Atmospheric Animals in Watercolour

Prize-winning and inspirational watercolourist Jean Haines is well-known for her love of her chosen medium and the ability to instil enthusiasm and motivation in all around her. Having lived and travelled in many countries, this popular international artist and teacher has developed her skills while under the influence of masters from many countries, including Asia, the Middle East and Europe.Jean runs hugely popular international watercolour workshops for artists from around the globe, and her highly sought-after paintings can similarly be found in homes all over the world. Jean is a member of the SWA, Society for Women Artists, and has won numerous awards for her work, including the Anthony J Lester Award during the SWA Annual Exhibition, and the SAA Professional Artist of the Year, Experimental and Abstract Award. She regularly writes for art magazines and exhibits in a number of galleries.Jean lives in Hampshire, UK. For more information, visit www.jeanhaines.com.

I’m an enormous fan of Jean’s work and, if her sales are anything to go by, you probably are too. I’ve always been impressed by the way her subjects seem to emerge organically from the paper as if propelled by their own life force.The subtitle of this new volume is ‘painting with spirit & vitality’ and it seems to me that this sums that ethos up perfectly. These are not animal portraits in the conventional sense, but rather the life and soul of those creatures. Jean has written books about mind and spirituality expressed through painting and that theme continues here. If you’re worried that it’s all a bit New Age, don’t be. This is firmly a book about painting animals that just happens to sidestep simple representation. A short section on Animal Meanings explains this clearly and a lot of the book is about getting to know your subject just as if it were human. If you have pets, you do that anyway, don’t you?Technically, there’s a lot about colour and washes – Jean works about as loosely as you can – and that includes how to retain shape and form so that your results are anything but pure abstract. Some of these are startling: a cat whose face is the only delineated part, an elephant done in shades of green, fish that move in their pond because superseded form creates sinuousness.What’s really remarkable is that you have to look twice to notice all this because the book absolutely lives up to that subtitle. These are real animals. Not just paintings of animals – it’s a heck of a trick to pull off.

• Author’s welcome 6, Introduction 8, Igniting the passion 10, The bear necessities 14, Getting started: Simple studies 30, Step-by-step Elephant in monochrome 34, Learning from animals 38, Step-by-step Hedgehog 44, Inspiration from nature 48, For the love of dogs 52, Step-by-step Italian Spinone: Humphrey 64, Feline fine 68, Step-by-step Socks 74, A walk on the wild side 80, Down under 94, Step-by-step Sleepy Koala 96, Under the sea 106, Step-by-step Starfish 108, Step-by-step Octopus 116, A mammoth task 122, Seeing double 132, Be unique: sheep 138, Bugs and butterflies 144, Creative art 152, Magical interpretations 158, Index 160