Brave Intuitive Painting-Let Go, Be Bold, Unfold: Techniques for Uncovering Your Own Unique Painting Style

I love Flora's painting technique, her choice of colors, her drawn images. Each page is an inspiration. Great for the person who has done some painting all ready at any level. The perfect book to get you to start a painting without worrying about the final product until you get towards the end of the painting. And even then don't worry. Practice eventually leads to being happy with your end result, even if it doesn't come to you with the first few paintings. The journey is awesome! Although she explains the color wheel and how to use cool and warm colors in a painting...she also notes that it is okay to just paint the rainbow in the first few layers and see what colors start speaking to you. I love that she says you can do this...no need worry about colors...just paint away! She offers easy & inspirational reading to go along with her pictures. If this looks like a style of painting you want to try do not hesitate to buy this book.

I’m only taking this up for fun. However, Brave Intuitive Painting by Flora Bowley is also ideal for those who want creative inspiration for seriously pursuing an art career. I admit that multiple people inspired me to purchase this book. The most recent inspiration I can recall is the Education Of A Guardian Angel by Annie Stillwater Gray book where the author candidly opened her heart on how art is a kind of therapy for her (which is what gave me an idea to take action on getting this book to dabble in art as a therapeutic release). Fortunately, my husband said that he would not mind joining in with me to create art as a creative healing outlet. Letting Go of Perfection, alternating warm and cool colors, variation-the spice of life,and spiraling in are some of the various topics covered within the book. There are photos and illustrations to further help define what the author is saying in Brave Intuitive Painting: Let Go, Be Bold, Unfold Techniques For Uncovering Your Own Unique Painting Style by

This is a lovely, colorful, well written book, explaining Flora's techniques, use of color, building an abstract background, layering paint to create interest and then arranging a multitude of techniques on the surface level of the layering. All the while painting freely from your intuitive thought; listening to your inner creative spirit and going with the flow. This book is fun! I am a huge fan of Flora Bowley art to begin with. The fact that she has put her style into words and beautiful photographs is lovely and as an artist it gives me another road to travel. This is currently my Number One book in the studio. Thank you, Flora.

This book was an Amazon recommendation and I went in blind since there was no "look inside" feature; I decided to invest because I researched the author and found that I enjoyed her style, artwork, and energy. That said, this book certainly won't be everyone's flavour. It focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit more than on painting pictures. And the pictures you're asked to produce aren't necessarily photorealistic (or even illustrative), more ambiguous--almost abstract. The book begins with a basic introduction and offers some advice on treating yourself gently, then it gets into a list of supplies: * Painting surface* * Acrylic paint * Palette (not to be confused with 'colour palette') * Foam brushes * Small bristle brushes * Fingers :) * Rags * Etchers (anything that can scratch or make marks on the painting surface) * Stampers (anything that can be pressed onto the painting surface) * Spray bottles (And a personal suggestion: a basic colour wheel if you don't already own one.) Each section which discusses the individual supplies offers some prompts on how to use it, such as (taken from the section under "Small Bristle Brushes"): *Play with creating thick and thin marks in one continous line *Skip the brush across the canvas to make smaller hash marks *Write the first word that comes to mind However, from section to section, some of these prompts overlap. I also noticed some repetition throughout, especially when it came to (literal) movement. Since the style is also about painting big (*she recommends at least 30"x30" surface to start, and doing two+ paintings at a time) and going bigger (she recommends a 36"x36" glass palette), it would be helpful to have either a dedicated art studio or enough space in your room to fully express the suggestions offered in the book. While the *essence* of the book (i.e. paint from intuition) may be adapted for other mediums such as oil or watercolour or pastel, this book is all about acrylics because of how easy layering acrylic is--and the style is all about layering. There isn't much advice on paint selection other than "experiment". This is both good and bad--if you already have some experience with acrylics, you probably already know which paints you like best; if you're brand new, then you can be overwhelmed by the choices (some of which are truly expensive). The brief section on colour/theory/mixing is nothing new if you've taken an art class or two, but definitely a great refresher and broken down into easily understood terms. I loved how she broke down the "colours that don't make mud" and "colours that make mud" sections. Aside from that, she offers exercises to help you connect with your inner self to include stepping away from the work and literally moving your body, or dance while you paint, or paint blind-folded. However, she doesn't offer much by "how-to"--it's basically a go-with-your-gut thing. At the end she offers a series of stills of her painting a picture from beginning to end. When I reached this section I was a bit disheartened. Sure it was nice to look at, but I wish it was granted its own chapter with larger photos and maybe some commentary on her in-the-moment process. If you go in expecting a workshop or a step-by-step painting guide, you'll be disappointed. Mostly, this is an inspirational art book that offers a new way to approach painting. It won't teach you how to paint pictures like Flora Bowley, but it may help you better paint pictures like *you*, or, at very least, shed a few painting inhibitions. I hope this review was helpful to you, but if I've overlooked something or you have a question about my experience with this book, please leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

