Day 10 and 11, Camellia and Magnolia Sketches, Exhibitions and more

It's been a very hectic week with no time for very much else at all! Everything seems to happen at this time of year.....flowers start to bloom in abundance but also the exhibitions calender is pretty full. So I only had time this week for a couple 15 minute sketches.... I had intended to sketch more while away but it just didn't happen! this is the sum total of the pretty poor effort. As you will see these drawings are rough....almost scribbles but this is usually how I work out my drawings.

It's not pretty or tidy! 15 minute drawing of a Camellia. the flower was 'taken' from a friends garden on the way home. This is how I start most drawings. Pencil first to work out the angles and basic shapes. I draw almost as though all parts are transparent....so it's a sort of skeleton drawing. There are usually so many lines that it's necessary to draw over it with a fine liner, If I was drawing to create a new composition for a painting or tonal drawing,  I would probably produce 4 or 5 similar drawings in order to find the best arrangement of leaves and flowers etc. then decide what to keep and what not to keep. This work is in the Stillman & Birn Sketchbook. 

Day 11. Under 15 mins, Magnolia Bud drawn with a very blunt 5B pencil. Collected from Chatsworth house, an incredible garden and house....must go back soon!

 So what else has been happening? ......
The answer is LOTS! Last week brought a few nice surprises. I attended the SBA annual exhibition opening on Thursday 16th, where I currently have two paintings on show. I arrived late for the opening (as usual), to find out that I'd been highly commended for the new Strathmore paper award for composition, and will be receiving a book of their paper as a prize, which is great! Slightly ironic really because the work was on vellum but never having tried their paper I'm looking forward to giving it a go.... oh I also got a gift of book of paper from Saunders Waterford for trialling their paper too! ...more about that another time. I stayed over in London with my daughter and we visited the Saatchi, Tate Britain and Tate Modern, to view the Dumas exhibition.....oh and a Cocktail bar!

Society of Botanical Artists annual Exhibition at Westminster Central Halls, London

 Between exhibitions I took my daughter home to Lancaster and then took a trip to Chatsworth House. I even went down a cave on route! Chatsworth is amazing and I need to go back asap! Might write another post about it at some point.

Chatsworth....a very grand house and garden!.....

 

....But I managed to find a shed full of gorgeous onions!

I was very tempted to 'borrow' these ...but even my bag isn't big enough for this lot!

And some amazing and big leaf skeletons from under the Magnolia tree....definitely a subject for vellum.

Arriving home on Monday I made a brief trip to the printers, 'The Artists Print Room', in Bridgenorth to sort out the final proofs. Vellum is not so easy to replicate in print but I was really happy with these. I decided to have them printed on Bamboo archival paper, that's a new one to me! so though I'd try it. Here they are:

Decided to keep the background marks on the vellum as part of the print.... I figured they were part of the work, not sure if it was the right thing to do! This is my painting on Rory McEwen's vellum so I won't be parting with the original.

The butterflies are x1.5 in size which gives the work more impact and shows off the colours and detail.

Not sure why I chose this one....just because I like leaf skeletons and lichens I guess

 I was back in London again on Wednesday, stewarding for the SBA exhibition and happened to open the Society leaflet whilst taking a coffee break and discovered that they had chosen my Primula for inside the leaflet, so again that was another surprise.

Primula painting on vellum, from 2010. found while taking a tea break at the SBA exhibition

  The SBA exhibition is excellent this year and the standard just keeps going up! I spoke with RHS judge and artist Gillian Barlow, who dropped in late in the day and was very complementary about this years show and also commented on the improved hanging of work this year too.
The student diploma work is frighteningly good and is obviously having an impact on the level of new work being produced! I also noticed that there seems to be a lot of artists painting in large format, which has no doubt has been influenced by artists such as Rosie Sanders. So it's all good and Botanical painting is definitely continuing to appeal to people.

A fantastic exhibition!....hopefully you can see the names of those exhibiting here.

