Out with the Old and in with the New Year

Having woken up on New Year's day with the cold from hell, I was feeling more than a bit sorry for myself. But there's always an upside to everything and being confined to the armchair provided a good opportunity to reflect and plan for the year ahead,  and, to do a bit of sketching.

Let the sketching begin! Crow skull, graphite on Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook paper, life size. 

Initially I thought I hadn't achieved all that much with work over the last year but making a rough plan at the beginning of the year and reviewing it at the end is very useful.  I won't be beating myself up too much about the 'incomplete things' - it was a hectic year! Life events tend to drain energy, time and money but things settled mid November 2014 when I finally started to put down some roots again. Now that I have somewhere to work and the Festivities are dealt with the time has come to get stuck into some serious work but I feel the need to warm up first with some sketching. In fact sketching has been elevated to the number one activity in my New Year resolutions! 

Roe deer skull, Graphite. Life size study A4 Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook. Completed using the hatching.

The sketches don't necessarily have to be botanical and it's sometimes better if they're not - other subject seem to help me to loosen up the drawing style. I made a start on some old skulls, they're very good subjects, as are seed pods and shells, dead insects etc. .... you see they don't move or wilt! The aim is to work fairly quickly on these sketches, always from life .....and done on a regular basis. Sketching and tonal drawing is all important,  and a botanical painting is pointless if the drawing is off and the tones aren't there.  My daughter, Polly, is home from University too so she's been joining in and yes she's got a blog too!

Looking Back

Having had a good think about last year and looked at the positive things as well as the things I could have done differently it's not been so bad!  I'd forgotten half of the things so trawling through the blog made me realise that more has been achieved than I originally thought.
 Painting and drawing is my job. I teach people, sell original work and illustrate all sorts of weird and wonderful natural things, from rice packaging to the internal structure of a bony fish! It's a notoriously unstable and slightly chaotic work choice, particularly if you're a solo act. Sometimes it's hard to make the best decisions because I'm torn between what I want to do and what I have to do but wouldn't change it for anything else in the world. This career choice means that I have to work hard, plan well and be organised. It's not just about painting either, there's some serious multi-tasking including, promotion, websites, book keeping etc. etc.

RHS Show Orchid Show in April at the Lindley Hall. Great fun but unprepared!  Photograph courtesy of Alena Lang Phillips

Last year I wasn't terribly organised when I committed to the April RHS show, I had applied for the October, Shades of Autumn show - but for some unknown reason I ticked the box selecting the London Orchid Show as second choice.... That was my first mistake! Never put a second choice if you haven't got time! I've done 5 RHS shows since 2004 and always applied for London as first choice but never been allocated it, so felt I had to do it when it finally came my way. 

Behind the scenes the frantic preparation! before the plants die

 Other work commitments meant I was left with just a few weeks to paint 6 works on vellum...it wasn't the best idea but it was 'do-able' if I kept it small and simple. That was a criticism by judges, they wanted more like this one, and less of the simple studies. It went a bit wrong at times and I didn't have time to present them properly either, but I got them all finished and made it to London. I have since done a bit more work on some of them and mounted and framed the the unsold ones. 

Fritillaria meleargris, exhibited at the London Orchid show

It was a great experience and I enjoyed it enormously, met lots of lovely people, many of who I've only ever communicated with via email. I was awarded a Silver and sold two of the paintings but I know that more time is needed to prepare for such high profile show and so I learned from it. Long term planning is the key and it's something I need to refocus on after the upheaval of the last 2 years. If I ever apply again I'll prepare the paintings and then apply for space when and only if I'm happy with them.
 

From the Royal Brompton and Harefield Exhibition flier

I also managed to exhibit 16 paintings at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital Trust with my good friend Julie Whelan. A fantastic opportunity, thanks to Julie. Arts in hospitals is a great initiative, it brings a diverse selection of work into the hospital environment for the benefit of both patients, visitors and staff, and, with commission going to a good cause! We dropped off the paintings at the hospital and were given a tour of the old world famous Harefield, they have some super work in their collection including a beautiful urn by Grayson Perry. The paintings went on to be exhibited at the Royal Brompton until November.

