Cucamelons. No, I have no idea why I sowed these either, though goodness knows, come seed catalogue time I was ready for some frivolity. And glamorous they are, mini vines, already throwing out their first fronds. The black hollyhocks will, if they do well, be ink. Growing in wavy formation, they’re … Read More
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’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.
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