Passionate Brushstrokes: The Best of Watercolor (Splash)

Featured artist Jerry Stitt contemplates that ''A painting is good not because it looks like something, but because it feels like something.'' The difference is passion '' the kind of energy, excitement and pure joy that pulses through every page of this book.

A brilliant collection of the best watercolors being created today, Splash 10 explores "passion" through the work and words of 100 top contemporary painters. With each modern-day masterpiece, insightful firsthand commentary taps into the psyche of the artists to explore where their passion comes from, and where it leads them.

These artists find the passion to paint in any number of places - a handful of peppermints, a rescued dog named Tugboat, visits to places where "even the walls have personality," and spectacular moments created by the warm late-afternoon sun partnering with rich, cool cast shadows. Some of them find passion in their materials (like rice paper) or in the very act of putting paint to paper, whether it be broad, wet strokes of pure color applied with big brushes and arm-swinging applications, or meditative, economical strokes.

This edition of Splash is dedicated to discovering not only how today's artists create great watercolors, but what motivates them to be creative, work in this amazing medium, and portray the subjects they love.