Priscilla Hauser's Decorative Painting Secrets

Description

Skilled decorative painters can make their intricate artwork look tremendously difficult to accomplish, but Priscilla Hauser knows precisely how to teach her art even to beginners. In Priscilla Hauser's Decorative Painting Secrets the doyenne of decorative painting takes a flower-of-the-month approach, serving up 12 charming projects, each loosely related to the time of year. Thus January brings a bright patch of crocus painted on a weathered architectural bracket; May offers wisteria delicately trailing over a long wooden fragment that's become a headboard; and November features a chrysanthemum-strewn frosted glass platter. Each project is introduced by a little diary entry that explains the piece's genesis. In July, for instance, Hauser focuses on miniature watering cans bedecked with tiny rosebuds--originally created, she tells us, as bridesmaids' gifts for her daughter's wedding shower. An extensive introduction to technique shows exactly how to use various brushes to paint specific types of strokes and how to work with blending gel and floating medium. This volume is an excellent choice for anyone looking to get started in decorative painting. --Amy Handy