Planning Ahead 2015
The new workspace is sorted and reasonably comfy,  so I'm ready to roll! I've had a clear out of materials and invested in some big vellum skins and other materials.....so no excuses for slacking! This year I want concentrating on more complex works in graphite on paper and watercolour on vellum ( although I reserve the right to change my mind at any point).  Here's a bit more drawing practice underway.... just! I drew this rather complicated rough composition of bindweed during a trip to Germany in the late summer, decided to dig it out today as practice. I have to work from photos and some dried specimens, not my favourite approach but I want to finish it. Hmmm....it's going to be quite challenging!

A bit more drawing!

......do you ever wish you hadn't started something! I'm working on Arches HP, size 18 x 24 block. I like this paper for graphite work but not for watercolour. It took an age to plan the composition but it will no doubt take much longer to complete. I can 'chip  away' at it when I feel like it tough as I'm only left with photo reference and a few dried specimens now. Who knows it may well run into the next flowering period!

Fortunately I took hundreds of photos! and captured quite a few mini beasts

.....and collected dried bits of the same plant from behind the shed at the bottom of my daughters garden!...I trod on a nail to get this!

Basically I want to keep drawing and painting this year to make up lost ground. Sounds obvious but putting together a body of work that I'm happy with is important, it won't be for any particular purpose, no specific exhibition or show and I'll decide what to do with it when it's complete. I won't be working to anybody else's criteria. Something to plod on with in the background and with the subjects I choose.

The Exhibitions Calendar ... OK what's achievable? 

I'm spending time researching the exhibitions calendar for the next few years. I hope to submit work for this years SBA Annual Show, In Pursuit of Plants. 
It's 3 years since I last did the SBA show and I aim to submit just one large piece on vellum.
 
Back in May I wrote about the Jade Vine painting. I'm almost ready to send off the digital image this month for the Sydney Florilegium Exhibition, which takes place next year at Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.  I've worked on this over a two year period after tracking down the plant at Kew and Durham Botanic Garden.

I visited Kew to observe the amazing jade vine earlier this year. 

Work in progress. The finished painting will be scanned and sent as a digital image at the end of Jan, that's for the for printing. The original will be packed off to Australia shortly afterwards.

Teaching and Websites
Over the last few years I've written a number of online courses,  it's great fun and I have some lovely students. It's a constant learning curve for me as well as for the students and it's important to learn from their feedback. The materials are delivered via a dedicated course website, which I constructed and manage and we have a private Facebook group too. This year  I'm undertaking some new materials on Composition as well as adding to existing courses and developing things a stage further.....gotta keep up with the technology!

A video still from the  Botanical Watercolour Course

 My method of teaching, I hope, looks at the fundamental techniques and theory behind drawing and painting for the botanical student. It's not an 'easy option' approach and requires hard work but I believe it's an approach that will give students the building blocks that they need to develop their own style and to work independently as artists in their own right beyond the course. 

A still from the Course website

Blogging Birthday Ahead!
On Jan 18th I will have been writing this blog for 6 years! There have been some gaps over this period,  initially it felt like a bit of a waste of time - there seemed no way of finding others with the same interest but the amazing Sigrid Frensen found me and was thinking along the same lines. Sigrid had started a Botanical Art Facebook group, which I later joined as co-admin. It now has over 2000 members! So the whole Botanical digital world has grown enormously in the last few years and it's much easier to find people, and, there are now lots of amazing botanical art blogs to read. Writing the blog  is something that I really enjoy, hopefully others find it useful too and it's a brilliant way of keeping a diary for me..... I'll need to think about some way of celebrating!

Continue with the Sketchbook Project 
See my previous blog post. This time next year the project will be coming to an end and I'm very very excited to get my book back!

Finally... see more of the World and Exhibitions
One of the things I've pursued this year is travel, something that I hadn't really done a lot of up until a couple of years ago.  I've seen lots of exhibitions, including most recently the Picasso Expo in Brugge, also the Dali exhibition.  I've visited many galleries at home, looking at a wide variety of styles, from the fantastic Shirley Sherwood Collection and Marianne North at Kew, to Andy Warhol at Tate Liverpool and Turner Prize winner Martin Creed at the Hayward. It's something that has been invaluable.....diversity is definitely good for the mind! Travel has also given me the opportunity to draw and sketch plants away from home and in the field. Here's one from earlier in the year from a trip to Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Linaria vulgaris, sketches

 I'm travelling to Donegal in a couple of weeks so will see what I can find there to paint....there's always something to paint no matter where you are, whether its from the back garden or further afield.

