Art & Design

The Artist's Way provides a twelve-week course that guides you through the process of recovering your creative self. It aims to dispel the 'I'm not talented enough' conditioning that holds many people back and helps you to unleash your own inner artist. Its step-by-step approach enables you to transform your life, overcome an... read more

It is entirely possible to immerse oneself in the glories of European art without having to travel to the Louvre, the Uffizzi, the Tate or the Frick. That's because New Zealand's public art galleries are richly studded with works collected by benefactors over the last 150 years and generously gifted to the nation. Many are in... read more

Artistic genius, political activist, painter and decorator, mythic legend or notorious graffiti artist? The work of Banksy is unmistakable, except maybe when it's squatting in the Tate or New York's Metropolitan Museum. Banksy is responsible for decorating the streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cites throughout the... read more

Being a writer is good because you get paid to write stuff up, you can stay home and work in your pajamas and you get to travel because it's research. Being a writer is bad when you're sitting all by yourself staring at a blank page. Brigid Lowry knows the highs and lows of being a writer, but she still thinks it's a joy. In ... read more

Kura Koiwi is both a personal account of Brian Flintoff’s career as a carver, but also an important exploration of Maori art and how it relates to carving.
Heavily illustrated with exquisite examples of his, and other people’s work, this book explains the mythology and symbolism behind his work, and in doing... read more

A magnificent colourful monograph from the series of major New Zealnd artists by Ron Sang Publications.
Over a career spanning four decades, Pat Hanly proposed a new manner of looking at New Zealand - the land and its people. His art heralded new ways of thinking about this country - as a nation that belonged to the... read more

With One Million Tattoos readers can create unique combinations of original tattoo designs. Over a million combinations are possible! There are classic love hearts, skulls and roses in the traditional section, while the nature category is bursting with wildlife and elegant flower designs. The book explains how to colour th... read more

Colour is intrinsically linked to how individuals make sense of the world. It has the power to completely transform mood, often subliminally. It's capable of being energetic or restful, passive or aggressive, harmonious or dull, and that's just the beginning. Colour: A Journey explores the implications, history and cultural m... read more

A tour de force of writing on art
This legendary book has been universally hailed as the best, the most readable and the most provocative account of modern art ever written.
Through each of the thematic chapters Hughes keeps his story grounded in the history of the 20th century, demonstrating how modernism sou... read more

"The Gift" brilliantly argues for the importance of creativity in our increasingly money-driven society. Reaching deep into literature, anthropology and psychology for striking examples, the heart of Lewis Hyde's modern masterpiece is the simple and important idea that a 'gift' can inspire and change our lives, art and cultur... read more

All that stuff you're tempted to throw away isn't rubbish, it's a new beginning! If it's broken, Judith Miller will show you how to fix it; if it's past its prime, learn how to give it a stylish revamp for next to nothing; and if it's in good nick or a valuable antique but you just don't want it anymore, discover how to turn ... read more

This lavishly illustrated history of the golden age of cartography, from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries, explores not only the embellishments on maps but also what they reveal about the world in which they were created. Here there be monsters real and imagined; ships actual and archetypical; newly discovere... read more

Traditional trends and influences from the East have pervaded popular Western culture in the last few years, from food and holistic therapies to make-up and body art. No longer simply the preserve of Asian brides, these eastern beauty techniques are being embraced by woman of all nationalities and backgrounds.
The Art o... read more

'Great art has dreadful manners...' Simon Schama observes at the start of his epic exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. 'The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the gre... read more

Unleash the Poem Within is about friendship, self-reflection and learning something new. It is, quite simply, about how the power of creativity can change your life. This book shows women how to liberate their creative spirit and use it not only as a means of self-expression, but as a way to find more calm, peace and an ... read more

The New Zealand landscape photography coffee table book category is a crowded category indeed. Here's a book that takes a novel approach, viewing New Zealand not through a photographer's lens but through the eyes of the country's greatest landscape painters, from Gully to Frizzell, Angus to Palmer. Drawn from public and pr... read more

"The definitive guide to musical enjoyment"-- Forum In this fascinating analysis of how to listen to both contemporary and classical music analytically, eminent American composer Aaron Copland offers provocative suggestions that will bring readers a deeper appreciation of the most viscerally rewarding of all art forms. Rev... read more

Home, Land and Sea – Situating Music in Aotearoa, New Zealand presents twenty different viewpoints on music in Aotearoa/New Zealand. A selection of experts examine the vast range of music production in this country and relate it to what it might say about our homeland, our diverse population, our landscape and our ident... read more

Across the great breadth of the Pacific, artists have always employed a wide variety of materials and techniques to create objects for specific purposes, from the domestic to the sacred, from the elegantly simple to the sumptuously ornate, and from the historic to the contemporary. In this book, the author draws on striking a... read more

Adored by celebrity patrons and admired by his peers in the industry, Scott Campbell is known not only for his amazing technique and vision as a tattoo artist, but also as a respected fine artist on the contemporary scene. Both Campbell's artwork and tattoo work are informed by timeless trends of "new antiquarian" style, nine... read more