"North Shore Surf"
5" x 7" watercolor study
In the past I painted many watercolors of a variety of subject matter, even street scenes with people. I prefer oils and do my best work in that medium, although I sometimes paint in acrylics. However, I enjoy other artists watercolors more than I do my own :-) There is one watercolor book I highly recommend for those artists that love to paint flowers and that is "Glorious Garden Flowers in Watercolor" by Susan Harrison-Tustain .
I paid $22.99 for this book (softcover) in 2003 and the price since has skyrocketed . If you check on Amazon a new paperback is now $125.74 and used ones start at $59.94 as of today. Amazon does have the hardcover edition available .... new $158.80 and used from $30.00 as of today. However, it is a wonderful book for the more intermediate artist, although beginners can learn from it as well of course. Susan Harrison-Tustain also has some excellent teaching DVD's out there.
For those artists who paint landscapes, I recommend "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting" by John F. Carlson. It has been in print a long time with the first copyright in 1929. As a teenager I found this book in the library and I literally devoured it and constantly poured over it as it has lessons on perspective, design, light, color, composition and more. It taught me a lot. My very first oil painting was of a landscape. I was living in Germany at the time with family and that was where my love for the landscape was born. Around the early 1970's I purchased the book and still have it in my possession. The only drawback is most of the photos in this book are in black and white, but that can be a good thing because it teaches you values. Carlson believed that if all your values in a painting were correct, the work would look good no matter what colors you used. You can also find this book on Amazon and it is very inexpensive.
I am busy working on a still life painting right now . Please check back soon and Mahalo for visiting with me today.
