2000-02-17 The most helpful and inspiring book on the subject.

Kerry Skinner's special talents as a creative painter are evident on every page of this wonderful book, and so is her gift as a teacher. Her remarks about colour, light, surfaces and painting techniques are helpful and easy to understand. The projects illustrated are all beautiful, and the step-by-step photo sequences show that they are within anyone's reach and will be enjoyable to do. Most surprising of all, she understands perfectly how to encourage and inspire a new approach to painting your home, helping you start from a position of relaxed concentration and confidence. I used this book as a guide to painting techniques and to a more creative approach to colour and surface, when decorating an old house from top to bottom. The results are, well, stunning. For the first time, I feel as if I have caught the character and spirit of the house, and expressed it in a new way that is beautiful, personal and very satisfying. A really marvellous book, quite the best of its kind!