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I have been preparing the gesso base for some raised gold and silver leaf on my latest artwork and have made such good progress today, I am very pleased with myself! That does not often happen as other things usually get in the way and I do not get done all that I wish to. I suppose that happens to many of us as we get older!

Final preparations are in hand for the Iceni Botanical Artists Exhibition at the Apex, Bury St Edmunds; paintings and prints have been chosen for the Art4Africa event; and today I am working on “The Green Man’s Covert” for Southern Nature in Art which this year is including a special section entitled “Nature’s Myths and Legends”. I have known about this section since January and all the while at the back of my mind have been thinking about what I would like to portray. Last week the final composition popped into my head and I have been working flat out to design and draw it. I now have five days to complete it – its frame is being made as I write, so it will be a case of making sure I finish it and then pop it into its specially made frame.

As this is a totally new work I shall not show it here in its infancy, but can show you part of it: the Golden Hind. The whole picture will be an illumination, so there is raised 24ct gold and silver leaf as well as 23ct shell gold – which is real gold mixed with water and gum arabic so that it can be painted finely onto the paper. I usually get in a real mess when reconstituting the gesso and applying the gold leaf, but everything went smoothly for a change. I just hope that I do not now loose control and muck up the painting!

Here is the Golden Hind. If you wish to see the rest of the painting, it will be on my website after the Southern Nature in Art Exhibition (August Bank Holiday). Or of course you could always attend the exhibition and see it in person, if you are down in Hampshire at the time. I shall be there for all four days in the Art Market selling my wares and demonstrating – that is another decision: what to take to paint for the demo!

I have completed the Fuller’s Mill painting (Artist Code 1804) and it is now with the picture framer being made ready for the Iceni Botanical Artists next exhibition at the Apex, Bury St Edmunds.

I have collected from my framer today, three paintings; he has done his usual very splendid job. Original artwork always looks good in individually handmade frames.

I am now having to sort out cards and other goodies to print and make for upcoming exhibitions, so a busy time ahead.

THIRD WEEK OF OPEN STUDIOS COMING UP:

21st and 22nd July, open 11.00am till 6.00pm Saturday and Sunday.

Today (Wednesday 18th July) I have been rearranging the artwork in my studio exhibition and all the goodies that are on offer. Below are some of the nice things that you can buy for unique Christmas presents (it is never too early!), and a sneeky view of my Chinese dining room which houses the items behind the name of this year’s exhibition, namely: “Unfinished Business”. I checked all the paintings I have started in the last few years that have remained unfinished, and thought these, along with some of their resource materials, would make a fascinating show for those who wished to see how I progress with my artwork. If you are out Comberton way, do please drop in and view my exhibition. I am number 130 in the COS Guide and the satnav postcode is CB23 7DD.

I have also included a progress picture of the Fullers Mill painting for the Iceni Botanical Artists exhibition in August at the Apex, Bury St Edmunds.

A GARDEN GEM IN THE FOREST:

What a beautiful place, tucked away in the middle of a forest in the wilds of Suffolk. I travelled to Fullers Mill on 16th May meeting up with the Iceni Botanical Artists Group, of which I am a member, and we had a great day of painting and drawing. Bernard Tickner, local hero for Lackford Lakes Nature Reserve, and one-time master brewer, owned and lived at Fullers Mill for many years and built up the garden in his own fashion, collecting plants from all over the world with his wife, Bess. Bernard outlived his wife to the age of 93, passing away in November 2017. The Iceni Botanical Artists (IBA) decided to honour Bernard’s life and contribution to the preservation of nature with a series of paintings of the Fullers Mill Garden and its plants. These paintings will be shown with other floral artworks at the IBA’s upcoming exhibition at the Apex, Bury St Edmunds from 14th August to 9th September 2018 (click HERE to view poster and details).

My day at Fullers Mill included partaking of the delicious cake and coffee available from the little cafe, as well as purchasing Bernard’s Book: “A Scratch in the Soil” relating his life and times at Fullers Mill and beyond. A fascinating read, and all proceeds from the sale of the book go towards the upkeep of the gardens for the nation. I walked around the gardens several times with camera in hand, but mostly just taking in the varied vistas, from the River Lark which runs right through, to the almost dried Mill Pond, the large lake at the back of the garden and all the different flowers and plants. It was an extremely cold day and most of the other artists went home before lunchtime. But I stuck it out till 5.00pm because I was playing in a tennis match at Newmarket on my way home, so no point leaving early. I did a few flower drawings using my Polychromos oil pencils, but mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere, the flowers and the wildlife. This was the first time I had spent time out en plein air, proper, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Today was the first day of the second weekend of my Exhibition under the Cambridge Open Studios banner. I am open all four weekends and today I saw as many visitors as I did over the whole of the first weekend. As there were gaps in between visitors I decided to begin work on my Fullers Mill painting. Below are some photographs of the progress I made, and below them are some photographs I took whilst at Fullers Mill in May. Thank you to all those people who have visited me so far, and I look forward to welcoming all those lovely people yet to come either tomorrow or in the next two weekends.

 

 

After a mishap with my Pulsatilla vulgaris painting, I have decided that I need to start it again. But, first I felt I needed a bit more painting practice, so have completed my little painting of Eastern Art (see first post).

Here are a few progress pictures to completion. Please note they are only photographs so a bit “camera-wonky”. The painting needs a few days to dry completely before I can remove it from the pad and scan it in high resolution. I believe it will make fantastic cards.

