Author Biography

Features the work of popular watercolour artists Julie King, Fiona Peart and Janet Whittle.

• After graduating with a first-class degree in textile design, Julie King worked as an in-house designer of household textiles before freelancing for several years, creating fabrics, wallpapers and ceramics, all inspired by her deep love of flowers and the natural world. She was awarded a Certificate of Education and the Society of Botanical Artists Certificate of Botanical Merit for a freestyle interpretation of an iris.
  Julie, who lives in Kent, teaches both landscape and flower painting in venues ranging from National Trust and privately owned gardens to cruise liners. She also contributes articles to the Leisure Painter magazine.
• Fiona Peart is a professional artist and fully qualified art tutor, specialising in watercolour and drawing techniques. She runs popular workshops, gives talks and presentations to various art groups, and also demonstrates at art shows and exhibitions throughout the UK. She writes regularly for The Artist, Leisure Painter and StartArt magazines, as well as contributing articles and features to national magazines, and has produced several DVDs on watercolour and coloured pencils. For more information
• Janet Whittle is a professional artist and qualified teacher who specialises in flowers and landscapes in watercolour and pastel. She exhibits regularly at the Westminster Galleries in London, and has also shown her work at the prestigious Mall Galleries and other international venues. Greeting cards bearing her work are widely available in Europe and the US and her prints are sold throughout the world. Janet Whittle has received awards from the major UK art groups, including the Society of Botanical Artists' Founder President's Honour in 1999, and the St. Cuthberts Mill Award for a picture of outstanding quality in 2001. Also in that year she won The Society of Flower Painters' Award for Excellence for their Jersey Exhibition.

Table of Contents

- Introduction to the book and some general instructions- 5 pull-out posters- Tulips tutorial- Irises tutorial- Sunflowers tutorial- Roses tutorial- Poppies tutorial- 5 ready-to-paint outlines on watercolour paper

Review

Search Press's new series, Paint Pad Poster Books offer a poster book, art pad and step-by-step painting book all in one... each of the five pull-out A3 posters can be framed and displayed. The stage by stage tutorial pages can also be pulled out so that you can access the information easily, painting directly onto the watercolour outline for quick and satisfying results... Flowers includes tutorials on tulips, irises, sunflowers, roses and poppies. * Leisure Painter, March 2020 *
Search Press have supersized their Paint Pad series. These new books take the form of an A3 pad with pull-out sheets of watercolour paper with the expected pre-printed outlines. It's also possible to pull out the instruction pages and pin them up so that you're not struggling with something unmanageable in the studio. Such details are evidence of the thought that;s gone into the presentation. Each book contains paper and instructions for five images, which you're encouraged to frame and display after completion - and they're so good you'd want to. No authors are credited and the images themselves look familiar - I'm pretty sure they're taken from other books, but the presentation is completely new. Consideration has also been given to the size - at this scale, imperfections in the reproduction would be very clear and they're fully up to standard on that score. It's an interesting development that has considerable potential. * The Artist *
An A3 book is not easy to manage so, instead of the portfolio styling of the parent series, these are pads where you're clearly intended to pull out not just the sheets of watercolour paper with their pre-printed outlines, but the instruction pages as well. Tape the paper down onto a drawing board, pin the instructions on the wall and it all starts to make sense.The quality is stunning. Each painting is shown in its complete state and, at this size, any shortcomings in the reproduction are going to be immediately obvious and a massive frustration. Full use has been made of the large page size to lay the instructions out clearly and illustrate them in detail. Everything is really clear and, if you're adopting my suggestion of pinning them on a wall, easy to see.There's an elegant simplicity to it that'll make serious art easily accessible to even the raw beginner. -- Henry Malt * Art Book Review *

Review Quote

ArtBook Review , September 2019 Search Press have supersized their Paint Pad series. Not so much a triple-stack cheeseburger with a quart of fizzy sugar as the full 48 ounce free-if-you-can-finish-it T-bone. These are BIG . A lot of thought has clearly gone into the format, though. An A3 book is not easy to manage so, instead of the portfolio styling of the parent series, these are pads where you're clearly intended to pull out not just the sheets of watercolour paper with their pre-printed outlines, but the instruction pages as well. Tape the paper down onto a drawing board, pin the instructions on the wall and it all starts to make sense. This isn't mentioned in the How To Use This Book introduction, but it's the obvious solution. The content has also been pared down severely in the light of this not being something to sit down and read. There's no list of materials or introduction to techniques, although there is a "what you'll need" list for each section. The whole thing is about the image and completing it. Once you've painted the five exercises, the rest of the book is basically disposable. That sounds likes sacrilege for something costing a whisker under sixteen pounds/ twenty-five dollars, but your return is the five full-size paintings you can frame and hang on the wall. The quality is stunning. Each painting is shown in its complete state and, at this size, any shortcomings in the reproduction are going to be immediately obvious and a massive frustration. Full use has been made of the large page size to lay the instructions out clearly and illustrate them in detail. Everything is really clear and, if you're adopting my suggestion of pinning them on a wall, easy to see. This is quite a departure and a lot more than just a vary-it-a-bit exercise to generate extra sales. There's an elegant simplicity to it that'll make serious art easily accessible to even the raw beginner.

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