This engaging guide to painting a wide variety of natural subjects is packed with information and inspiration.

Although there are plenty of step-by-step demonstrations, this is not just a technical manual, but also helps you look, observe and appreciate the world around you, often in your own garden. Anna finds details and small items such as leaves and feathers that can make subjects in their own right, add to a larger composition or just be exercises in capturing textures.

The whole idea is of ongoing immersion in your surroundings and the book moves from topic to exercise and demonstration dynamically, changing emphasis and keeping your interest and attention all the time. With this enthusiasm and Anna's beautiful results and clear explanations, it's impossible not to be carried along with her and into her world.

The illustrations are particularly clear and enlarged images allow you to see the individual brushstrokes that make up the shading on a single blackberry or the detail in the feathers of a blue tit.

This is intriguing, enthralling and, above all, a thoroughly enjoyable book.

Search Press • Hardback • 144 pages • Colour throughout