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Lessons for Young Artists
  • Published: 19 January 2027
  • ISBN: 9781802065688
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $28.99

Lessons for Young Artists

Formats & editions
Paperback
19 Jan 2027
Hardback
7 Oct 2025
EBook
3 July 2025
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A master hands over his tools in this generous, gentle book of artistic advice

We are all artists as children, painting and drawing each day. Most of us stop when we get older – but David Gentleman kept going. For over ninety years he has been drawing, painting, engraving and printing, rising to become one of Britain’s best-known and most loved artists. His watercolours have filled galleries; his iconic wood cuts are emblazoned across posters, book jackets and train stations; his stamps have made their way to the furthest corners of the world.

Here, the great, polymathic artist and craftsman shares what he has learned over the course of a lifetime of making and thinking about art. Unlike his contemporaries, Gentleman was never a teacher; his lessons are a sequence of unconventional prompts and reflections that will deepen how you think about art and the world around you.

Sincere, practical and unpretentious, Gentleman’s insights are a breath of fresh air. Here are new ways to focus, notice the world and cultivate your own style; techniques to evolve your work, from playing with time to painting in bad weather; methods for getting the most out of mistakes and negative criticism; and, above all, reminders to return, always, to the simple delights of creativity.
  • Published: 19 January 2027
  • ISBN: 9781802065688
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $28.99
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Praise for Lessons for Young Artists

Lessons for Young Artists is anything but a how-to manual or didactic textbook. Instead, it’s like a visit to David Gentleman’s studio where you sit at his shoulder, watching him work, while he shares tips, wisdom, anecdotes … Finding beauty in the neglected, unnoticed moments that pass us by is a lesson that can be applied to anyone’s life, ‘Young Artist’ or not. This is diamond advice, lightly given

Jonathan Jones, Guardian

Gentleman distils more than seven packed decades into an inspiring primer for the hobbyist and art school graduate alike

Susie Mesure, Financial Times

A richly wise book about how to live a creative life in a world full of distractions and false goals … the book could equally be called Advice for Living Well

Irish Times

A wonderful guide to practising art … Gentleman’s advice is simple and doable … The lessons are brought home with his own work. Some of his rules could be for life as well as for art

Evening Standard

Charming … a distillation of some of the wisdom gained during a near 80-year career

New Statesman