Rosalind Ormiston:Art Historian, Author, Arts & Travel Writer

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I'm an art historian specialising in Art and Architectural History and Classical Civilisation. I'm a travel writer too, on the cultural highlights of worldwide locations. I am an author of books on art and artists, and art movements, which influences my travel commissions too. 

LATEST BOOK

HANS HOLBEIN: HIS LIFE AND WORK IN 500 IMAGES, Lorenz Books-Anness Publishing, to be published mid-October 2021. (See left). It examines the life and work of the German portraitist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), who spent much of his life in London, as a Court Painter to king Henry VIII. My favourite Holbein painting is The Ambassadors, 1533 (National Gallery, London). I visit it every time I am at the gallery.

COMMISSIONED BOOKS published include the Dutch painters Hieronymus Bosch, Johannes Vermeer, Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt van Rijn; the Italian Renaissance Masters: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; painters of modern life:  JMW Turner, Paul Gauguin, Egon Schiele, Edward Hopper, and Pablo Picasso. plus art movements: Art Deco and Art Nouveau

TRAVEL BOOK

.... I'm a contributor to the book  500 Walks with Writers, Artists and Musicians ,featuring worldwide locations in the lives of artists, composers and writers. It's published by Francis Lincoln in the UK. The American version was published September 2020 by Thunder Bay Press, titled The Artist's Path in 500 Walks  (see carousel for American and UK covers). My New York entries in both books include a walk through historic streets of Harlem with writers Langston Hughes, and Toni Morrison; visiting sites of Keith Haring's public murals; finding Edward Hopper in Washington Square, and Yayoi Kusama walking the industrial areas of Manhattan; then at Great Salt Lake, Utah, to view Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty; crossing the Atlantic to take a bracing walk with the Bronte sisters in Haworth, Yorkshire; and follow Hunter Davies along Hadrian's Wall; Thomas Hardy in Dorchester; or Edward Elgar on the Italian coast. I wrote around fifty entries. It's the 'armchair travel' book  for these covid-inspired lockdowns.  

Commissioned by Lorenz Puiblishing for another book in the 'Life and Works' art series, which includes Hans Holbein the Younger to be published October 2021. With travel opening up I'll be writing more travel features too.