Painting in Abstract - by Carole Robson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Learn to capture the beauty of the natural world in paint and mixed media with this inspiring book.

Carole Robson shares her enthusiasm for the natural world and how to paint it in the abstract. This book guides the reader through simple combinations of media such as watercolor, gouache, acrylic and Indian inks in combination with other media for a dynamic and modern effect for your artworks.

It offers strategies for developing concepts and improving design, with a chapter devoted to using the formal elements - line, shape, color, tone, texture and surface pattern.

The book guides you through selecting a scene and how to organize your painting to achieve success. Carole Robson is a dynamic teacher who uses various media in combination with paint to show you how to show the natural world in all of its beauty.

Review Quotes

Art Book Review - June 2024
Overall, this is one of the most thorough and complete guides to abstraction I've seen.

Books on abstraction appear now with some regularity and that means publishers are getting beyond the basics. This one is particularly useful as it comes from an experienced practitioner and covers both creative and practical aspects of the genre.

Carole works in a good variety of media that include watercolour, gouache, acrylic and ink as well as pencils and pastels. You won't, therefore, feel constrained by a single one that isn't perhaps your first choice. It's also worth reporting that you won't get to the materials section for 52 pages - you've been through all the looking, seeing and thinking before you start to get the brushes out.

Carole works with natural subjects - flowers, landscapes and water and her style is well beyond representation, while always retaining the essential essence of what is depicted. The abstraction comes from simplified forms, use of colour and technical manipulation. She includes plenty of basic instruction, exercises and demonstrations that explain her approach as well as developing your skills.

About the Author

Carole Robson studied for degree and post graduate qualifications at Central St. Martin's School of Art and subsequently freelanced as a book illustrator for major London Publishers. She worked on a wide variety of commissions and her illustrations are published worldwide.

Carole is a mixed media painter and art tutor, who exhibits in London and the South East of England. Her paintings are driven by strong feelings about ecology and man's impact on the environment. She has visited the Kent Wildlife reserve, Marden Meadow regularly for over thirty years, which is a rare, unimproved hay meadow connecting us back to a pre-industrial past. Distillation of these observations, memory and imagination form the basis of many of her landscapes. While inspired by all nature she particularly enjoys weedy patches and the fragility of weathered plants, which retain a kind of nobility in their structure even in their dry, decaying state.

Carole is a mixed media painter with a first love of watercolour. She is experimental, combining media, resist techniques and a variety of mark making. In the last few years Carole has brought digital art into her practice and is frequently re-inspired by the new colour combinations or abstractions achieved.
Carole lives in Laddingford, Kent, UK.