WATERCOLOUR TEXTURES
Ann Blockley

Let's start by saying what this book is not about. It's not about painting weathered brickwork, knotty timber, rugged stone or craggy characters. Not at all, not a one. In fact, you could say it's not about painting texture at all.

There's a lot here that you'd expect: the flowers, leaves and seed-heads that you associate with Ann Blockley, but there are also landscapes, animals and still lifes done in a way that'll definitely make you look twice. The thing that links them is that they all appear as living forms and the secret is micro-perspective, the quality that gives depth to all those classic texture subjects I listed at the beginning, but also a use of paint that goes far beyond the medium's more demure image. This is muscular watercolour, painting for the new millennium if you must. It's vibrant, alive and exciting. I hope you agree, because I think this is very much the way forward and offers all sorts of opportunities for development. Read Ann's book and you can say you were there when it started!

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