Painting Fresh Florals in Watercolor [Paperback]

Arleta Pech (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 20, 2002

For more than 25 years, Arleta Pech has been dazzling the art world with her strikingly realistic watercolour compositions. Now artists can learn to utilise her trademark techniques by following this guide's complete demonstrations for painting irises, magnolias, roses, peonies, apple blossoms, tulips - even delicate china and lacework. Starting with the basics, beginners can learn to successfully render transparent petals, luminous colours and a variety of delicate floral shapes. In addition, readers will learn: - eight step-by-step demonstrations of luxuriant, finished paintings - shorter step-by-step demonstrations showing how to observe and paint each flower's "living presence" - glazing techniques for building depth of colour and three-dimensional form - tips on how to find inspiration, develop a composition, create a theme, and paint backgrounds

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Arleta Pech is a renowned artist and teacher who has taught dozens of workshops at the Scottsdale Artists School. Her work was discovered by Mill Pond Press, and since that time she has travelled widely for gallery shows, tours, print signings and research trips.

Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (December 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581803907
• ISBN-13: 978-1581803907
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,049,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arleta Pech is a renowned artist and teacher who has taught dozens of workshops at the Scottsdale Artists School. Her work was discovered by Mill Pond Press, and since that time she has traveled widely for gallery shows, tours, print signings and research trips.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to paint beautiful florals for any artistic level, June 7, 2000

By 

hamsterdance (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Painting Fresh Florals in Watercolor (Hardcover)

Arleta Pech's book is one of the best books on painting lush florals I have ever seen. This book is so good I later bought one of her video tapes to actually watch her creating a floral in her beautiful style. However, as long as you have this book you don't need a video. The book has everything you need to start painting in this beautiful style.

The first chapter gives information on materials, paints and surfaces. It also discusses looking for inspiration, developing the composition, creating paintings with a theme, creating a center of interest, detail drawing & use of a projector along with correcting the distortions that projection methods introduce.

The next chapter gets to the nuts and bolts of how she achieves her unique look. She discusses color theory particularly as it relates to glazing with watercolor. There are step-by-step photos showing her graded glaze technique and building form with it as well as her paint and pull technique. She shows the difference these techniques produce compared to wet-in-wet and provides some practice exercises with petals an iris and a bow. She also shows use of an airbrush which she uses mainly just to touch up & soften the center of a flower and occasionally to soften a background further.

The book has many step-by-step demonstrations of full paintings using her 2 favorite techniques as well as demonstrations of painting interesting backgrounds. There are many smaller demonstrations of just an individual flower. Interestingly, outline drawings are provided so you can trace the flower and practice painting it. She also uses lines pointing to particular areas of the outline drawing to remind you of certain areas to pay attention to.

Even though this is mainly a book about floral painting she provides demonstrations of painting china and lace since these items are often also featured in her floral still-lifes. One of the chapters shows step-by-step demonstrations of full scale paintings and a list beside each finished painting of problems that can crop up and their solutions. The final chapter is a gallery.

I have practiced painting some of the mini-demonstrations provided in the book and have been delighted with the results. Anyone wanting to paint better florals will benefit from this book.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DreamN60s, June 12, 2000

By 

Jane McClure (Gilbert, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Painting Fresh Florals in Watercolor (Hardcover)

I have had this book for over a year now. I am constantly going back to it for insperation. The book is a how to do book.. Arleta takes you through each step to creat many paintings with excelent results... her book is written in a style that is easy to read and follow. There are lots of photographs to help you understand what to do..I think that a beginner that has never painted a thing. could pick up this book and be painting beautifull paintings right away.. I recomend this book to anyone loving lace, flowers...and watercolour. Arleta shows you how to paint and have fun all at the same time..I loved her book so much, that I signed up for one of her 4 day classes in October 2000/ I am very excited about meeting this lady in person and being able to study under her... have fun painting... you can do it,with this book.....Jane

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arleta Pech: A Gifted Teacher, July 31, 2002

By 

Linda Burchill (Richmond, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Painting Fresh Florals in Watercolor (Hardcover)

I admired Arleta's book for 18 months before buying it. The beautiful, top-quality illustrations in this book underline Arleta's inate sense of articulation, composition, depth of field and rich, pure colour. Using pure colour washes to build up rich colour that "glows", Arleta is known for her attention to detail.

The book is surpassed only in Arleta's ability to teach in person. Having recently attended a 5-day workshop under this extraordinarily-gifted teacher, I feel that I have grown greatly in my own artistic scope and, following her advice to limit my palette, she has provided me with a greater understanding of the "science" of colour.

A beautiful book and a wonderful value...you will treasure it!