A botanical art workshop in Norway is coming

November 26, 2013April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Would you like to do a botanical art workshop in Norway? Would you like to do this in Edvard Munch’s home town of Åsgårdstrand near Tønsberg in South Eastern Norway? Now is your chance.

Recently some of my students asked me to organise a summer painting holiday in Norway. I have been making enquires and this is very likely to happen from 29th June next year for one week.

The hotel in which we will stay lies on the coast along the Oslo fjord and the room in which we will be painting looks directly out onto the sea with east facing natural light. This is a fantastic time of year with long hours of daylight for us to enjoy.

Obviously, the intention is have a botanical art workshop, but I also want you to have time to relax and to look around the area. I have yet to arrange all the details, but I plan an afternoon tour of Edvard Munch’s home and studio where ‘The Scream’ was born.

Please let me know if you would like to join us as soon as possible as I keep my classes small so that I can give everyone the individual attention they need.

Hear are a few pictures from the beautiful area around Tønsberg, Nøtterøy and the islands in the area. Are they tempting you? Do the brilliant colours make you want to paint?

Teaching at West Dean

November 16, 2013April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Thus last week has been incredibly unexpected – and busy.

Last week my husband and daughter made quick decisions about moving her goods and chattels from Amsterdam to her new lovely home in Tønsberg, Norway. I was not too happy as this meant I wouldn’t see her new home -yet. But as I had classes, these were my primary responsibility and I couldn’t let my students down.

I remained at home licking my wounds, but consoling myself that I would have plenty of time to paint.

After a few days, I got a call from West Dean. They said it was a mercy call, asking me to step in for one of the teachers; a colleague whose work and techniques I know well. I made a few calls to re-arrange my own plans, and stepped in!

Obviously, before I arrived at West Dean I did worry a little about what I was letting myself into, but trusted that my friend had made notes of what she had planned. When I arrived, I met a really lovely, welcoming group of people and a programme.

Because the morning had been wasted, I worked with the group unto 21:15 to catch up so that they wouldn’t lose out on too much. They weren’t going to get the tutor they signed up for, but it was important not to lose out on more than this. By the way, the topic was about mixing colour in watercolour.

During the remaining days, I got to know the group fairly well and an extremely good time was had by all – at least as far as I could see. I enjoyed myself and as usual learnt a lot from them too. I stuck to the programme already laid out, giving the students the information and showing the technique that my colleague used. As can be expected I was able to make additional suggestions from my own techniques which they found useful.

All very quick demos on the course.

Botanical art workshop – Autumn colours – in Bosham

November 3, 2013April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Well, I mentioned that I was due to have a botanical art workshop from Friday until today. Are interested in how it went?

I have been allowed to take the following pictures and you can judge from these how it went. I and the people who came, would obviously be very interested in your feedback, so please comment.

Some of the subjects.
As usual, we took a photo once the position of the subjects had been arrived at. As I have suggested previously, it is worth doing this as we are painting from living things and they change over time. If something wilts, we can replace that element and if we knock something out of position, we can re-arrange. We still paint from living subjects.

Enjoying the company and the opportunity to paint.

Glory tree – Coloured pencil

Malus Gorgeous – coloured pencil

Fallen leaves – Watercolour

A pear plus Malus Gorgeous and Golden Hornet crab apples – Coloured pencils.

I think that you will agree that these are lovely pictures that are well on their way to completion. But, what is even more amazing is that some of the students had not done much in the way of their chosen medium previously and they accomplished so much in this one workshop. It was exciting to watch them develop. No wonder I enjoy teaching!

Botanical art workshop starting tomorrow

October 31, 2013April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Tomorrow morning several students will be arriving to do a botanical art workshop entitled ‘Autumn Colours’. Obviously with the storm that was, and the pouring rain today and forecast for tomorrow, I am not exactly sure what people will be wanting to paint.

This year the seasons seem to be running a little late and the trees are not really changing too much yet. We have nothing like the number of Maple trees in the near vicinity that have the colour that we saw in the Adirondacks, but we do have one or two. One of our neighbours has a Liquid Amber tree, but only the leaves at the top have begun to change colour.

The things that are striking in our garden are the different colours of the crab apples. In fact, as we now have all six sorts that I am in the process of painting, they do make a spectacular picture dotted around the garden. I can imagine that someone might be tempted to paint one of them or even an apple scattering from each of them!

One thing is sure, that someone will arrive with something that I want to paint!

A Hurricane in the south of England

October 30, 2013October 31, 2013 | Gaynor's Flora

Would you believe it, in the last couple of weeks we had a Tornado ( not up to American standards) which was devastating for those affected on Hayling Island, a little further along the coast. Early on Monday morning we had a brief storm which was forecast. I say brief as the major winds only lasted a few hours. But again devastating for those affected.

