Painting Expressive Landscapes, Carole Robson – Book Review

On the face of it, this is a very similar book to the Jane Betteridge in my collection.  It has artwork like that in the Ann Blockley books but includes a few step by step demonstrations rather than showing us paintings, making a few comments on how the were created and relying on inspiration to make an improvement to our artwork.  But there is a difference between Carole’s book and Jane’s.  Whereas Jane’s book was weighted more towards products that might enhance my paintings than to wacky techniques, Carole goes the other way and talks more about techniques than products.  I quite liked this.  I also liked that she talked about abstract painting too, although I could have done without all the discussion of digital art.

The demonstrations in the book might be the weakest bit.  The paintings that resulted from them may well be the three worst paintings in the book for a start.  And I don’t like it when the commentary is a series of instructions rather than talking about “this is what I did”.  The demonstrations all had 30+ steps; with this many steps I could have done with seeing some photos of how the paintings as a whole were coming together rather than a series of closeups of little bits of the paintings.

Where Carole talks about wacky products, I found it a bit annoying that she didn’t mention particular brands (which Jane Betteridge did do).  This isn’t just about making sure I buy the best brand – it’s also a check that I’m actually buying the right product!

At the end, Carole moans about how she’s only been able to “scratch the surface” of what she’s been talking about.  Hmmmm.  If anybody should be moaning about this, it’s the readers.  The book is only 128 pages long and could easily have been extended out to 160 pages, leaving everybody happier.

Most of this review has been a series of moans, so you’ll be surprised to hear that it’s still getting three palettes.  The book was actually a pleasure to read, with Carole’s passion coming through wherever she showed off her paintings.  The paintings themselves (the three demos excepted) were all colourful, vibrant and in many cases really unusual.  They were genuinely inspiring.  And the whole book felt very shiny.  I’m not sure if this is down to the shiny paper used or to the choice of photos – all the photos of paints and equipment leapt off the page – a real contrast to those books where you get drawings of palettes and brushes.

Positive, inspiring, three palettes.