A lifetime’s learning about art, from one of Britain’s leading artists

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.

"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" - Guardian

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

"Gentleman has been responsible for some of the most-seen public artworks in this country, from more than 100 commissioned stamp designs, through the illlustrations in the astonishingly popular 1957 cookery book Plays du Jour, to a platform-length mural at Charing Cross Underground Station (passed through bya whopping 60,000 passengers a day)" - The Times

"It takes a special kind of person to hit their 10th decade and still see fresh beauty in the city they’ve called home for 70 years" - i News

"Gentleman, more than anyone else, was responsible for demonstrating the possibilities of the postage stamp, a tiny shard of visual pleasure and interest that could make art a natural accompaniment to the everyday act of communication for millions of people" - Apollo

"It would be tempting to describe Gentleman as a pillar of the British establishment were it not for his anti-establishment leanings … For decades he has been working steadily as a designer-illustrator in a tradition of his own making" - Eye Magazine