Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes - Flowers

Ann Mortimer is a professional artist and watercolour tutor. She received no formal art training after A level Art at school, and instead studied for a degree in European Studies at UEA. After completing a PGCE at Southampton university, she became a French teacher. Later, she retrained to do infant teaching and so her students have ranged from age 5 to 85. In 1990 she was able to rekindle a lifelong love of painting and drawing. She became fascinated by the medium of watercolour and was soon exhibiting and selling her work. She has had work commissioned for greetings cards and mug wraps. Ann is a member of the Society of Floral Painters with whom she exhibits regularly. In 2008 she was awarded the Popular Choice Salver at the SFP annual exhibition at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire. Ann now runs watercolour workshops in her Garden Studio at home and is a popular teacher for art societies around the country. She has written several articles for Leisure Painter magazine. Ann lives in Nottinghamshire with her husband. She has three grown up children and loves gardening and all things French.

The Artist

September 2017

The original Ready to Paint series sold well to more experienced artists who might have been expected to dismiss it as 'jumped up painting by numbers'. A complete re-think has produced this development which is a whole new departure. In place of complete paintings there are 30-odd half-hour exercises that concentrate on a single element -skies, shadows, trees, rosebuds, seed heads or leaves. There is also more emphasis on technique and therefore on the learning process. It's definitely worth a look.

The Leisure Painter

September 2017

Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes is a brand new series from Search Press aimed specifically at the complete beginner. The focus is to provide quick and easy instruction for anyone short on time, as each exercise is designed to take no more than 30 minutes. The series kicks off with two titles - Street Scenes by Grahame Booth and Flowers in Watercolour by Ann Mortimer. Street Scenes is broken down into eight chapters covering tone, colour, perspective, the wash. edge control, brush strokes, adding details and putting it all togethe. There are 32 easy exercises for you to work on, each of which covers an element of street scenes, such as doorways or people. The time is limited to 20 minutes spent on each and the size is limited to postcard size, which make them ideal for an A6 watercolour pad. Three finished paintings are demonstrated at the end of the book and are accompanied by actual size tracings to make it easier for the complete novice to get started with their painting.

Ann Mortimer will be well known to Leisure Painter readers and in her 30 minute book she covers five main aspects of painting flowers in watercolour: working with watercolour, watercolour techniques, colour and tone, form and details, and finally, flowers in context. Once again the size and time is limited for each exercise and the final section, also accompanied by actual size tracings, demonstrates three paintings that combine all the techniques learnt.

Artbookreview.net

This is genuinely exciting evolution of a popular series. You'll be guided through some simple exercises and on to complete painting, gaining valuable insights that will develop and improve your skills.