My last update was early spring, so it's time to add more about the sketchbook. I've not completed so many pages this year but that was expected as we come out of the pandemic, and, with other work to do it's a big ask to complete a page every week. The aim this year was a page every two weeks, which is achievable, given that 23 are completed to date. There are too many for one post so will do this in two. So here goes with March to June, entries 7 - 13:
I left off in the last post with the promise of Celandine for entry no. 7, and it was indeed completed, but I completed another painting first, it was the wild daffodils at the ancient woodland at George's Hayes, Longdon, Staffordshire. It was March 11th and the day before my 58th birthday, so thought I'd take a bit of a trip out. A bit of a rushed page painted in situ because it started raining.... so that was the end of that.
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| Narcissus pseudonarcissus, wild daffodil at Georges Hayes Wood. March 11th 2022 |
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| Beautiful sight and the largest stand of wild daffs in Staffordshire |
No. 7. Heres the Lesser Celandine, yes yet another yellow flower. This was early April and at that time of year Celandine is everywhere.
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| Ficaria verna, Lesser Celandine April 2nd 2022 |
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| Roadside down the Lane in Checkley, my old stomping ground |
No. 8 Next up, its yellow again! with Cowslip. I planted this on the edge of the garden and it's doing well this year, I also had a few in pots which is always handy, it was a lovely sunny day so I sat out and drew it, then finished it off indoors, because it was way too bright outside. It seemed complicated to draw but was much easier than I thought and took about an hour. I try not to spend more than one day for each page but often this is split into and hour snatched here or there.
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| Primula veris, Cowslip. My garden, April 2nd 2022 |
No. 9 Spot the odd one out, not a British native plant for the next page because I took a holiday to Malta! and of course the sketchbook came too. I have to paint this gorgeous little Barbary iris. A walk to the cliffs at Sannat in the morning, revealed the presence of the dead long leaves, like little snakes but the flowers don't open until later in the day, it was extremely hot and a swarm of tiny flies descended, which filled my hair, eyes, nose and clothes...its was pretty awful but didn't stop my return later that day to paint this little beauty.
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| Morea sisyrinchium, the Barbary Nut, Sannat Cliffs, Malta, 25th April 2022 |
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| See how tiny it is! |
No. 10 Back home again and back to dandelions, I became slightly obsessed following the realisation there are so many species. This one was at the SSSI at Allimore Green, Haughton, Staffs. I think its Taraxacum faeroense, very cute little dandelion.
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| Taraxacum faeroense, Allimore Green SSSI Haughton, Staffordshire, 8th May 2022 |
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| The bracts are all important in identification |
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Allimore Green, a rare piece of land the wasn't drained and has been preserved that way, a designated SSSI
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No. 11 Another dandelion, one from the Hamata section I'm told,
T. lamprophyllum, it seemed too small but that's not always important. anyway it was in my garden, so not much effort required for this one. A lazy option when there isn't much time available but goes to show that there's always something to paint.
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| Taraxacum lamprophyllum (maybe), in the garden, 16th May. 2022 |
No 12, the last full page in the book before starting a new one is
Silene dioica, Red Campion. It's one of my favourite flowers and as the name suggests it has separate male and female plants. There was an abundance of females but barely any males. I'd saved some seed podss from last year and added them to the page. When I went to finish the painting the lot had been strimmed, so I took some home and painted finished it off overlooking the field.
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| Silene dioica, Common Lane, Stone. 21st May 2022 |
So that marks the end of the second sketchbook and will stop there apart from one more end piece, no. 13 Comfrey with a bee, bit of a rush job!
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| Symphytum officinale, Common Lane Stone, |
For the next book I have more pages and its back to Saunders Waterford hight white paper. I'll post the next batch soon.
This project has been ongoing since February 2021 and I have been doing it with my good friend Debbie Crawford from the US. You can see all of our entries on Instagram under the hashtags botanicalsketchdates, which got hijacked by lots of folk, which it fine, so we started another with the hashtag botanicalsketchdates2022.
Also on my own IG and Facebook page Dianne Sutherland Artist, where there's lots of other artwork too.
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