Published by Batsford Books 2011
Book Review by Kate Bedell
Ann Blockley’s new book is an explosion of colour and expressive watercolour painting techniques. As the title says, she deals in the main with flowers as her subject matter as she brings the reader through an amazing creative journey. It is a deeply personal account of Blockley’s own artistic development with watercolour and she holds back nothing as she shares her experiments, insights, and discoveries in her new work.
Blockley takes us back to basics, encouraging us to play with the paint and break the traditional rules of watercolour in order to really get to know the medium. She talks about making marks with the paint as opposed to just colouring in a pre-designed pencil drawing which has the effect of making us bound by restrictions which inhibits our creativity. The companion DVD shows the artist in action as she applies great sweeps of colour to an un-stretched blank piece of watercolour paper. She manipulates the paint by tilting the paper, applying splashes of colour, both in watercolour and acrylic ink. The desired result is fresh and spontaneous. Blockley’s years of experience shine through as she is effortlessly achieves the loose modeling of the subject which provides just enough detail to be convincing and all of the impact and energy that is embodied in a fine painting. It is fair to say that this book is aimed at the practising artist and not beginners. However, I do feel that beginners could learn a lot from her approach especially as watercolour has got a reputation for being difficult to control. Blockley’s approach is to go with the paint, keep it moving, and allow it to suggest effects that you wouldn’t normally have been able to think up by yourself.
Throughout the book, Blockley engages in the personality of the paint and introduces us to other water-media such as acrylic inks and water soluble painting sticks. She stretches the boundaries of this medium whilst retaining its authenticity. Even when she tears up some of her paintings and reassembles them in the form of collages by using PVA glue, and even stitching, the essence of the watercolour shines through.
I found this to be a really exciting book for a very personal reason. In my early days as a painter I devoured all of the material I could get on Ann’s father, John Blockley. I loved his landscape interpretations and it was my first real taste of what one could do with watercolour which left the traditional techniques far behind. Since then, I have been following Ann Blockley’s work which has spanned 3 decades of painting her favourite subject of flowers. I have seen her work develop from botanical versions of flowers with very loose background, to this mature and dynamic rendering of her subject. In this book Blockley has managed to distil the essence of flowers to create her own unique expression of the subject. Her paintings are powerful and explosive while retaining the fragility of the petals and stems.
A flower painter myself, I will of course admit to being biased towards my subject. However, the uniting of flowers with the multi-dimensional nature of the medium of watercolour justly challenges the pre-conceived notion that flower paintings are all about frills and prettiness. Suffice to say this book contains a volume of work any artist would be proud to produce.
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