Wow! This magnificent coffee table book measures 11.25” high and 10.25” wide and is an inch and a half thick! But what is spectacular about it are the 264 full-page paintings in full color all created en plein air – by Andrei Kushner. He spent more than a decade, determining an outdoor Shenandoah Valley spot , setting up an easel, and completing a beautiful painting! The painter, Andrei Kushnir, was born in Germany in 1947, the son of Ukrainian parents who immigrated to the US. He attended the University of Illinois, Chicago, but is essentially a self-taught artist. He has painted landscapes around the world and this is his fifth book, including a book of his Potomac River paintings. He lives in Maryland and has a studio in New York City. “In Oh, Shenandoah, the magnificent paintings of Andrei Kushnir, accompanied by the softly woven essays about the Valley’s settlement, geography, and natural history, create a tapestry of joy in the discovery of Shenandoah’s many faces.” – Nancy T. Sorrels. What an inspiring and gorgeous tribute – not just visually, but in text - to one of the world’s greatest geographical features.
Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, distributed by the University of Virginia Press, 2016. 414 pages with 264 full-page, full-color paintings and essays by Edward L. Ayers, Dana Hand Evans, Jeffrey C. Everett Warren R. Hofstra, and William M. S. Rasmussen. Oversized hardback in dust jacket