Hazel Soan is a well-known and popular artist and an enthusiastic and inspirational teacher. In The Essence of Watercolour Hazel shows how wonderfully versatile and beguiling the medium of watercolour is and how to get the most out of it. Hazel stresses how important it is to understand the characteristics of the medium in order to exploit it to the full. She encourages the reader to explore the properties of watercolour and to be unafraid of strength of colour and brushstroke. Hazel shows through demonstration and projects that tone is king in watercolour and illustrates how to paint light with the use of shade. Armed with this understanding she demonstrates that watercolour is not such an unforgiving medium after all: accidents and mistakes can be disguised, overridden and corrected. The Essence of Watercolour is a culmination of many years of Hazel's teaching and demonstrating, in which she offers inspirational insights into the secrets of watercolour painting and encourages artists to take their art to the next level.

Hazel Soan is a popular and successful artist who divides her time between London and Cape Town, exhibiting her work widely. She is the author of eight bestselling books for HarpCollins and has made several successful DVDs. She was one of the art experts in the popular Channel 4 TV series Watercolour Challenge, had her own series with Anglia TV, Splash of Colour, and can frequently be seen on the Painting and Draeing satellite channel.