ENTERTAINMENT REALM

Impressions of Paris by Cat Seto. Harper Design| April 2017| 176 pages | $19.99| ISBN: 9780062493071

RATING: *****/5*

A lovely adult picture book. The perfect gift for someone who appreciates art and beautiful things. Cat Seto sketches her way through museums, cafes, gardens, bookstores and the streets of Paris. Recalling her time in Paris through watercolor illustrations, she divides the book into four chapters: color; pattern; perspective and rhythm. There’s a reason so many creative types find inspiration in Paris. Culture, art, architecture. There’s art in everything from the buildings to the food to the streets to the fashion and to the residents.

Seto shares her personal experiences and connections to Paris as well as various art principles. It’s a combination memoir and art class within these pages. My strongest memories of Paris include chocolate crepes, art museums and impressive buildings. And eating Chocolat chaud and French bread for breakfast every morning.

On Le Boutique de Saint-Paris: “I have sketchbooks filled with etchings of flowers, and many a pattern has emerged from these tiny discoveries.” On Jardin des Plantes: “I was going to visit the Jardin des Plantes for only a few minutes. I instead spent days there, sketching among all the wanderers, art students, and schoolchildren.” Whether you’ve visited Paris or long to visit, this striking book provides a wonderful examination of the artistic sensibility that attracts so many artists, authors and musicians to the City of Light.

Cat Seto is a San-Francisco-based artist and the founder and creative director of the stationary collection Ferme a Papier. She holds a BFA in painting and an MFA in fiction/creative writing from the University of Michigan.

–review by Amy Steele

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Harper Collins.