30-Minute Landscapes, Paul Talbot-Greaves – Book Review

This is the shortest book in my collection at only 64 pages.  I can only imagine it was going cheap.  I was still looking only at bargains when I bought this one.

Most of the book is made up of 27 demonstrations of paintings that Paul produced in around 30 minutes.  With only two pages to devote to each painting, there’s only room for four steps in each one, so it would probably be too difficult for a complete beginner to follow.  In fact, I’ve never copied any of the demonstrations, instead using them to generate ideas for paintings of my own (and, believe me, there are lots of ideas in here).  The paintings themselves are good, colourful and vibrant – a world away from some of the dull, earthy coloured stuff I’ve seen in other places.  It’s a shame, though, that Paul uses greens in his palette rather than mixing them himself.

I’m happy I bought this book. Unlike so many other 64-page pamphlets, it hangs together, devoting itself to a single topic, leaving no stones unturned while also not going off tangentially into other areas.  It scores a highly respectable three palettes.