After a day stewarding I attended the private view of Shirley Sherwood exhibition at the Johnathon Cooper, Park Walk Gallery. The exhibition is of new works and a celebration marking 25 years of Dr Sherwood's collection.  I was very fortunate to meet some wonderful artists both exhibiting and viewing. It was particularly lovely to meet Coral Guest and Beverly Allen, having corresponded with both of them for some time. Beverly had invited me to take part in the Sydney Florilegium  Project a couple of years ago, this will take place next year. Her painting of a Gymea lily is stunning. Coral was invited by Dr Sherwood to speak about her Peony painting, which she undertook over a period of 9 years! The large painting titled ' The Phenology Cabinet of the Incandescent Petal' features flowers from her personal collection of Magenta coloured French heritage peonies. She explained how in the years when the weather had damaged the plants she had painted the petals becuae the they had blown away. It was great to hear about her interest in the this flower and also of and of her recollections of visits to Kew since she was a small child aged just 6 years old! I also met Rosie Sanders, her paintings are absolutely stunning and so full of life and colour just like Rosie! She is currently undertaking a Painting a Day Challenge, which she started on Jan 1st and will last the whole year...... It's a remarkable and honest journey, which is well worth following.


After seeing so much amazing work I have to admit feeling a tad overwhelmed but also inspired to work. So it's back to my little flat, pencils and paints at the ready. This huge tube arrived from William Cowleys on Thursday, so that rounded off a pretty full and exciting week....should keep me busy for a while....but not allowed to open it until all other work is up to date!

A new skin from Cowleys awaits!

Day 9, An Iris Seed Pod and some other exciting things!

It's actually day 10 but I'm a day behind after being away in London for the SBA annual exhibition. Haven't exhibited  for a few years, so it was really nice to be back on track and involved again.
I arrived home late last night full of enthusiasm and got up early to catch up with the challenge! Something small seemed a good idea so I chose to paint a small Iris seed-head, which was given to me last year by fellow artist and friend, Jarnie Godwin, aka Sketchbook Squirrel 
It's painted on Kelmscott vellum, funny enough it's a small off cut from one of the works for this years SBA show..

A quick vellum painting of an Iris seedpod for day 9

 I started on paper but decided that vellum would be better for this subject. it's always great for these dried subjects. I wasn't sure that I could do it quickly but it seemed to work. It could do with a bit more work but with only a short amount of time it was OK. Might add the seeds later on.

I'll maybe add the seeds and the other side of the pod later on. Apologies for the lack of information and photos, short on time 

today!

SBA Exhibition and new Work
 My two entries for the SBA show this year were Fritillaries, the F. imperialis is the largest painting that I've completed on vellum. The second painting was a small painting on vellum of F. meleagris. I was delighted to hear that I got an honourable mention for the F. meleagris, which goes to show that small paintings get noticed too! The F. imperialis was hard work ( see my previous post ) ......but not deterred by the scale of the task I've already ordered another whole skin and can't wait to get started. I was totally in awe at some of the work a this years show so definitely need to practice for next year now. I already have some ideas for what is a very exciting title subject. I'm going to focus on the theme of pattern for next year, which is an area Ive always had an interest in.

One of this years SBA entries, Fritillarie imperialis Rubra painted on a whole skin of Kelmscott vellum

I wasn't at the opening for very long but even in that short time it was lovely to meet so many other artists. Seems like the standard just keeps getting higher and it's a much more connected community of artists compared to the first time I exhibited withh the SBA back in 2002, I think that's all thanks to the internet, and supportes such as Katherine Tyrell with her Making a Mark blog, and of course to social media too. The ever increasing standard is probably due to the SBA diploma course which continues to bring more amazing new artists together every year. So it's all good and very exciting times ahead for botanical art.

A detain from the small F. meleagris painting, also at this years show

New Prints
One other exciting bit of news for me,  is that I spent an afternoon at the printers last Tuesday and picked up the first proofs for my new limited edition prints of the butterflies. I'm getting the proofs for two more works, the Fritillaria meleagris on Rory McEwen vellum and the Leaf Skeleton and Lichen Branch...all three are on vellum. It's not easy to get good prints of work on vellum but so far I'm pleased with the results and found a great photographer / printer who seems to understand the subtleties of watercolours..... probably helps that his wife is a watercolour artist too. Here's a snapshot I took of the first proofs, doesn't do them justice but the colour match and image quality is excellent. I'm trying to decide whether to print the butterflies life size or larger......never was very good at decision making!  Will post better photos shortly

Not a great photo but here are the first proofs for the butterfly prints... hot off the press!

