Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes: Transform Ordinary Places into Extraordinary Scenes Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, June 5, 2014

Joyce Hicks' book is one of my long-time favorite art books. I refer to it often to remind me to keep my colors fresh, not overworking them. I love the way she takes fairly mundane photos and turns them into lovely paintings that make you say, "yes, I've seen this place before" whether it's a country field or an island cottage. She goes step-by-step in redesigning a scene, assigning values and planning ideas of which elements to leave in, which to eliminate and which to modify. She describes thinking about the value of fore, middle and background in an innovative way. This book is a treasure.

It's the Nitty Gritty.......No fuss,no muss....... Simple, Complete,Honest.....Fast, accurate, an actually complete recipe for success. Joyce's guidance begins with the "What's," and the "Whys," how to determine what Your's are....and then the "How To". step by step. She includes photos of her works with step by step instruction as to how she obtained her results. She includes color choices, atypically complete iilustrations of her color mixing....but most of all a unique approach to encouragement.......Joyce leaves nothing out of the recipe including the why's of what she painted in each piece. Everyone tells you how great this book is. I have owned over 100 instruction books from some of the most respected watercolorists in the world..........To my mind this is about the best book that has ever been written for the any level of watercolorist.......... It's the direct "Whole Enchilada," from this down to earth, straight forward, self taught Texas, AWS artist......and then some.

This book is very well written, emphasizing what a want to be artist needs to think about. It gives many guided tutorials, some of which I have already done and redone. One can do the exercises and see how the artistic considerations are applied and then end up with a nice picture. In fact I've done several more than once. It takes practice. This is a good technical book and a fun book. Joyce Hicks' landscapes are beautiful.

This isn't quite my style of painting, however, I decided to try it after a friend got the book. Variety in painting is a good way to learn new techniques. I sketched one painting from the book and have started it and really am enjoying it in watercolor. I have numerous others sketched from the same book and can hardly wait to get started painting them. It's just FUN!

I liked the paintings by Ms. Hicks and decided to purchase the book - it's probably the first watercolor book I've actually read all the way through. She talks about developing one's own style, and I am slightly amused because her style is definitely developed! I'm a newbie to W/C but even I recognize that she uses certain colors in each of her pictures that are not necessarily the norm! Definitely more mixing of blues and reds than I've run into! But the end result is so pretty, and she guides the reader step by step on how to put together a landscape for yourself - choosing what to eliminate to make a better picture, and making what could have been a "boring" landscape into an appealing picture. I definitely want to work through the exercises and tutorials throughout this book. I'll probably be stretching my sketching ability, but that's a good thing.

Joyce Hicks has long been my favorite watercolor artist and teacher, although I've never been able to attend her workshops. One of Joyce's many gifts is the ability to transform ordinary scenes into almost magical paintings. And she is willing to share that gift with other artists.I’ve seen many painting books where vital steps are missing. Either the publisher had to eliminate steps to save space, or the author doesn’t really want to reveal her special secrets to the masses. Either way, an artist finds the demonstrations hard to follow. I’ve sent back half a dozen art books because I was unhappy with the demonstrations.Not so with Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes. Joyce shares twelve of her finest paintings and shows exactly how to recreate them. The goal is to help each artist to develop confidence and find a personal style. I highly recommend this book to my fellow artists!

Make sure you view on iPad in landscape mode so text and photos are together. I would like to have the print version of this book also.

I started with the book and wound up at her Workshop... Both are fantastic experiences. She is an instructor with a heart and soul...This book taught me so much not only about landscapes but how to apply the lessons learned to any subject..I was so taken by her way of writing that when the opportunity came up to join her at a workshop I jumped at it.Clearly she loves to share her knowledge of painting ... Barbra Joan