Orchids in Watercolour

The Ready to Paint series provides six tracings for readers to pull out and transfer on to watercolour paper. There is one for each of the five step-by-step demonstrations, plus a bonus tracing of the inspirational painting in the introduction section, and full instructions on how to transfer the images. People who want to learn to paint orchids without relying on their drawing skills have everything they need in this book. The orchid family is a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with colourful and fragrant blooms. It is also one of the two largest families of flowering plants, and therefore there are a lot of beautiful flowers to take inspiration from. In this book, Ann Mortimer has chosen to paint a pink miltonia, backlit phalaenopsis, slipper orchid, miltonia orchid and an orchid in a bowl. The tracings and clear step-by-step photographs explain the painting process in great depth and make it easy for readers to reproduce all of these projects.

Ann Mortimer is a professional artist and watercolour tutor. She received no formal art training after A level Art at school, and instead studied for a degree in European Studies at UEA. After completing a PGCE at Southampton university, she became a French teacher. Later, she retrained to do infant teaching and so her students have ranged from age 5 to 85. In 1990 she was able to rekindle a lifelong love of painting and drawing. She became fascinated by the medium of watercolour and was soon exhibiting and selling her work. She has had work commissioned for greetings cards and mug wraps. Ann is a member of the Society of Floral Painters with whom she exhibits regularly. In 2008 she was awarded the Popular Choice Salver at the SFP annual exhibition at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire. Ann now runs watercolour workshops in her Garden Studio at home and is a popular teacher for art societies around the country. She has written several articles for Leisure Painter magazine. Ann lives in Nottinghamshire with her husband. She has three grown up children and loves gardening and all things French.