We were warned a couple of days in advance that we needed to make sure everything was battened down, so we duly went round checking everything. People moved cars out of range of tall trees. Tables, chairs and flower pots were stowed. In the short time allowed only a few people got their boats out of the water, but most had to rely on their moorings and that they would hold.

The Eucalyptus from our house.

A couple of gardens away someone has an absolutely massive Eucalyptus. Each time there is a storm I worry for the houses in the next road and downwind of the tree. On Sunday night I was no less worried as the tree was getting a hammering and the massive boughs were waving in the wind. I wondered, before I went to bed, how the tree would weather this storm forecast to be major. I also prayed that the people in the houses nearest the tree would be safe.

The storm started seriously during the night and when we got up at 06:00 when still dark, we could see in the gloom that the skyline had changed. The tree was down! But where and how were the houses on the other side? Was anyone hurt?

As it got lighter we could see that the tree had fallen along the boundary and luckily only taken with it the surrounding fences and our next door neighbours garden lounge – now squashed flat! Thank goodness! Although our immediate neighbour now had a massive tree lying across the bottom of their garden and a lot of physical damage from that, they too were relieved that it was this rather than the people in the houses in range of the tree that was affected!

The horizon in Early November 2009 and today.

Now I suppose it is an issue for the tree owners to sort out, but it does bring home the fact that if you have something planted in your garden that isn’t native to the area, it does have to be looked after appropriately. Even our native species can grow too large for our private gardens so we do have responsibilities.

By the way we now have a lot of light in the garden. And, of the boats in our creek we could only see two that had come loose from their moorings and had beached.

We were lucky. Not everyone was.

The remains of the tree on its side today. Phil Weng, the tree surgeon, is removing it.

My husband was amused by me taking the last picture in my dressing gown!

Do you use photographs in botanical art?!!!!

October 18, 2013April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Yes. Sort of.

Some of my paintings take around two years to complete especially if I am doing a series of paintings and they include; A year in the life of………

How do you complete a series of paintings if the series is from the same genus and they bloom and fruit at similar times?

This is how I do some of it. As an example I will use the picture that I have been working on this week. Malus Gorgeous.

In the spring last year I did some sketches, colour detail and size of the blossom. I had to do five other crab apple trees at the same time and, during a ten-day period. This year I did dissections of blooms from the same trees and preparation sketches of the dissections to include in the pictures.

Going back to the Malus Gorgeous specifically, this summer I planned the composition and sketched this out on my final paper. I used elements from various pictures I had taken of the small tree. Bearing in mind that the apples were not full size and far from ripe and the finished painting was to include ripe fruit. The photographs were and are only a rough guide. This is the photograph I used for the main bunch of fruit.

I had to enlarge the fruit slightly to the size they were likely to be when ripe, allowing for the fact that even this allowance might be slightly out. I had measured the ripe fruit the previous year so had a good idea of the size. I then started painting the leaves.

I picked the leaves I intended to paint, one at a time. None of them the ones in the photo. Some were more interesting than others, but I had to make sure that the leaves I picked were the ones arising from the fruit spur. These were the type I had included in my picture, and not those born on new shoots, as these are more leathery and differ quite a bit.

I positioned each leaf as I had sketched it in my composition and painted it into the picture until most of the leaves were in place.

I have been doing the same with the apples. These are this years ripe apples. They have started falling off the branches, therefore I had to get on and paint them whilst I could – particularly if I wanted the series finished to exhibit at the RHS next year. That is if I get exhibition space.

Funnily enough and, luckily, the apples seem to last different lengths of time on the trees. But there isn’t much in it, so I have to plough on until all the apples are finished.

Some of the pictures of the apples being painted – with coloured pencil used dry in case anyone was wondering.

Today I managed to do all the apples. I have a couple more leaves to do and then have the dissections and branches to put in the picture. But that won’t happen yet as I have to catch up on all six pictures. The sketches Of the dissections that I have in my sketchbook will give me enough information to do this at a later time. Don’t forget that once everything is in place it has to be tied together with shadows etc in the right places.

As you see I do use photographs in botanical art, but every element in my pictures are painted from life.

By the way, comments or queries are very welcome.

My sketchbook page.

Back home to crab apples

October 12, 2013April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

So far this week I have been catching up – or trying to, after our time in the US.

I mentioned that everything was green and therefore a shock after seeing the intense fall colours in America. This was the first sight of our back garden and one of our cats.

It was still reasonably warm on our return, but I kept on my full length jeans.

Monday and Tuesday afternoon I did a lot of paperwork to catch up, but Tuesday and Wednesday morning I had my normal weekly botanical art classes. Everyone was very interested in the trip we had taken and most particularly in the catalogue from the Hunt Exhibition. Hopefully the catalogue will be motivational for some of the students.

