Archive for category Author: Ann Blockley
Experimental Flowers in Watercolour || Ann Blockley
Posted by henry in Author: Ann Blockley, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Batsford, Subject: Flowers on June 10, 2011
Comparisons are horrible things because you inevitably land up belittling one of the elements or damning the other with faint praise. Artists hate them because, they will insist, their style is their own and not derivative or a synthesis of someone else’s.
So, having got all that out of the way, I’m going to make one. However, this is about my reaction to this extraordinary new book and nothing to do with the contents, which, I’m trying to say, are unique. I haven’t been as excited by a new book as much as this since John Blockley’s Watercolour Interpretations of 1987 or perhaps Charles Reid’s Flower Painting in Watercolour, which goes all the way back to 1979. I’ve been a fan of Ann’s work for a long time and own one of her earlier, and largely conventional, flower paintings. I’ve also been impressed at the way she has, in both books and videos, been able to explain her creative process and working methods in a way that the amateur can follow and yet which is much more than just a piece of art instruction.
There have been hints for some time that this book might be what’s coming and Watercolour Textures, her previous book, showed a willingness to experiment with landscape and to create works which were images for their own sake without being enslaved to representation. Here, as the title implies, Ann returns to the subject she’s perhaps best known for and just lets creativity rip. There’s no dispute that these are flower paintings: they’re recognisably flowers and even someone as non-botanical as I am can tell one variety from another, and yet they’re not botanical illustrations or flower portraits in any way. This is a major step forward in Ann’s development as an artist and the establishment is going to have to take notice, as we have some serious work here.
I think it’s fair to say that this is not a book for the beginner, or even for the faint-hearted, but if you’ve been intrigued by the way I’ve reacted to it, go out and buy yourself a copy. As an example of what art can do, it’ll blow your mind. It’ll also stimulate your own creativity in all kinds of new ways. It’s the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen and I’m still wondering whether to lumber it with the title of Best Art Book Ever.
Watercolour Textures || Ann Blockley
Posted by henry in Author: Ann Blockley, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Collins, Series: Artist's Studio, Subject: Landscape, Subject: Techniques, Subject: Texture on March 26, 2007
The appearance of this book amply demonstrates the extent to which Anne Blockley has matured as an artist and also serves to emphasise the stature of the authoritative Artists’ Studio series from Harper Collins.
Books on texture tend to concentrate on knotty timber, weathered stone- and brick-work and craggy-featured characters. Where this one differs is that it is much more about the textures of everyday subjects and is also not so much about recording the appearance of texture as actually creating it within your work through the use of colour, contrast and granulation as well as many other effects.
Anne Blockley is very much her father’s daughter and you won’t fail to recognise where she learnt her craft, but she is by no means a clone and has a style which is recognisably her own and also recognisably not that of John Blockley, even when she (with some courage) takes on some of the landscapes that made him famous.
Anne’s work is not gentle, even when her subjects are the flowers and seed-heads that characterise a lot of her work. There’s a ruggedness that tells of life outdoors, rather than confined to the studio and her paintings are more interpretative than representational; she is closer to the former, though, than Shirley Trevena, whose Vibrant Watercolours precedes this in the series. As watercolour, this is a tour de force and is yet more proof that the medium is capable of a lot more than the demure dabblings of debutantes!
As with other volumes in the Artists’ Studio series, this isn’t a step-by-step how-to-do-it book, but rather a look at the way the artist works and a discussion, in their own words, of the way they approach both their subjects and their painting methods. If you want to get to grips with the essence of your subject and you’re prepared to roll your sleeves up, so to speak, this is a book you’ll find it hard to put down.
First published 2007
£17.99
