About this item
An introduction to painting that uses simple exercises to help novice painters master basic skills, including handling a brush, achieving the right paint consistency, mixing colors, and creating dimension.
About the Author
Claire Watson Garcia is an artist, writer, and teacher. She is an instructor at New England's renowned Silvermine School of Art, in New Canaan, CT, where her workshops and courses "for the Absolute and Utter Beginner" have been popular for over twenty years.
Watson Garcia combines her passion for creating, teaching, and writing about art in her books. Library Journal calls "Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner "...simply the best beginners' drawing book available." About.com choses it as number one best instruction book, out of its Top 6 Beginner's Drawing Instruction books.
Its companion,"Painting for the Absolute and Utter Beginner" has received high marks as well. Included at the National Gallery bookstore, London its reviewer says: "this brilliant guide builds from the bottom to set realistic goals about each stage of learning. " Both books, available internationally as well as in the United States, are based on the successful methods Watson Garcia developed and tested while teaching aspiring artists in the classroom studio, as well on as on her own lifetime experience as a working artist.
Each book features the author's signature approach: an informal, supportive tone and a sequence of instruction which starts beginners at the very first step of the learning experience, where no previous experience is necessary. Accessible projects help the beginner gain confidence while slowly building the skills necessary for them to take on increasingly challenging subjects. Art work and commentary by beginners using the methods presented in the book are featured alongside the author's own instructional step-by-step illustrations and text.
An accomplished and recognized artist, Garcia's work has been exhibited in numerous national juried exhibitions including: Art of the Northeast; Faber Birren Color Show, CT; as well as at the Katonah Museum, NY; Stamford Museum, CT; Cheltenham Center for the Arts, PA; and the Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven. Among other juried shows,in 2010 her work appeared in Solo Shows at the Westport Art Center, and in Continuum Gender Identities 2011 at Ridgefield Guild of Artists.
Throughout her career, Garcia has combined her writing and artistic skills. As a founding member of Kids Can Press, a groundbreaking children's book publishing house in Toronto, she wrote and/ or illustrated three well received children's books: "The Peanut Plan", "Harriet and the Great Bike Robbery", and "The Green Harpy at the Corner Store" (Rosemary Allison, author) . She was primary illustrator for The Women's Kit, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (publisher) , a pioneering multimedia kit created to present positive gender issues to high school students.
Educated at Smith College and University of California, Berkeley, from which she earned a
