I love the way the book jumps in with both feet, hits the ground running and doesn’t let up! There is even a page at the front showing you how to use the book and get the most out of each packed page. It is filled with useful tips at the beginning on working with flowers, telling you how to do useful things like pose them, make a stay-wet palette, use a viewfinder, crop images and capture the special qualities of floral colors and textures. There is even a troubleshooting guide and a palette showing you what colors to buy and what to paint on (quite a choice here). The flowers themselves are all garden favourites (modern garden favourites) and take you from Alcea (Hollyhock) to Zinnia. Each flower page shows you a large-format finished painting, what colors you need to buy, and then takes you through how to paint it. Each painting focuses on a special detail, such as painting rich shadows, value changes or adding depth to an edge, complete with staged photographs as well as a brief description of the flower and what makes it unique. This is a particularly fine and user-friendly book that will appeal even to fairly new painters, as well as having something to offer more experienced artists who want to paint this subject.

If you cannot find acrylic painting materials locally try SearchPress.com for a list of suppliers.