This is not a book on the art of watercolor painting for beginners, but a dedicated primer dealing with the subject matter in the title. It assumes you are already a painter (although not an advanced one necessarily) and goes on from there. However, a brief mention is made about what materials are used, in particular a useful palette of colors that have been used to paint the trees. This means all of them, so it is best (as with all how-to books) to read the book carefully first and choose your trees. Similarly, a brief mention (with helpful illustrations) follows dealing with techniques used such as wet-in-wet, laying washes, texturing etc. This limbers up the reader for the meat of the book rather in the manner of a hors d’oeuvre and makes sure you have the right tools.

The trees themselves are an interesting selection. Good old English Oak is there of course, along with Chestnut, Birch and Maple, three palms, garden favourites like Bottlebrush and Holly plus more exotic inclusions such as Caucasian Zelkova and Oleander. The trees seem to have been chosen for their wide variety in shapes, differing foliage and coloring rather than for their likelihood in being encountered. The description on the back says this book shows you "how to paint 24 of the most popular species of tree". It’s not quite correct; but this is a book for painting the world’s trees so it depends where you are painting. I liked the way in which the trees were briefly described and then there followed a lesson on how to paint a picture like the one shown, from start to finish. Listing the paints needed was very helpful, as were the staged close-ups of the work and the final two page spreads of the finished work. Having such large pictures makes it easier to scrutinize them for technique - rather like being in an artist’s studio. This is a useful book with something to teach most intermediate watercolor artists.

If you cannot find watercolour art supplies locally try SearchPress.com for a list of suppliers. You can also buy this book from this website.