That's about it for 2014 and the rough plan for 2015! 

RHS London Orchid Show

To say it's been a bit of a rush would be an understatement! But I managed to finish the paintings and put them up at Lindley Hall tonight. I'm blogging from my phone so apologies for typos and the lack of captions etc.

In usual fashion I arrived last and left at about 9pm tonight. Before heading back to the hotel I managed a quick walk around the hall. The standard of work is incredible! and I can't wait to go back for a closer look tomorrow.

For my studies I've painted floral forms and development from a garden population of Fritillaria meleagris, all of the studies are on vellum and were painted during March and April this year - so it's been a very tight turnaround!

My largest painting of the population of Frits is painted on the piece of Rory McEwen vellum gifted to me by the Hunt Institute for Botanical  Documentation. Lugene Bruno kindly passed on information regarding McEwen's preparation of the vellum. He purchased the finest New Zealand calfskin from Band and Co. in Richmond, London ( closed some years ago). The preparation involved a thick coating of plaster of Paris , using a formula devised by William Morris and named after his press, 'Kelmscott' vellum. The thick chalky surface which was then rubbed down with fine sandpaper. 

I have to say that I was very cautious when rubbing down the surface coat and believe that I should have removed much more. The coat has visible brush strokes and is irregular in places, it gives a more absorbent surface than other Kelmscott vellum. 

The day before I was due to leave for London I decided to remove a large section of the work because I wasn't happy with the finish!  

It seemed like a drastic measure but I just wasn't happy with the finish. The other problem is the fact that the vellum is cut from the edge of a whole skin and is bucked. I didn't want to cut the edge away to straighten it so decided to live with it until such times as the work is framed. I will add more to the composition at a later date.

It's been a long few days and I'm ready for bed, will write more later but for now I'll leave you with a few images of my other small paintings.

Developing bud painted x 2 

'White' form but with some chequered 'red' markings (x 2)

A botanical study, I did want to add the tepals showing the nectaries and a dissection of the developing fruit...maybe later ( x 1.5)

Double-headed form, (x 2) seems very vigorous compared to the other plants.

  

I forgot to photograph this one so here's an picture of it unfinished. Standard form in bud (x2)

More tomorrow. 

Update 

I was awarded a silver for the paintings, I was happy enough with that for the amount of time taken to produce them. The feedback from the judges was useful. They preferred to see more of the plant than I showed in the smaller studies , I chose to do the smaller paintings due to time constrains, and, because personally  I like he small studies best. But I understand that judging for a show has a different set of criteria. If I do another show I will definitely take a much longer amount of time to prepare as I was literally still painting on the morning of the set up day! 

2014 Plans and Inspirations

My last post was a summary of work from 2013. So I'm starting 2014 with a few plans for the new year - inspired by my friend Shevaun Doherty in her recent blog post.

This is my 50th year (eek!) so it really is time to at least try to be a bit more organised. Have been a bit shy of over planning the last couple of years because life has been slightly chaotic! but I always did like to set a goal or two.

There are two...or maybe three strands of work for me- commissioned illustration, teaching and the work that I call my own.  The first take precedence and supports the latter. So sometimes with the best will in the world plans have to change because illustration work comes along unexpectedly, I estimate that the 80:20 rule applies, with the lesser being the amount of time dedicated to my own work at the moment. Most of the illustration work is natural history based and painting things that aren't necessarily my own choice and prove to be challenging are good for me!

He is my Top Ten Plan for 2014 and the inspiration behind it.....

 1. Paint or draw every day. A few years ago I heard a comment in a documentary about one of my favourite artists, Lucian Freud, which stated that he painted every day of his life! I'm not altogether sure how accurate it was but it struck a chord and stayed with me. When I went to see his 'Portraits' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2012 the incredible development of his work over the years was so clear to see and his sheer dedication was apparent- sometimes no douby at the expense of other things in his life. This exhibition, which was was shortly after his death made me think about how important it is to paint frequently, and, how much time I've wasted thinking about what to do rather than time actually doing it! So to the point! I intend to carry on as I have over the last year and will endeavour paint or draw something everyday, no matter how small. I know being an illustrator isn't quite the same as being a real 'artist'  but the dedication to do better is the same for everything. Some of my work will be illustration and some will be my own work but it's all good practice. I've started the year with another 15 marine species paintings for Macduff Marine Aquarium, it's a warm up ......here's a glimpse.

