Painting Expressive Landscapes

'This is busy, colourful, packed with information and thoroughly inspiring and I love it...buy this book.' Artbookreview.netStrongly influenced by the changing landscape, Carole Robson’s artwork is packed with colour, atmosphere, texture and light. An experienced teacher and artist, Carole explores how to build from basic techniques to producing wonderful expressive and semi-abstract landscapes. Combining watercolour with other watersoluble media and collage material, the three detailed step-by-step projects demonstrate perfectly Carole’s expertise and innovative methods. They take you from materials and tools needed through to using masking fluid, salt, spattering techniques, modelling paste, cellophane and much more.A stimulating mix of colour and watercolour techniques for all skill levels, this guide helps the artist develop a free and flowing style to their art.

In this exciting book, Carole uses watercolour and mixed media to create a huge variety of effects that reflect the changing moods of the landscape. Carole offers a plethora of different ways to interpret shape, colour and interplay. There's explanation at every stage and the book is as practical as it is imaginative., A very interesting book, colourful illustrations and plenty of instructions. A different type of painting to what I am used to. I like watercolour and this has bought a different way of handling it to me. If you want to try something different this is the book for you. I tried to follow one of the exercises, quite pleased with the result but I think I need more practice! , Carole Robson masters the art of translating nature scenes into atmospheric, colourful, semi-abstract landscapes. The beginner, but above all the advanced painter will find many suggestions with the help of well-known painting techniques and modern materials. Forward-looking is the integration of traditional methods of paintings into digital art. Read the full review here., A hallmark of this work is semi-abstract landscapes in watercolour and mixed media. The latter is water-soluble media and collage. The book is well illustrated with wonderful paintings, which should offer much inspiration. Flowing media are used to capture the essence of the natural landscape. You'll find information on paint consistency; the usual watercolour techniques such as wet-in-wet and washes; pigments and their properties; colour and tools. There is also a section on 'expressive techniques'. The author states these are not new and began with Turner, but mention should also be made of Ann Blockley, who has made many of these techniques her own. I love Carole's paintings of her local landscape, although her work is very reminiscent of Ann's to a point. Yet there is much here that is Carole, and for that I am glad. She is an experimenter and is pushing the boundaries. I like the abstracts and the use of digital art too. There are three step-by-step projects: Woodland with Silver Birch; Wayside Verge and Beach At Sunset, which explore the techniques. Fabulous images and easy to use., Book titles can be a mixed blessing, but this one sums up Carole Robson's approach admirably. These are interpretations and expressions of the artist's creativity. Any messiness is entirely intentional. They're exciting, intriguing and, frankly, fun. Techniques include the usual suspects - salt, scratching out, masking fluid etc. A section on mixed media brings pastels and acrylic mediums into play. Carole's work is results-driven and those results are extraordinary. The book is written as a course, with lessons, exercises and demonstrations and this works well for the technical aspects. As for creativity, you should ideally bring your own but, if you like the idea, that shouldn't be difficult.

Carole was brought up in a rural area of North Staffordshire, UK. She moved to the south of England to study for her degree and post graduate qualifications at Central St. Martin's School of Art and subsequently freelanced as a book illustrator for major London publishers. She worked on a wide variety of commissions and her illustrations are published worldwide. Carole is a mixed media painter and art tutor, working from her studio in Laddingford, Kent. She exhibits in London and the South East of England. Her paintings are driven by strong feelings about ecology and man's impact on the environment; her desire is to elevate nature's case and celebrate meadows and wild places. While inspired by all nature she particularly enjoys weedy patches and the fragility of weathered plants, which retain a kind of nobility in their structure even in their dry, decaying state. Her observations of nature, memory and imagination form the basis of many of her landscapes. Carole is a mixed media painter with a first love of watercolour. She is experimental, combining media, resist techniques and a variety of mark making. In the last few years Carole has brought digital art into her practice and is frequently re-inspired by the new colour combinations or abstractions achieved.