Seventeen days before RHS botanical art exhibition set up.

March 24, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I set to work again as soon as we got home from church today. Although there is plenty of light in the shed I don’t know if it rains or shines. But I do know that on going up to the house for tea refills etc. it was very cold today.

This is a small glimpse of my working environment at the moment – concentrated computering; but with the odd intrusion.

It is not what I enjoy the most. I much prefer coloured pencil painting. But it is one step nearer getting the pictures finished for exhibition at the RHS. Don’t forget the date at the RHS Lindley Hall in London, 11 – 12 April, but with the awards given on the 10th. I hope people are either praying or keeping their fingers crossed for me.

A couple of days ago I showed the blossom for the Malus Evereste. These are the crab apples.

I first saw them during a workshop about three years ago, when a student brought them along to paint. I was very taken with their stripey look, but also that a few of them had an extra ‘lumpy’ skirt on them. They reminded me of a ‘cottage loaf’.

Another Botanical picture ready for the RHS exhibition

March 21, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I seem to be spending every free minute on the Photoshop colour matching of the Crab apple botanical art series. But tomorrow I will be doing something else.

The Society of Floral Painters has asked me to do a coloured pencil demonstration at one of their meetings that is open to members and artists hoping to attain full membership in the society. It will be at Pitton Village Hall near. Salisbury, tomorrow between 10:00 – 14:00.

As the Magnolia x soulangeana is still in full flower, I have prepared a drawing to demonstrate this. It will be good to take my head away from the computer for a day.

Would you like to see part of the next picture finished? It is blossom on the Malus Evereste. Note how it differs from Malus Red Jade. The flower is slightly smaller than for the Red Jade, doesn’t have the stripey red on the petals and seems to have regular wrinkles along each petal. Although the Malus Red Jade apple is very small, the flowers are not so small.

It is amazing how different each Malus sort is.

RHS exhibition results 3 weeks today!

March 20, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

In three weeks time, on April 10 about midday I will know if my six botanical art paintings in coloured pencil have passed muster and if they have won a medal.

I’m still hard at working up the colours in Photoshop and In between teaching classes, workshops or marking botanical art assignments for the London Art College. The days are long, but it sounds as though it is going to get colder again and the weeds in the garden might grow slowly for a short while.

The Magnolia is in full and splendid bloom; several weeks early according to pictures taken other years. Each of the crabapple trees have started sprouting. I now have seven different ones.

Would you like another glimpse from the Malus. Red Jade picture? This time it’s the apples. The full picture with dissections is quite interesting, but you will have to come to the RHS exhibition to see it.

Glimpse from a finished crabapple painting

March 18, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I am on the last steps towards finishing the RHS crabapple paintings. Except for additional research for the Malus Red Jade information labelling, I have finished the actual painting and colour matching for prints. I will give you a glimpse at the end of this blog.

Unfortunately I won’t get much work done on the next painting tomorrow as I am teaching my weekly class in the morning. But as much time as possible is now spent on these botanical paintings.

Three weeks until the RHS botanical art exhibition

March 16, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

How am I doing? Will I be finished in time?

These of course are the questions I am asking myself and I imagine are the same questions for those who follow the blog.

Preparing for the RHS botanical art show which will happen in London 11 – 12 April, with preview on the evening of the 10th, has taken three years. The work is almost finished. Believe it or not.

I have finished painting each of the six pictures. I have only painted the necessary six and I haven’t painted a 7th as a reserve in case one wasn’t up to scratch ( I was advised to do this – in case). The frames are made and all that remains is working up the digital images for printing plus writing the information to hang with the pictures.

Matching the colours exactly is a hugely time consuming exercise. I prefer to do this myself unless the picture is too big for the equipment I have. As having the correct colours to reflect my subject is important for my painting, I am a perfectionist in matching the colours in Photoshop.

The last bit of work will be to research further the six Malus plants I have painted and write some information about each of them.

Three weeks is not long. The sun is shining, the garden and gardening await and May this year will be very busy with exhibitions. But, the RHS exhibition is the most important having taken three years to prepare.

Breath!

Finishing off Hellebores for 2014

March 4, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I have talked about Hellebores for such a long time this year as they started off flowering early and I was afraid there wouldn’t be much left by the time the workshop came about. Well as you know, they are still strutting manfully in the garden – even with all this rain.

Before I started painting botanically, I never thought that the winter could produce so much beauty. Now I emphasise these magnificent blooms in the garden.

Before going back to talking about the RHS exhibition and how that is going, and the subject of the next workshop, I thought I would include a few of the Hellebores that I have done. There is only one this year, but as you may now know (for those who follow the blog), some of my pictures can take several weeks to do.

RHS exhibition: 10 weeks to go!

January 26, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

The weather isn’t getting any easier yet, in fact, today whilst painting in my shed I got quite scared. That is not me! The sun had been shining, but a large cloud was beginning to darken the sky. Suddenly it started blowing so much that the shed was actually shaking. I have never experienced that before. Even the cats sat up and took notice.

I am ploughing on with the pictures for the RHS exhibition in London in April. I now have the Malus Everest picture finished – I think. I have used exactly the same type of dissections for this painting as the other one. You saw the longitudinal section of the last picture. Guess what this is. You know which crab apple this is, so try and see which part it is.

All the pictures are being done in coloured pencil. I had thought to do the dissections in graphite, in the same way as in other illustrative paintings. However, I have chosen to continue them in colour in this series of paintings.

RHS exhibition: twelve weeks to go!

January 15, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I have my work cut out to get my six pictures ready for the RHS botanical art exhibition during the Orchid show in April.

The series of six crab apple trees is well on the way. The apples are painted in all six pictures. I have done all the sketches and colours for the blossom ( done two years ago); all the sketches for my dissections were done last year; all of the apple dissections are sketched and ready to go. It is now a matter of putting it altogether in the finest detail and with my best techniques.

I have just completed the first picture. It is the Malus ‘ gorgeous’. I will give you a little glimpse at the end, but to see the completed picture I will encourage you to come to the RHS exhibition itself.

I will ask for one bit of help though. I need to include the Latin names for each of my apples and I can’t find all of them. If you know them, please let me know. The pictures will be, M. Gorgeous, M. Golden hornet, M. Evereste, M. Red sentinel, M. Red jade, & M. John Downey.

I’m afraid that this photo is not too brilliant – a little dark. Even more reason to see it in real life. Just pray I get all the pictures finished and retaining a good standard.

First botanical art workshop in 2014, 16-17 January

January 6, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Happy New year and plenty of botanical art.

I have two workshops in January, in Bosham Nr. Chichester. The first is ‘Colour mixing in Botanical art with Coloured pencil’ and the second is the same theme only using watercolour.

The first workshop is for anyone interested in working with coloured pencil if they already do so, or they would like to learn. Therefore it will be a good one both for new beginners and experienced.

We have all had the same problem now and again haven’t we, that we just can’t mix the right colour ? Well this workshop will be focusing on how to get it right. Getting the right depth of colour with coloured pencil is a matter of mixing the colours optically on the paper. We don’t always have the right colour to hand and, if we did, it is likely to be flat and boring without depth to it. Come and learn how to do it.

Thursday and Friday 16-17 January between 10:00-16:00. Get in touch via my website gaynorsflora.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

This is a snippet from that on which I am working towards the RHS exhibition in April. It is in coloured pencil:

GAYNOR'S FLORA

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Exhibition Preparation