My other painting currently at the printers

That all for now, time to take my daughter back to University after the Easter break, so back to the challenge again tomorrow. 

New Work.... Old Theme and SBA Exhibition Planning Time!

Much as I'm enjoying these mini painting challenges I'm now way overdue in planning towards next years exhibitions. It's time to start a new work for the the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) annual exhibition, titled, The Botanical Garden. which takes place in May next year at Westminster Halls. The handing in date is later than usual being the 17th March..... This later date is definitely a good thing for a disorganised painter!

 I've been exhibiting with the SBA for a number of years on and off since around 2000. I missed last years show due to the general upheavals of life......these upheavals shouldn't be allowed to interfere with painting but sometimes they do. The big question as always is ..... what should I paint or draw?

So here's the beginnings of a plan:

Beginnings..... Planning the layout and colours starts with a rough layout' painting.

I'm trying to link things together here, so instead of moving onto a completely blank sheet I'm sticking with the recent autumnal theme of the Challenge and will work on one large final piece, which will be on vellum. For this work I'm going to draw inspiration from the 30 day challenge and collection pieces by attempting a more complex work with much overlapping of the subjects.
While my local park/garden may be nothing special in the botanical world .... with no national collections or rarities; parks and gardens such as this late 19th century one, were established in a highly industrialised areas for the benefit of the people. They were at one time the only contact with parks and gardens for many people and shouldn't be overlooked as a source of worthwhile material. Also the autumn /winter garden is just as interesting as the summer herbaceous border in any botanic garden! So this might just work for one of the SBA submissions if it turns out OK.....but lets see how it goes...if it's looking a reasonable effort, who know I might even try another one! but with only 4 months to prepare that might be overly optimistic! 

Work started on Monday.  Reviewing the 30 day challenge subjects as contenders for inclusion in a  new work 

After reviewing the 30 day paintings and rummaging through yet another bag of old leaves and fruits on Monday. I started by drawing rough layouts on a roll of scrap paper on Tuesday. I want the final piece to be large and so working at A1 size . This work will probably take many weeks, possibly months because vellum painting is quite slow.
The rough layouts were completed in pencil, I traced some of the components to move them around which is my usual approach but I soon realised that with so many components there were issues with the balance of the colours, so decided that the way forward in this case is to complete a rough watercolour first to establish whether or not the composition works. I'm doing it this way because of the sheer quantity of material, colours and overlaps. It's more work initially but the only way to tell if a work is balanced, and, in the long term the better the planning the easier the painting!
I estimate that this preparatory work will take about a week, maybe more.  Once the rough is completed I will be able to see what needs to be moved, and whether or not it's worth pursuing as an idea! if  all is good the necessary readjustments will be applied accordingly, if not, I'll start over.
 Once I'm happy with the final layout will be transferred on to natural vellum for painting. I know wont be easy! the natural vellum is very thin and will have to be stretched on a frame or secured to board....still thinking about the options for that one!

Today, I'll continue with the panting, and order the vellum with optimism.

A little bit more progress

.....Will keep you posted on the progress, more photos later today. 

More flowers 30 Day Challenge

It's about time I uploaded some of the flowers from my 30 day flower challenge, so here we go with a Iris reticulata hybrid, I think it's  'Katharine Hodgkin', which is quite a pale version. 
Also I have lots of the regular dark blue I. reticulata in the garden too, which I painted it for my SBA Diploma portfolio ( image below)  That was over a year ago and it seems like a distant memory now. It's good to paint it again and this one has to be my favourite iris. 

I spent about  40 minutes on this one, it's not the greatest painting but has a nice delicate quality.

'Katherine Hodgkin' 40 minute watercolour study

 

Botanical Illustration of Iris reticulata from the SBA Diploma portfolio. I think I sold this one, can't remember where though. It's a very dark purple so plenty violet diox and soem Indanthrene blue too

Moving on - exhibitions 2011, SBA Associate Membership!

