FEATURE

The Ready to Paint series provides six tracings for readers to pull out and transfer on to watercolour paper.

Some quite surprising developments have been taking place in this series of late. While it started off pretty much on-message with simple guides to straightforward subjects, some genuine little masterclasses have started appearing and this is definitely one of those. This is amazing, not because the series is going off-message, but because it turns out to be possible to do it in a format that you'd think would always tend towards the elementary. You still have the pre-drawn tracings, but all of Janet's final results here have the feeling of being freehand work. In truth, you couldn't paint a convincing flower portrait without an initial sketch, but there's absolutely no sense here of that having been filled in, which is really rather remarkable.
I'm not sure I'd recommend this to a beginner in flower painting, but if you're looking to develop skills and you want a bit of help getting the shapes right so that you can concentrate on the colours and shading, then this book is unique. In fact, even if you don't use the tracings at all, Janet still has a huge amount to tell you.



A gardenful of glorious roses in bloom is one of the most beautiful sights of all. Bring those images indoors with Janet Whittle's wonderful paintings of a wide variety of roses in watercolour.

Janet Whittle is a professional artist and qualified teacher who specialises in flowers and landscapes in watercolour and pastel. She exhibits regularly at the Westminster Galleries in London, and has also shown her work at the prestigious Mall Galleries and other international venues. Greeting cards bearing her work are widely available in Europe and the US and her prints are sold throughout the world. Janet has received awards from the major UK art groups, including the Society of Botanical Artists' Founder President's Honour in 1999, and the St. Cuthberts Mill Award for a picture of outstanding quality in 2001. Also in that year she won The Society of Flower Painters' Award for Excellence for their Jersey Exhibition.


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