Masters of Deception: Rob Gonzalves.

The last painting, which is the one used as the book's front cover art. "The Sun sets Sail", acrylic on canvas, 2001:
Here is a link to a big collection of his work, 37 paintings.

Masters of Deception: Sandre Del-Prete.

Another couple of scans from "Masters of Deception" to convince people to check out this book. "A Secret between Leaves", 1991, colored pencil drawing:"Homage to Leonardo da Vinci", 1992, colored pencil drawing:

Masters of Deception: Rex Whistler.

Today I returned "Masters of Deception" to the library, but before I made some promotional scans :-). Here are some works of Rex Whistler (1905-1944). It has such a vintage feel to it, and the work itself is very interesting. It's the same drawings, just flipped by 180 degrees.
"Change of Expression", undated pencil drawing:
"A King and his Queen":
"Surprise!":
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article (much the same, although a bit less detailed story is given in "Masters..."):

On the hot and stuffy 18th July his tank, after crossing a railway line, drove over some felled telegraph wires beside the railway, which became entangled in its tracks. He and the crew got out to free the tank from the wire when a German machine gunner opened fire on them, preventing them from getting back into their tank. Whistler dashed across an open space of 60 yards to another tank to instruct its commander, a Sergeant Lewis Sherlock, to return the fire. As he climbed down from Sherlock's tank a mortar bomb exploded beside him and killed him instantly, throwing him into the air. He was the first fatality suffered by the Battalion in the Normandy Campaign.

High conquest.

After reading a fourth part of Alpinist's Inspirations, I got the "High conquest" by J.R. Ullman from the library. The books doesn't disappoint. Here is an excerpt from chapter 2, about the beginning of mountaineering in Europe:

But, in its essence, it has been a struggle not of man against man, nor even of man against the obstacles of the physical world, but of man against his own ignorance and fear.

It's an excellent book, with the right kind of spirit!