The Easy Guide to Painting Water in Watercolour

Water is a tricky subject. Slippery, gets away from you, runs happily downhill but never up and defines horizons by determinedly finding its own level. It is also formless yet also form-defining and, while full of colour, has no hue of its own.

Any landscape painter is, at some point, going to have to confront all these problems, frequently all at once, while at the same time dealing with skies, clouds, hills, mountains and vegetation. All of those can be fudged, at least a bit, but water will have none of it. Get it right or get out. Like I said, slippery.

For this reason, there have been many books that attempt to simplify things for you and most of them are more or less successful. The trick is not to pretend to turn the novice into a Monet. This is about basics, not fine art although, if you get the former right, the latter should follow.

The companion to Stephen’s previous book on skies, this consists of a series of fully detailed demonstrations that cover flat calm, sparkling highlights, wind and waves, waterfalls and even boats and their tricky perspectives.

This is not a masterclass, but there are plenty of those available. By sticking resolutely to the absolute basics, Stephen really does make and keep things simple.

-- Henry Malt * Artbookreview.n