The Art of Thomas Aquinas Daly: The Painting Season
"... the finest art book--paintings and text--in print today.It's the nature of fine art that not everyone can own it. Nor is Tom Daly currently offering prints. So thank goodness for his recent book, The Art of Thomas Aquinas Daly: The Painting Season. For anyone who loves hunting, fishing, wildlife, wild landscapes, wild emotions and classic (rather than merely trendy) sporting art, this big beautiful "coffee table" volume will instantly become a prized possession...an elegant vehicle for transporting us "out there" in spirit, when our bodies are trapped indoors. In addition to 114 masterfullyreproduced paintings--landscapes, sporting scenes and still lifes-- Season includes a brief forward by Stephen Bodio, plus a lengthy and enlightening introductory text--"Man and Nature: A Basic Relationship"--by renowned art scholar Cassandra Langer, as well as extensive comments by the artist. For aesthetically inclined sportsmen and women, I can't imagine a finer gift." (Bugle (David Petersen)) --(Bugle - David Petersen)The Art of Thomas Aquinas Daly: The Painting Season contains brilliant reproductions of the work of one of the finest painters of our time... His paintings are not so much about the natural world as they are an extraordinary extension of it.  --Gray's Sporting Journal (Christopher Camuto)There's an esoteric quality to the typical watercolour that demands the missing fine detail be replaced by mood and light if the work is to have meaning. Many of Mr. Daly's very fine paintings featured in this 150- page hard- bound volume do just that in a very interesting way. (These works) are about tradition and lifestyle and 20th century history. They are also about simple solitude, for there is rarely more than a single person in the scene - and so they are also about quiet, uncrowded places and abundant wildlife and healthy habitat. They are about how things were. --The Atlantic Salmon Journal, Autumn 1999Throughout The Painting Season, Daly contributes short, loosely ordered essays on his work and his life, and they complement the art nicely. He devotes one to each of the seasons, and the others to favorite places. He also provides captions for the paintings, which is a welcome feature. In reading through the book, we learn Daly spends as much time outside as he does in his studio, which isn't surprising. It's obvious these paintings don't come from looking through a window.Given that Big Sky Journal is a western magazine, we thought twice about reviewing The Painting Season, with its principle settings in the Northeast. And then we asked, What would our readers think? Unanimously, we agreed they would love it.  --Big Sky Journal (Brian Baise)