Arts of Colonial Mexico. The Guidebooks: West Mexico

Our aim in this blog is to make Mexico's colonial artistic heritage come alive for the English speaking reader. 
   Over several years, your author, writer and illustrator Richard Perry has published a series of informative, pictorial guidebooks to those regions of Mexico with the richest colonial artistic heritage.   
   For each region we outline  in a clear descriptive style. the local history, folklore, and the artistic context for each building or work of art of note. In each case the text is supplemented by numerous illustrations, maps and plans.
   All the guides are illustrated by original line drawings by the author which render the architectural and sculptural detail with a clarity unobtainable in any other medium.

BLUE LAKES & SILVER CITIES

The Colonial Arts and Architecture of West Mexico

In this handsome guidebook from Espadaña Press, specialist author and artist Richard Perry takes the reader on another grand tour of colonial Mexico.

   We travel north and west of Mexico City to focus on the Spanish colonial province of Michoacán, an extensive region that included parts of the modern Mexican states of Jalisco, Guanajuato and Querétaro.

   One of the great cultural heartlands of viceregal as well as pre-Columbian Mexico, this scenic region of lakes and mountains is exceptionally rich in a broad variety of imposing colonial buildings, most containing an array of exquisitely wrought art treasures. 

   These monuments range from humble 16th century mission hospitals still preserved in many rural villages, to great early monasteries, and the elegant Baroque churches that grace the celebrated "silver cities" of the region. The range of colonial art works include early monastic murals, created by native artists in the 1500s, as well as exquisitely carved, painted and gilded altarpieces from the 18th century.

   We explore in detail numerous lesser known colonial towns and villages as well as the great historic centers of Guadalajara, Querétaro, Morelia, Guanajuato, Patzcuaro and San Miguel Allende among others.

   Informative and stimulating, this comprehensive handbook is also a visual feast, enriched with over 200 original line drawings by the author.  With its useful maps and plans, full glossary, bibliography and index, Blue Lakes & Silver Cities is a standout among our unique family of companion guides to colonial Mexico, indispensable for both the art traveler and home reader.

This guidebook may be ordered through Amazon.com from our preferred distributor Practical Patchwork.

Readable... Portable... Affordable...