On a Painted Ocean: Art of the Seven Seas

Rating:
Summary: the wondrous world of water
Review: This is an exquisite picture book in a square format, with an excellent layout, thick lustrous pages, and superb color reproduction.
The brief and beautifully written essays in each chapter are in bold and large print, and are more about the chapter subject than the illustrations. There is beside each picture, 2 sections in smaller print, one giving artist/size etc. details and the other a description of the piece.

Some of the chapter headings are:
"The Eternal Sea"...magical tales told with a paintbrush. A 14th century Islamic manuscript painting of "Jonah and the Whale" is captivating.
"The Sea's Bounty" with N.C. Wyeth's magnificent 1938 "Deep Cove Lobster Man" among the many gorgeous pictures.
"The Fickle Sea", with Irish artist James Dixon's 1966 "The Sinking of the Titanic", that is a gripping, emotional depiction of the event.
Other chapters are: "Expanding Horizons", "War at Sea", "Ports of Call", and "Emanations".

There are over 150 fabulous illustrations in this volume, many that I've never seen before. Kudos to Peter Neill, who has put together a book that's a delight for those of us who love the sea...and as Walter Cronkite, another sea-lover, concludes in his poetic preface to this wonderful book: "I wish you fair winds on this painted ocean".