Drawing a plant is full of discovery. Drawing the garden over time has shown me that it’s in perpetual motion.
I’ve drawn the allium a couple of times and was wondering if I might need more than one sketch here to show the umbrella-frame buds, flowers open and now, seed starting to set. But today, it’s doing it all at once and teeming with bees and day-flying moths as it goes.
In sudden June heat after May bringing April’s showers, the poppies are glorious – and gone in a day. So I have to catch them by lunchtime and draw them quickly before they shrug off their petals. I caught a couple, like chiffon, ruched with raised lines, colour fading to vintage as I watched.
As a designer, it fascinates me that even the most blink-and-you’ve-missed-them flowers have everything they need for their next job: petals folded tight in buds, seed heads ready to pop when the petals are done.
Biro, watercolour, fineliner, on waste paper.