Marine species illustrations completed Jan 2014

2. Don't leave it until the last minute ....... Well that speaks for itself! I MUST improve my time management regarding the balance between the different strands of work! Oh and don't take on too many things. When I tell people I'm an artist/ illustrator they seem to think it's some relaxing easy job or part time'hobby'. Sometimes it is  relaxing but it can be pretty pressurised when clients want work yesterday! I wouldn't change it for any other job in the world even though it pays badly and means long hours.  

3. Submit work for the SBA annual exhibit at Westminster, in May. I've been exhibiting on and off with the SBA since 2000. I was elected a full member in 2012 but last year I was gutted not to exhibiti following acceptance. I figured I had an excuse given that life had turned a bit upside-down, but it's no excuse for neglecting things because of a few unsettling life events! So a good  kick in the backside is in order for missing that one, and, for feeling sorry for myself! 

It had always been a goal of mine to become an SBA member but for practical reasons I'd been inconsistent with submitting the required number of works over the years. I worked really hard at having the 5 paintings accepted in 2010, 2011 which gave me associate membership and then again in 2012. I was delighted to receive the phone call from former President Vicki Marsh, informing me that I'd been elected as a full member.... and on my birthday too! I felt I'd let myself down by not exhibiting. This year I won't be submitting 5 and I'm pretty relieved that I don't have to submit so many anymore! I'm hoping to complete a large piece on vellum for the show based on autumnal garden finds. The theme this year is the Botanical Garden, I think the autumn garden is as interesting as in summer, so this will be the focus of my work. 

Preparatory work for SBA show

 4. Prepare work for RHS London Orchid Show.  This one is a bit daunting! I've always wanted to do this show and despite the fact that I've been exhibiting with the RHS since around 2004 ( accepted by the Picture Committee in 2002 ) I've  never been offered it before. Funny really because I even wasn't going to apply this year but received an email reminding me to apply for space the day before the deadline and thought....Ok one more! so there you go.....  refer to no. 2. I'll tell you later what I'm submitting for the show

5. Paint the Jade Vine for the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden Florelegium. Really delighted to have been be  invited to become a member of the Society in a letter that arrived out of the blue from Beverly Allen last year. I was issued with the plant list and chose the Jade Vine because it's big, bold and beautiful ....that's a bit of a challenge for me!  I was too late to paint it last year but sourced the plant and it's my BIG challenge this year. Not sure yet but think I may paint it on vellum.

Jade vine flower

6. Take Part in the Nature Sketchbook Exchange  How nice to be invited to take part in this initiative, whereby a group of 15 artists all have a Stillman & Birn sketchbook. Each artist will draw or paint something every month then pass it on to the next artist.  Great idea! 

t

Banner for the Nature Sketchbook Exchange project

7. If time permits another 30 Day Challenge would be good. Really enjoyed this last year because so many other artists joined in.  Not sure if I have time for it this year and perhaps somebody else will take the lead.

8. Develop my Teaching. Website resources and classes. I created a new website in 2013 for my students and to enable better access to botanical art tuition. For years I wanted to have some art tuition in botanical art and never could, for all sorts of reasons it was outside my grasp, whether it was having young children, living miles from anywhere or simply not having the funds for some of the very expensive botanical art courses, which felt a bit elitist to me. Also some courses don't cover the fundamental skills or 'building blocks' required in watercolour so I wanted to take a slightly different approach. I have some brilliant students and really look forward to developing this area of work over the coming year.  
 I'll also be running a class from the 20th to the 26th July back in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at a fantastic venue on the Moray Firth Coast, the  Creative Retreat

More additions to the teaching website, click to view

9. Blog a bit more often. I did a lot more last year than in previous years, largely due to the 30 day challenge and it's great to see so many other botanical artists blogging nowadays. Writing things down and asking myself questions is the best thing for the thought process! :)    

10.  Finally.....Enjoy it, try to be a better painter, don't get stressed and don't make excuses!  I know that's 4 things really...... but it's my list ! stress serves no purpose whatsoever, so it has no place!

That's it........Simple!