, and a few very unexpected things. It's a concrete garden. Their creativity, unfettered in the open air, brings something beautiful, something hopeful, to...

After her parents get divorced, Emily finds comfort in making and learning about art.

Rhymed text describes how shapes are made from simple lines. Some of the verses appear on the page in the shape they describe.