Vibrant Oils by Haidee-Jo Summers

Haidee-Jo Summers is an award-winning artist whose work has appeared in numerous exhibitions worldwide. Oils are her preferred medium, though she has written and taught on the subjects of acrylics, watercolours, gouache, inks, pastels and mixed media. Over the years she has worked on many different subjects which include still life, flowers, gardens, cats, interiors and portraits as well as landscapes, but in the last five years she has been completely hooked on plein air painting. She has always preferred painting from life, and has no qualms about painting anywhere, no matter how busy or crowded the setting, how complicated the scene or how difficult the weather.

The majority of her work is fairly small (10 x 12in up to 16 x 20in) and painted entirely on location with no finishing off afterwards. She also paints much larger studio paintings using small plein air studies as a starting point, together with any accompanying sketches and photos where needed. In the studio she is able to be more experimental in approach; having the luxury of time makes it possible to explore building up in layers, rubbing back and glazing.

Haidee-Jo's career has developed rapidly since graduating from Leicester University in 1994, and since then she has received numerous accolades, including the Young Artist's Award two years in a row by the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the SAA Artist of the Year award in 2012, and more recently her work has been chosen for the prestigious Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London. She was elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Oil painters in 2017.

Dr Sally Bulgin - Publisher of The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines

Haidee-Jo Summers eagerly anticipated first book on oil painting will delight her peers and oil painting students alike. She invites the reader to enjoy an intimate journey through her seemingly effortless working methods and techniques to produce fresh and vibrant oils, full of light and clean colour. But this isnt just an invaluable book on alla prima and layered oil painting techniques, its also an insight into a top professional artists thoughts on inspiration, composition, drawing and seeing. Its a must-have book for all aspiring oil painters, full of fabulous, impressionistic oil paintings covering all figurative subject matter, with many inspirational exercises to help build confidence and improve technique.