Watercolour Textures, Ann Blockley – Book Review

Maybe this was a mistake though.  I already have Ann’s Experimental Landscapes and Watercolour Workshop books and love them both (both score four palettes).  I was hoping this book would add more to my collective Ann Blockley learnings, whether that was via new techniques, more detail on applying techniques or more examples of Ann’s work to inspire me but I ended up disappointed.

In terms of material, this book came out earlier than the other two, so I really should have been prepared for the worst.  The techniques are all techniques covered in her other books, with any new snippets of information thin on the ground.  Watercolour Workshop is a better introduction to techniques, including as it does some great demonstrations.  And in terms of inspiration, I think Ann’s work has improved over the years, leaving the artwork in this one at a slightly lower quality level than in the other two books of hers that I own.  Sorry Ann.

This book does have separate chapters in which her ideas are applied to animals, still life, flowers, buildings and landscapes, which I guess might be good for someone with a wide variety of subject matter. But for me, with a preference for landscapes and buildings, Experimental Landscapes was the real eye opener.  I guess someone heavily into flower painting would find Experimental Flowers more inspiring than Watercolour Textures, but that’s not a book I own.

While this book scores three stars for me on Amazon, my palette ratings are different.  It’s one that I don’t regret buying but wouldn’t buy again if I had to relive my life.  So it scores two palettes.  But if you’re reading this, I hope you’re also reading my reviews of Experimental Landscapes and Watercolour Workshop.

🎨🎨

So, to summarise Ann’s literary output as a whole:

– Watercolour Workshop scored five palettes.  Some great demonstrations, including one about throwing down a random underpainting and trying to work out what to do with it.

– Experimental Landscapes scored four palettes.  Really inspiring.

– Watercolour Textures scored two palettes.  Nothing in there that isn’t covered better in the other two books.

– Experimental Flowers isn’t in my collection or on my wishlist.  I hope and suspect that a flower painter would find it as inspirational as I found Experimental Landscapes

– Creativity Through Nature is being released next month.  I want to see some sample pages and reviews before I decide whether to add this to my wishlist.