At last on Wednesday I was able to get back to painting my crab apple series. Whilst we had been away, the Malus Golden Hornet crab apples had swelled up (luckily it has rained a little since we were away) and turned yellow. The apples are not fully ripe yet, but as this was the only painting where I had done no apples at all and very little preparatory sketches, it was the one picture I was most concerned about.

I had in fact actually started the painting before we went away. I had done a composition and finished most of the leaves, placing the apples roughly in accordance with measurements taken two years ago when starting the series. However, this year there has been little rain during the summer months and the fruit were not as big as originally allowed for. That aspect of the painting had to be sketched anew. A photo from the Malus Golden Hornet.

On Thursday morning it started getting really cold here (relatively speaking) and a wind was building up. The Malus Gorgeous, a lovely little tree near our front door, has quite big deep red crab apples. They were beginning to fall off the tree. Although I have painted a composition with this apple several times, I had started a different composition. I again have done most of the leaves, but need to paint the apples. The Malus Gorgeous.

I felt it was now important to do a list of the pictures, detailing what was missing on each one and the urgency of each element. I don’t want to miss an important phase in the development of each apple because I was concentrating too much on one of the..

My Malus John Downey tree now has only three apples left on it. It didn’t do too well this year. I still had five apples to paint in the picture! I decided this was a priority. I can wax lyrical about the beauty of this tree, but I will save this for another time.

So, now I have been rescuing crab apples to paint their portraits in the relevant picture and yesterday managed nine hours on John Downey. My husband went out in the evening, so I could do what I enjoyed best – paint.

I haven’t got new pictures of this painting, but here you can see the notes from my flower dissections in my sketch book. Peeking out from under the sketchbook you can just see some completed leaves on a branch contain gripe crab apples.

Today, Friday, I have only had a couple of hours painting as we had to travel to Bristol for a meeting with other tutors from London Art College (LAC). I am the Botanical Art Tutor for LAC which is a distant learning course. If you are interested in this, have a look at their website. It is a good course.

Back home in the UK

October 7, 2013April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Since 07:00 US time yesterday, I have had a one hour sort of snooze. This happened on the train between Gatwick and our home. I am wide awake – but not too clear in my thoughts.

The flight from Boston to Dublin, a two – hour wait for our flight to Gatwick, was filled with a solid breakfast and we arrived home about 10:00 our time. The sun was shining, it was fairly warm and good drying weather for washed holiday clothes.

The biggest thing we came home to, were the colours. GREEN. Thick green grass, heavily leafed green trees and masses of foliage still hanging, everywhere. There are still some roses in the garden. I took photos of the roses, pink and white cyclamen, fuchsia, two globe artichokes, geraniums and lots of other things.

The cats were glad to see us and have followed us everywhere. They had been well looked after.

Once returning home I took a lot of green pictures to show you the difference between where we have been in America, to here in the UK. However, I still find it difficult to comprehend the impact the Gulf Stream has on our weather although we are much further north than where we have been of late.

Although I have taken a lot of green pictures, I will show you the pictures my husband took when we took our cats for a walk along the shoreline. They love this trip with us. I am not showing you the cats, but the colour of the sunset. Orange, as though the sky were full of fall leaves from the Adirondack, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

This is the end of our holiday. Tomorrow we are back to normal. Thank you to all those who have helped to make our trip to the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh and holiday before and after, so memorable.

On the point of leaving the US

October 5, 2013April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

It is 16:10 US time and we sitting at Logan Airport in Boston. The clouds are slightly clearing and we are due to board at about 17:00.

Last night was spent at a little town called Peterborough. We had repacked our bags last night in preparation for the flight home, so once we had eaten our porridge, we went for a small walk around the town. Although it was cloudy it was quite warm. We had done a little window shopping last night, so this morning went into those shops we had picked out. Unfortunately we didn’t find anything we were looking for. I had decided I wanted a pad of Strathmore Vellum paper to give it a good try, but they only had it in rolls. Perhaps just as well.

Before leaving, we decided to have a last coffee at our last diner.

Did you know that theterm’Diner’ refers to the type of car it was on a train. Therefor many of the diners one sees are converted railway carriages. This one was particularly fine from the outside.

But inside we were tempted, and who is strong enough not to succumb? Not us.

Once outside again we were back to Leaf peeping. As we were lower down, the colours were fantastic again. But note the name of the cafe by this maple.

For those of you who love the colours, here are a few more pictures of our drive towards Boston. They were magnificent to begin with, but began to fade and get browner the nearer to Boston we got.

The the freeway.

Then a food break at the airport! It’s diet time when we get home.

Sorry about the typos. I was rushing this to G&T it off before we are called up. Bye for now.

Posts navigation

Previous

Next