John Stuart Ingle was painting watercolor landscapes, when, in 1975, he found his "style changing to a more textured and meticulous view of the world." At the same time, he decided "to explore how color feels" and "to impress a viewer with the results of a highly concentrated awareness."

The extent to which the artist has succeeded in this endeavor is strikingly evident in the thirty-two oversized watercolors and eleven details splendidly reproduced in full color in this book. Here viewers can enjoy the recent products of Ingle's formidable technique in masterful compositions that shimmer with color and light and transform common domestic objects into haunting and resonant visual experiences.

In his accompanying text, John Camp, a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch and longtime follower of Ingle's work, examines the artist's life and art with the perception and candor that in 1986 earned him both the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism and the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Frank H. Goodyear, Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and author of Contemporary Realism since 1960, comments in his introduction on the significance of Ingle's work and places him within the context of contemporary American realism.