Painting The Mountain Landscape || Eileen Clark

Books on oil painting are relatively thin on the ground and many of them are a lot more general than this. You are therefore likely to approach it with high expectations and it is a pleasure to be able to report that it should certainly meet, perhaps even exceed them.

Eileen demonstrates a wide variety of work in many lighting and weather conditions. She also looks at details such as trees, waterfalls and wildlife on top of skies, mists and larger expanses of water. It is worth saying that she is based in the Lake District, so has all this on her doorstep to work with.

As is Crowood’s normal approach, there is quite a lot of discussion and analysis, but large and intimidating blocks of text have been avoided and at no point does the book give the appearance of being unmanageable. This may seem like a detail, but I’ve always felt it’s important in a visual medium – you want to see what’s going on, not be told. For all that, an explanation of the hows and whys can be extremely valuable and something you’d certainly expect in a painting film.

The reproduction is superb, even the full-page images, and details, brushwork and canvas textures are easily visible. The way Eileen works, you will want to look closely and this is possible in every image.

This really is the most thorough guide to painting mountains in oils and very well done indeed on all counts.

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Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes – Mountain Scenes in Watercolour || Lesley Linley

Having lived for several years on Skye, Lesley is well-placed to understand the many moods and atmospheric variation of mountain landscapes and this latest addition to an excellent series covers everything from aerial perspective and tonal recession to textures in rock and reflections in water.

Each of the 32 projects concentrates on a single topic, so there are no complex scenes to get bogged down in. The whole idea is to develop your skills through simple exercises, each with a full-size A6 tracing that’s easy to transport and can be completed quickly. If you’re stuck on a larger work of your own, you could even break off for a quick bit of revision before going on – so much better than spoiling the whole thing at the last minute!

This is a delightful book in a series that’s already been well thought-out and Lesley’s confident approach makes it especially easy to follow.

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Take Three Colours: Watercolour Mountains || Matthew Palmer

The latest instalment in this user-friendly series is a worthy addition to the canon. Matthew Palmer is an intelligent and sympathetic tutor who carries his abilities lightly. There’s nothing too ambitious and he is happy to take a back seat and let the student work at their own pace. There’s no grandstanding or showmanship, just solid, honest instructions and demonstrations that produce solid, worthwhile results.

It’s a Yes from me.

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Hills & Mountains in Watercolour (What to Paint) || Peter Woolley

The What to Paint series is the grown-up cousin of Ready to Paint and includes larger drawings that need to be assembled and traced down. For me, the problem is that when you’ve taken those pages out of the book, you’ve removed half of it and weakened the spine. On the other hand, this is something to use, not keep on the shelf, so maybe that doesn’t matter. The series is maturing nicely and remains popular, so clearly plenty of people don’t share my reservations.

Peter Woolley includes an excellent variety of material and none of the 24 paintings could be said to be in any way similar, ranging from misty views to craggy hillsides and from snowy peaks to tranquil farmland scenes. Each painting is accompanied by the finished work, a note of the palette and breakouts of the important details. There are no step-by-step instructions and the main idea is that you work on your own with only a light guiding hand. The outline gets the whole issue of drawing out of the way, leaving you to concentrate on the colour, tone and shading.

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David Bellamy’s Mountains and Moorlands in Watercolour

Well, here’s a thing. Somehow, when I first heard about it, I assumed this was going to be a much larger book than it is but, if it had been, it would have been too much of a re-hash of many of David’s previous books.

So, having got over the slight shock of how he’s managed to concertina the subjects he’s best known for into a mere 80 pages, has David managed to do himself justice? A quick flick through gives a strong sense of a return to form and style. David’s previous book, the Complete Guide to Watercolour Painting, maybe suffered a little from being spread too thinly and perhaps going into a few areas he wasn’t completely comfortable with. Can I say he’s maybe not the greatest figure painter that’s ever lived? What he’s done here, however, is to create a guide to painting mountains that manages to be entirely about its subject and, in spite of the above-the-title billing, not just David Bellamy’s mountains.

Books about upland painting are not entirely thin on the ground, but this is David’s speciality and, in this amazingly compact and comprehensive guide, he’s reclaimed the subject and stamped his authority firmly on it. If you ever had any doubts, when it comes to rugged subjects, David Bellamy is the man.

The book consists of a basic introduction to materials and techniques, moving into subject matter: trees, water, rocks and buildings. After that, there are four demonstration paintings, each with a good, but not excessive number of steps, which give you ample opportunity to try out the ideas and techniques previously learnt.

As an introduction to landscape painting, this is, perhaps inevitably, hard to beat. At the same time, it’s also going to satisfy David’s many fans and leave them relieved that, even after all these years (sorry, David!), he hasn’t lost his touch or started to repeat himself.

	David Bellamys Mountains & Moorlands in Watercolour Book

Watercolour Hills & Mountains: Ready to Paint || Arnold Lowrey

Once again, this series hits the spot with an uncomplicated guide to painting those landscape elements that prevent your pictures from being just a flat horizon. Arnold paints in a fairly loose style that concentrates on portraying shapes and shading rather than intricate detail so that hills and mountains remain part of the landscape rather than subjects in themselves. As ever, the book features five detailed step by step demonstrations for which outline tracings are provided so that you don’t have to get bogged down in the initial drawing. If you don’t need these, however, the book stands up perfectly well and you’ll find many useful tips that will give your work substance and depth.

For more on this excellent series, follow the link below.

	Ready To Paint Watercolour Hills & Mountains Book with Arnold Lowrey