Running up to the end of the SBA Course the exhibition calendar kicked off early in 2011 in the cafe gallery at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed, House for an Art Lover, situated in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. It's a lovely venue and I felt privileged to be invited to exhibit alongside four Scottish botanical artists, Fiona Strickland, Jenny Matthews, Lynne Henderson and Mary-Clare Cornwallis.  

Exhibited at House for an Art Lover, Glasgow, Horse Chestnut on Vellum

SBA Associate Membership!
In February I had five works accepted by the Society of Botanical Artists for inclusion in their annual show, the World of Plants, 8th - 17th April at Westminster Central Hall, London. I've been putting odd works into the SBA shows on and off since 2002 but this was the second consecutive year that all five works had been accepted and secured election as an Associate Member of the SBA. Last year I was awarded a Certificate of Botanical Merit and highly commneded for the Joyce Cumming Award.

The next deadline is looming - to produce 8 paintings of native plants on vellum for inclusion in the BISCOT (Botanical Images Scotia) annual exhibition. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. It's the first time I've exhibited with BISCOT after having work accepted by their committee last year.  The exhibition is held at the Gardening Scotland show at Ingleston,  Edinburgh, from 3rd - 5th June. Work is then transported to the RBGE, and forms part of their Botanical Art Bonanza exhibitions. BISCOT work will be on show at from 8th -24th June in the Fletcher Building.

Any artist interested in exhibiting at BISCOT 2012 must submit work by the 24th May 2011.

Exhibited at House for and Art Lover, Digitalis purpurea on vellum. My largest work to date on vellum. I grew the plant in the garden

SBA Silver Jubilee Show

Society of Botanical Artists Silver Jubilee Show 2010 and Diploma Seminar

I managed to make it to Westminster Central Hall for the Silver Jubilee show and to the student seminar on the 17th April 2010. It was a most enjoyable day and a pleasure to meet the tutors and fellow students.
I participated in a number of the short tours delivered by tutors and came away with lots of 'food for thought'. I particularly enjoyed hearing what Margaret Stevens had to say. She has a wealth of experience and was my tutor for four assignments. She used computer images to analyse some of the works on show in detail - this was extremely enlightening and revealing!
I also managed to submit 5 works for this years exhibition and had all accepted (although one was not shown). I am extremely grateful for the service that Jackie Gethin provides and she has submitted work on my behalf a number of times. There is no doubt that I would not be able to participate in the show without her assistance simply because I live so far away. To my surprise I was awarded a Certificate of Botanical Merit for my Scots thistle seedhead (detail from the study pictured above) , and, was highly commended for the Joyce Cumming Award for the same drawing - something that I hadn't even considered! Again thanks to Jackie for collecting the award on my behalf at the opening ceremony. Better start work now for next years show!

Beginnings, the SBA Distance Learning Diploma

Having just started the Society of Botanical Artists Distance Learning Diploma Course I thought it might be useful to create this blog as a personal record and to share with anybody that might be interested. I hope there are others out there!  I've been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember but only started to focus on plants about five years ago.

RHS judge Gillian Barlow advised me not to bother with this course the last time I exhibited with the RHS in 2008 but I hope this course will help me to have a more disciplined approach and to focus on my weaknesses.

Looking forward to it. I finished my BSc in Biology in 2006 and several post grad heavy duty things so ready for a slightly more chilled subject.

Never blogged before so forgive me for I know not what I am doing!

UPDATED info May 2015.... Looking Back

I've been prompted to come back to the start and add some more information simply because I've been made aware that these posts can help potential students. At the time of writing this post in Jan 2009,  there was no communication between students it was a very isolating experience, there was also very little feedback from tutors and no videos but maybe that's changed. I believe there are new resources.  The books to accompany the course are fairly limited compared with what's available today and I think confusing. I wouldn't say I regret doing the course and some aspects were ok but I don't think it was the best value, at the time it was around £2000, I think its considerably more now so I assume it has a lot more to offer.