Easy to read and follow with stunning photos of the author's artwork. Fun book to look at, ponder and try out her ideas!

Dieses Buch ist wunderbar, nach einer solchen Inspiration suche ich schon lange. Es ist für künstlerisch begabte Menschen genauso geeignet wie für solche, die denken, sie wären es nicht. Es geht nur darum, ohne Erwartungen an sich selbst zu malen bzw. künstlerisch aktiv zu werden. Die Autorin geht zunächst auf die eigene Einstellung ein - und das sehr eindringlich, wie ich finde - mit schönen Worten, die im Gedächtnis bleiben. Anschließend erklärt sie, welches Material sie am liebsten benutzt. Alles sehr einfach gehalten, man hat am Ende keine ellenlange Einkaufsliste beisammen, was ich sehr gut finde. Es genügt, sich ein paar Kleinigkeiten anzuschaffen. Und dann kanns auch schon losgehen. Hilfreich sind auch ihre Tipps, wie man mit welchem Material was bewirken kann. Die Bilder der Künstlerin sind auch sehr inspirierend und wunderschön, setzen mich als Leser aber nicht unter Druck, ebenfalls so etwas Schönes zu schaffen, sondern überzeugen eher davon, dass man auch ohne Perfektionszwang und hohen Ansprüchen an sich selbst, kreieren kann. Dass das Buch in englischer Sprache geschrieben ist, ist übrigens überhaupt kein Problem, alles ist sehr gut verständlich, man muss - wenn überhaupt - nur wenige Begriffe nachschlagen. Ich liebe das Buch, es hat mir geholfen, meine Erwartungen an mich selbst herunter zu schrauben und die Liebe zur Malerei wieder zu finden!

This isn't so much about the how to, although the author does take you through lessons which help to develop your intuition using her art techniques. It's more about bringing your spirit into your art, and developing a connection with yourself and your art, and taking you out of the comfort zone to being open to doing things differently, which stimulates the imagination. For me this is a keeper, it's nice, beautiful, nurturing and encouraging, things don't have to be perfect, and there is no right or wrong, thank you for creating this book. Cheers!

I'm not sure why I am so late to Flora's party...but I recently just purchased her first book. I am an artist who is taking a long course in abstract & bold painting, and I came across this as a support for my process. I am so happy that I listened to my intuition and ordered this book. Flora and her book are like a warm hug of encouragement in my process now.

Consigliato a chi inizia a dipingere e rimane bloccato(!) e anche agli esperti. Grande formato,belle immagini e foto. Pieno di colore. In inglese. Acquisterò anche il prossimo che uscirà a Novembre.

viene con muchas fotos . lo malo que esta en ingles , ya unque entiendo mucho ..hay cosas que no entiendo muy bien .. pero un libro muy inspirador desde luego .! Lo recomiendo !