Musicians & bands

Fuel was scarce in France during World War I. You had to be very rich to obtain coal to heat your home. Debussy, offered to pay his coal merchant with an original composition. The merchant went home with Debussy’s last composition, appropriately named “Evenings Lighted by Burning Coals.”

When you are asked to do an assignment on a musician or band there are years and years of musical history you could choose an artist from. Do exercise caution whilst researching because there will be a lot of misleading information out there.

When searching, a good place to start would be to use the artist or band name you have chosen.

When looking at books avoid any titles with the words “unauthorized” or “unofficial” in the title, the facts in titles like these have not necessarily been checked thoroughly.

If you are looking at online material look for biographies on the official artist page. Do not trust information that is not from reliable sources and certainly do not look at magazine or newspaper articles.

If the artist you are researching is older and therefore does not have an ‘official’ website, for example French composer Claude Debussy, you could look him up in an encyclopaedia like Britannica or World Book.

If you are looking at online sites that look like legitimate biography websites make sure to check who created the website. There are some websites out there that advertise as biography sites, but are created by magazines or television networks. Instead try the library’s Reference Databases Biography in Context.

Art – Painting & Painters

Fun fact: 'Le Bateau' by Henri Matisse hung upside-down for 47 days in the Museum of Modern Art in New York until a patron realised the mistake.

 

The art of painting goes back thousands and thousands of years which is why this topic area is so vast.

Your first step is to have a look at what your question is asking for. Once you have figured out what the question is asking you about painting you will be able to put together some search terms. See below for some suggestions you could start with.

If you are being asked about painting mediums you could try words such as watercolour, oil, spray paint and acrylic. If the question is about syles of painting you should consider keywords like surrealism, impressionism and abstract.

You could also be asked about the history of painting or painters of a specific region or country. For that kind of question I would recommend using keyword combinations like ‘Painting Africa’ (you could also add in the word ‘history’).

If you are looking for information on a specific painter/artist I would recommend searching using their name, an example would be ‘Leonardo da Vinci’. If you want to know about a specific painting again I would recommend starting by using the name of the art like ‘Mona Lisa’. Also consider that there might me alternative terms you could use, for example whilst ‘Mona Lisa’ is the most commonly used spelling for this artwork you might also find some information under the spelling ‘Monna Lisa’.

Try some of the above terms in the library online catalogue; we have some great information on art, particularly in our reference section.

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like World Book and Britannica. These resources will be great for collection information.

The library’s Reference Databases webpage has some great databases you could search in too. A good one for finding information on artists is Biography in Context.

Some websites you might find useful

Encyclopedia  of Art 
This website has some really interesting and extensive information that could be useful to you.  

The History of Painting

This page is part of the scholastic website which is great and has a lot of information on the history of painting going back to cave paintings in a number of cultures.  

The Artwolf

This is an online magazine that has some amazing information on artists and pieces of art as well as art history.