Artists in Novels

Today is International Artist's Day, a day to show support to the artists you enjoy.  Here are ten novels that have artists as characters.

At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole - Luc Crepet is accustomed to his mother s bringing wounded creatures to their idyllic chateau in the French countryside, where healing comes naturally amid the lush wildflowers and crumbling stone walls. Yet his "maman" s newest project is the most surprising: a fifteen-year-old Scottish girl grieving over her parents fate. A curious child with an artistic soul, Clare Ross finds solace in her connection to Luc, and she in turn inspires him in ways he never thought possible. Then, just as suddenly as Clare arrives, she is gone, whisked away by her grandfather to the farthest reaches of the globe. Devastated by her departure, Luc begins to write letters to Clare and, even as she moves from Portugal to Africa and beyond, the memory of the summer they shared keeps her grounded. Years later, in the wake of World War I, Clare, now an artist, returns to France to help create facial prostheses for wounded soldiers. One of the wary veterans who comes to the studio seems familiar, and as his mask takes shape beneath her fingers, she recognizes Luc. But is this soldier, made bitter by battle and betrayal, the same boy who once wrote her wistful letters from Paris? After war and so many years apart, can Clare and Luc recapture how they felt at the edge of that long-ago summer?

A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington - Set in 1970, a watershed moment in American History, A Catalog of Birds tells the story of the Flynn family and the devastating impact of the Vietnam War. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between siblings Nell and Billy Flynn. Nell excels academically and is headed to college and a career in science. Billy, a passionate artist, enlists as a pilot to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying. He is the only survivor when his helicopter is shot down. When he returns home his wounds limit his ability to sketch or even hold a pencil. As Billy struggles to regain the life he once had, Nell and their family will have to do all that's possible to save him.

Confess by Colleen Hoover - At age twenty-one, Auburn Reed has already lost everything important to her. In her fight to rebuild her shattered life, she has her goals in sight and there is no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn't expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry. For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is keeping a major secret from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it. To save their relationship, all Owen needs to do is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin.

Courting Mr. Emerson by Melody Carlson - When the fun-loving and spontaneous artist Willow West meets buttoned-up, retired English teacher George Emerson, it's not exactly love at first sight. Though she does find the obsessive-compulsive man intriguing. Making it her mission to get him to loosen up and embrace life, she embarks on what seems like a lost cause--and finds herself falling for him in the process. A confirmed bachelor, George vacillates between irritation and attraction whenever Willow is around--which to him seems like all too often. He's not interested in expanding his horizons or making new friends; it just hurts too much when you lose them. But as the summer progresses, George feels his defenses crumbling. The question is, will his change of heart be too late for Willow?

From This Moment by Elizabeth Camden - Stella West's artistic talent made her the toast of London, but when her beloved sister dies under mysterious circumstances, she abandons everything, heads for Boston, and tries to pierce the ring of secrecy surrounding her sister's death. When she meets Romulus White, a publisher with innumerable connections, she decides he could be a valuable ally. He decides to help her as a means to induce her to create art for his magazine. Neither one is prepared for the sparks that fly, and Romulus begins to wonder whether helping Stella solve the mystery of her sister's death is worth the risk to his publishing empire.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - A young boy in New York City, Theo Decker, miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friend's family and struggles to make sense of his new life. In the years that follow, he becomes entranced by one of the few things that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the art underworld. Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America, and a drama of almost unbearable acuity and power. It is a story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the enormous power of art. 

Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza - Whenever I'm in survival mode I find myself magnetised by museums and galleries, like people running for air raid shelters in wartime." The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her. In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo's bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires - her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell - Summer 1955: Lillian Oberon is young, beautiful, and married to the wealthy and handsome Charles Oberon. She is also the mistress of Cloudesley, a lavish country estate, and the stepmother to a young boy she loves dearly. But not long after her nuptials, she begins to feel that she is just another of her husband's possessions, an objet d'art captured within the manor walls. Bound by familial duty and love, she tries to make peace with her unfulfilling marriage--until a charismatic artist comes to stay and makes her reexamine everything. The present day: Maggie Oberon is in Australia, trying to hide from the mess she's made of her life back in England. When her beloved grandmother becomes ill and Maggie must return to Cloudesley, she is dismayed to find the once-opulent estate crumbling into decay. As she scrambles to find a way to save the old property, she is unprepared for the dark secrets that have remained hidden in its dark halls. But within them also lies the key that could change its legacy --and Maggie's life--forever.

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline - "Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden."
To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century. 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides - Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia's refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations--a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....