I had my 68th birthday last Monday (30th April 2018) and should know better than to try en plein air painting on a steep slope! I was informed by last year’s Lady Captain at Royston golf club that the chalkland meadow on Church Hill had begun to show its colours and that I should get over there right away before the flowers faded. Of course, I could not go straightaway so thought I had missed the boat. Yesterday, as I was not playing tennis and the weather was superb, I decided to risk it and see if the flowers were still showing—the rare and beautiful Pulsatilla vulgaris or Pasqueflower.

Royston Lady Captain had mentioned that it was a long haul from the Therfield car park up through the woods and over to Church Hill, and I had to ask for directions twice before reaching my destination: a couple of walkers and some golfers on the 10th Tee. I had two large bags full of painting stuff, camera and lunch (and water!), so trudged uphill towards my quarry in the baking hot sun. I stopped for the odd rest along the way and at one stop I espied a creature slithering through the grass: a common lizard! Every time I had previously been to Royston Heath, either playing golf or walking it had been cold/windy/rainy/hail, etc., so I had nice woolly long trousers on and a thick coat to keep me warm whilst perched on my three-legged stool to draw and paint. By the time I reached Church Hill I was “leaking” a lot and hot and bothered, but, the sight of the beautiful little purple flowers dotted all over the hill was magical and I soon forgot that I was tired. Also dotted amongst the Pasqueflowers were gentian (a wonderful blue) and lots of cowslips.

The Pulsatilla flowers are a lot smaller than I imagined, and I could not use my little stool because of the steep angle of the terrain, so I ended up lying on my stomach on the side of the hill to draw and paint—not easy for me; it was worse than trying to do pilates! At one stage I got such an awful cramp in my back that I thought I might have to call for help!!!

Needless to say the discomfort was well rewarded as I managed a few sketches that would show me the way, mixed the correct colour paint for both the flowers and the leaves and stalks, and took photographs. Oh, I was so tempted to pick a couple of flowers and bring them home, though I would probably have been caught in the act had I done so because wave after wave of walkers flooded over the hill to see the little starlets, large groups and small. It was a bit comical because most of them thought I was a crazy botanist! I am pleased to report that I managed to abstain from “picking” the plant.

Here are the preliminary resource drawings which I shall use to produce the artwork in due course, along with a few photographs of the scenery.

I just spent three glorious days at the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens – and the Jade Vine was still flowering (just!).

I usually attend a nice refresher course in all types of artwork once a year if I can, and this year I decided to join Georita Harriot‘s class to do a painting in the style of Eastern Art (Persian/Indian, etc.). It was wonderful, and this time I managed to nearly complete the flower part of my artwork—I usually only get a petal or leaf completed and have to do everything at home long after the course.

Here are the preliminary drawings and the painting so far. As you can see, I only have the background and border patterns to do—I hope I can remember the technique for filling in the background, and then applying the base colour before putting on the metallic gold for the border pattern. I am not sure when I shall get back to it because I am now having to start another flower painting because I shall lose the resource material otherwise (see next post).

After completing the 40 illustrations for the first of the booklets I am co-authoring with Sylvia Haslam about the River Brue in Somerset (view some of them here), I felt I needed a little break from pen and ink drawings. So I turned to one of four canvases I drew out in 2015 and have been painting for the last few days. Not sure why, but oil painting seems to be a lot quicker than water colour painting! I have got on well with my little grey squirrels, but of course I now have to stop and go back to pen and ink for a while.

Here are some process pictures for your perusal. The aim of this series of four paintings is to depict the several colours of squirrel we now have in the UK, and the compositions are intended to show each group in their natural habitat. The greys are depicted, lifesize, in my little wild garden. In 2015 when I was collecting the resource data we regularly had three or four squirrels on the bird feeders at the same time. They became so greedy that we decided not to put out bird food for a couple of months which did the trick. We now get one, and at the most two greys at a time in the garden. This may also be due to the fact that neighbours had the beautiful beech tree at the bottom of our garden (not on our property) brutally lopped which left the squirrels with no place to build their dreys. They are clever little animals—and I thought that another name for this painting might be “The Immigrant Seed Knickers!”.  I hope you enjoy the progress pictures – and heaven knows when it will be completed.

Over Easter I am exhibiting with the Natural World Art Society Exhibition and David (hubby) and I decided to spend a few days away in our caravan, staying on a beautiful CL (Certified Location – for members of the Caravan Club of which we have been members since 1980) just outside Diss. When we arrived on site on Good Friday the sky was so overcast it felt like 7.00pm rather than 1.00pm and a few minutes after our arrival the heavens opened. We managed to get settled in very quickly, central heating on and very cozy. It did not stop raining all afternoon and late into the night. It suddenly stopped around 2.00am which woke me up; it started again around 7.30am – and just kept raining. There were three other members on the site, all of whom had packed up and gone (with the help of the owner’s tractor) by mid-day Saturday. David and I decided to stick it out for a while, but as it was up to our knees in mud and wet we also decided to leave the site on Sunday – the only dry bit of the holiday so far. The forecast for Monday was terrible, so that just about finished us off. We nipped to Banham Zoo quickly Sunday morning to view the exhibition and say hello to the stewards and then returned to the site and asked the owner to kindly tow us off the field with his tractor as our Discovery was not man enough for the job – first time ever!!!!

Below are a few pictures of the lovely exhibition gallery at Banham Zoo. The Natural World Art Society now has a dedicated gallery just outside the zoo entrance so that those who would rather just see the art exhibition can do so without paying to enter the zoo itself. If you are out that way tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd April) do please pop in and have a browse. There is some lovely artwork on show as well as prints and cards for sale.

 

And here are a few pictures of our caravan being towed off-site by the owner’s tractor:

Well – I kept on looking at the Bird Garden Illumination and in the end I just had to add more colour (see previous post on the matter: click here)

So this is now the finished piece: