Bluebells. I didn’t plant them – they just… arrived. What I’ve always loved about them, apart from that earthy, petally scent on a woodland walk, is their almost-purple. Drawing them, I notice deep blue too, where flower joins stem. Dark stamens show off zingy pollen. Green takes on mauve in stem … Read More
This is the launch month for Dispatches from a Small World so I give you… the whole garden! I’ve been drawing all of it periodically, when I spot something new. I notice what dusk does to the greens, how snow highlights the kind of garden it is – and at … Read More
You’ll find me drawing a lot of tulips at this time of year and these, which I’m growing for the first time, do that wonderful thing in nature of no two flowers, or leaves, being of the same stripe, which, I always think, tells us something about beauty. But that’s … Read More
I plant daffs in my garden and then the prevailing wind blows them over – so finally, after years of this happening, I’ve planted tiny narcissi instead. I never really thought about the subtleties of their shape until I started drawing them. They vary hugely, from centres like pleated skirts to … Read More
I’ve appreciated tulips all the more in lockdown, seeing how they open and close during the day, the petals that aren’t really petals revealing colours I didn’t know were there and the fabulous sculptural curl and stripe of the flat leaves around the stems. Biro, watercolour, fineliner on waste paper.
Pulling a bolted plant that the pigeons had snaffled, I found some little leaves still edible and brought them in to draw. So many colours to draw, grey-yellow-greens, burgundy-to-bronze… Biro, watercolour, fineliner on waste paper.
Reliable Spring visitors, these yellow flowers were so vivid that I dashed in from my chilly perch to grab a highlighter. But as I drew, I noticed another colour – the pale grey-green of seeweedy lichen. Biro, watercolour, highlighter on waste paper.
Back in the Autumn, I planted a job lot of bulbs, knowing that after a lockdown Winter, I’d need the good cheer of Spring flowers. Spending time with these little pops of purple, I found blends to blue inside and a surface sheen of deep pink. Biro, watercolour, fineliner on … Read More
Like fairy dresses, flowers rescued from a solid-frozen flower bed. There’s so much movement in these petals – it’s all about the shape. I gathered these with a couple of snowdrops and some forsythia buds, a tiny indoor posy in a Nancy Main single stem vase. Biro, watercolour, fineliner on waste … Read More
Snowdrops and salad… a present, snowdrop bulbs (Thank you, Heather!), in my Columbia carrier grow bag – a flower market carrier in its former life. The little pops of leaf between are corn salad. I improvised this planter in the 2020 season, for courgettes. It gave them a fine home, sheltered … Read More