It’s wild garlic season. Wandering out to survey my small landscape, I spot the first flowers sparkling in the shade. It becomes a trio of Spring firsts… The aquilegia, drawn in leaf last week, is now in dainty green-purple flower. I notice nibbles in the leaves. There’s an orderly queue … Read More
Today, I’ve been torn between drawing my one Queen of the Night tulip before it goes over and recording plants from friends. I’ve done both – but for entirely different reasons. Settling in with the tulip, I see that nature has done its colour scheme thing. Sage flower buds gather round, … Read More
A glorious Easter Saturday. Years of community gardening taught me to seize the day – and in drawing, I have to seize the moment. Once tulips get to that louche stage when they throw their petals around, they only need the slightest gust of wind to shrug them off. As they … Read More
I’d never noticed before how triangular tulips are. But as I wandered out, there it was, seen from above, three-pronged stamen, trios of petals, neat, three-sided colour change at the petals’ base. Cue drawing tea break… Having got my eye in as I drew, I started seeing the particular shapes … Read More
The flowers have declared it Spring. And who am I to argue? In bud last week, the first tulips are fully-open in the morning sun. By the time I go out to draw them, they’re closing for the day, speedy sketching a race to catch the tricorn hat of yellow … Read More
Sun, rain, sun, rain… though Spring is a week away, it’s making the garden pop with fresh colour. My starting points for this week’s sketches are natural ink washes. It’s interesting having a base note of the main colour in the plant I’m sketching – it frees me to look at … Read More
With the light come the bulbs, this week, drifts of crocuses. I’m glad of the work I put in last Autumn, replanting saved bulbs and putting in new ones. On a day too sparkling to draw indoors, I hug the Winter sunshine and watch. In the pots, the flowers are … Read More
Frost-chilled, wind-blown, wild weather forecast, the doughty little roses in my garden looked ready to jettison their petals. So as it was too chilly even for wrapped-up drawing, I snipped off a couple for a posy. Even the colours look cold. The full rose petals are bleached to the palest … Read More
A soggy Saturday calls for drawing what I have indoors… And that starts with a view, surprisingly zingy, through raindrop-scattered geraniums. I bought them last year when desperate for windowsill colour. They’re flanked by two houseplants put out because I’m so terrible with them that however chilly it is, they’ll … Read More
On dark days, this, near the Winter Solstice and dark of news to match, I’m happy to see any glimmer of brightness that the garden will offer. Here, bobbing in the chilly breeze, the first snowdrop of Winter. It’s a few weeks early, brought, perhaps, by mild weather but it … Read More