Ready to Paint: New York: in watercolour

Mar 10

The Ready to Paint series are a really useful addition for artist wishing to practice painting techniques without worrying about the drawing first. Each book carries several reusable drawings ready for tracing and once this step is done the artist can follow Geoff's easy to understand instructions to complete a beautiful artwork. He gives an overview of all the materials needed for each project including the colours he uses. Through out the book Geoff's enthusiasm for New York and the superb buildings it contains shows through. He tells us he and his wife had discussed coming here many times but this was their first visit and his paintings show that freshness of eye. Geoff is well known as a landscape painter and explains that he has always enjoyed adding buildings into his scenes. However in this book the iconic New York buildings take precedence over the landscapes and accompanied by the typical street furniture seen there along with cars, foliage and figures to create the street scenes seen every day in this busy city. The five inspirational projects included in the book use a variety of different techniques that once practised will be useful for future artworks. They are very easy to follow as Geoff clearly explains and illustrates each step. Each one focusses on a particular element of New York buildings, from the sheer scale and drama of Brooklyn bridge and the Empire State Building to the soft and gentleness of the famous Central Park in winter. Geoff's simple use of watercolours allows the beauty of the constructions to shine through in a subtle and understated manner making for a very pleasing composition. His instructions to use the tracings as a guide and not a bible mean that the artists is encouraged to make their own changes to create a very personal painting. Of course this also bridges the huge gap between following a demonstration and setting out full fledged into creating one's own work and is a valuable step in the art journey. An inspiring book for any artist containing useful information for painting buildings with superb absorbing demonstrations.

Apr 10

Generally speaking, the Ready to Paint series has proved its worth with a huge variety of subjects and media. Here, you have tracings for five major New York landmarks - Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, The Flatiron Building, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty - that you can complete from the comfort of your armchair, either as a record of an actual visit or as an aspiring tourist. Writing this as I am when flights are grounded by volcanic ash, the book suddenly takes on a strong relevance, too.

Apr 10

Tired of landscapes, seascapes and still life? Want to paint pictures of a famous city? Here is another twist on the original concept where you can get to grips with the painting part without having to worry about your lack of drawing prowess. There are lots of books on painting the three types of subject matter mentioned above, but not so many on cityscapes. How nice then that this award-winning series has not just this one, but other titles on painting scenes from London and Paris too. As with the other Ready To Paint titles each of the five projects tells you everything you need to know, from what color paints and type of brushes to buy to how to achieve the picture in a large number of easy, staged steps. Choose from iconic scenes such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building (minus King Kong), Flatiron Building and Central Park, here more imaginatively shown in winter. You can throw your paint by numbers away with books like this - more in the same vein, please!

Geoff Kersey is an experienced watercolourist and is much in demand as a teacher and demonstrator. He lives and works in Derbyshire where he has a studio, and he exhibits extensively. He has made over 30 watercolour DVDs and contributes to various art publications.