Just a few quick lines to express my gratitude to the artist, not only for doing these wonderful paintings and drawings, but for speaking candidly about experiences that have shaped your vision. I have followed your work for nearly thirty years now and whenever I see BWS on something I know that it will be a thing of great quality and beauty. Opus 1 and Opus 2 now reside on my shelf beside my copy of The Studio (My third one, as I have already loved two other copies to pieces...) and a couple of treasured... more info
It's tough being Barry:
For one thing, being a genius takes a lot of hard work, all the time. It never lets up - if it does, that means you're not a genius any more. BWS is a brilliant illustrator and very good (dare I say it?) artist. Years of training and execution show in his work and in his biographical notes. If one must criticize, that criticism would be the visual analog of Emperor Joseph II's critique of Bach: "Too many notes." The artwork here is wonderful, but I wish there were more of it. That brings us to the next... more info
GREAT STUFF (if you have the right expectations :-):
The reviews of OPUS 1 and 2 are pretty much divided between people who either think OPUS was the worst artbook they ever bought or people who thought it was the best. I personally belong to the last category. And I think the reason is that I didn't buy it with the expectations of this being 'just another artbook'. I dunno how this book has been promoted, but I think it is very clear from the backcover and inner covers that this is as much an autobiography as it is an artbook. But if you do have high... more info
THROUGH TIME & SPACE:
Barry Windsor-Smith's second volume of his metaphysical autobiography is much better designed than the first and features some rather nice comicbook-style drawings, but it feels less "meaty" than Opus 1, despite being slightly longer. There is simply not enough works included that represent why he's deserving of a pricey second art book. Regardless of his goals, Barry Windsor-Smith is a comic artist best known for being the first to handle Marvel's adaptation of Conan. That's pretty much his legacy. His... more info