Autumn colour workshop – and Palmengarten

November 14, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I didn’t realise, until everyone turned up for the workshop, that everyone was going to be using coloured pencil. This is the first workshop that I have had that is wholly coloured pencil – that is except for workshops that were only for coloured pencil artists. It was therefore celebrated!

Celebration of 'all' Coloured Pencil class, with fizz and of course water. — Celebration of ‘all’ Coloured Pencil class, with fizz and of course water.

We thought that we were to expect rotten weather, but it has been lovely. The weather inside was very good too.

All of the students really wanted to improve on their coloured pencil techniques and even on the first day I think that there will be some lovely results. You will see from the following picture that everyone is very willing to share knowledge and that makes for an even better workshop.

Two CP botanical artists sharing their knowledge.

I’m amazed at how much easier it is, as a teacher, to only teach in the one medium – as of course most of my workshops are suitable for both CP and watercolour artists. Additionally, all of the students had been to my workshops before and knew my routines. They were very good self-starters.

From the above, it would seem that I only teach people who can already paint botanical art. That is not so as even some of the people there today, started off with me and without very much knowledge of how to use coloured pencil. You have to start somewhere and as the classes are small I can give everyone the attention that they need – experienced or new beginner.

I mentioned on Monday that two of the students on that day were coming to my worksop this weekend. Here is their start today.

You will see their work again on Sunday.

In the meantime, Palmengarten is still on.

Artwork by Joanna Craig-Mcfeely, Yvonne Glenister Hammond and Jennifer Jenkins

Artwork by Penny Brown and Bridgette James

Artwork by Eiko Takano, Denise Heywood-Mills, Pat Regnart and Janet O’Connor

Artwork by Pat Regnart and Janet O’Connor

Palmengarten – Tuesday week 3 (and botanical form tips)

November 12, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Back to almost normal for one day. I had my weekly class today instead of tomorrow as we are going up to London for the SBA Christmas meeting.

A lot of the teaching today was based around form and observing tonal values relative to the light source. Sometimes students find this a difficult area, particularly if the surface area of the subject is very uneven and absorbs the available light.

It can sometimes help to use a substitute smooth shape, to work out the underlying tonal values and thus the form. For example, with a spherical shape there might be difficulties in determining where the light falls and what is in shade, depth of shade and areas of reflective light. One can use a ball as a substitute and cover it with cling film to make the surface smooth. This will in turn reflect light well and highlight differences in tonal values creating a clearer three- dimensional form. The complications of texture, patterns and colour are reduced during this phase and can be added once the shape and form have been established.

Palmengarten news. Sue has had a good day at Palmengarten with a lot of interest again both in the gardens and the botanical art exhibition. She was very relieved to experience that this evening the trains were at last running normally and she got home at an acceptable time.

There are three new green dots on pictures indicating that they have been reserved!

Artwork by Sue Wickison

Artwork by Sarah Caswell & Linda Hampson

Artwork by Angeline De Meester & Sandra Armitage

Artwork by Elisabeth Sherras Clark & Sue Wickison

Society of Floral Painters (SFP) workshop day & Palmengarten

November 11, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

For a change I will tell you a little of what I have been up to today.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I would be doing a fair amount of teaching this week. Today I did a workshop for the SFP. A couple of times a year they arrange workshops for members at a place called Bursledon just outside Southampton.

Bursledon is by the River Hamble and its Elephant Boatyard is on the site of the old ship building yards where Henry VIII’s fleet was built. But I didn’t get to do any sightseeing unfortunately.

The village hall where the workshops are held is very light and airy, but the light comes in all directions giving all round light. Difficult when you want to emphasise contrast and shadows creating form.

The topic of the workshop was Autumn Colours and the medium was coloured pencil. Some of the students were well into using coloured pencil in botanical art, some had played a bit with CP and some had collected the odd pencil and wanted to learn how to use them. We had only one day.

Because of time limitation (1 day), and unlike my usual workshops, I had to stay focused only on CP techniques, rather than the whole picture – initial drawing and composition. This meant that people had to have taken decisions about subject and composition before today, to be in readiness for laying CP.

I demonstrated the technique, answered questions and then let people put into practice what they had picked up from the demo and instruction. After that it was a question of going round and continuously checking progress, giving advice and solving individual issues.

I’m afraid that I only took a few pictures as I waited a little too late before remembering to take them. But there are two people from further west who are absolute gluttons for punishment, they got off on time, but are coming back for my three- day workshop at the weekend. I will definitely take photos of their results then.

Here are four of the results from today.

Don’t you think they are stunning? Three of the happy ladies (Maggie Roberts, Barbara Sampson and Ruth Roberts) considering if they are going to paint Medlar or not. I think that they were amazed that when painting subjects such as dead and dyeing leaves, you can really play with colours. They were so surprised to find out that dull brown also contains pale pinks, exhilarating magentas, delicate blues and of course vibrant reds and yellows.

To finish off this blog a few more of the exhibition pictures at Palmengarten.

Artwork by Sandra Armitage & Vickie Braithwaite.

Artwork by Cheryl Wilbraham & Yuriko Kojima

Artwork by Shevaun Doherty & Elisabeth Sherras Clark

Palmengarten botanical art exhibition – 3rd weekend

November 8, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

What miserable weather we are having now – a reminder that winter is on the way. Only one week ago we had really warm weather – unseasonably so. It put us into a false sense of the cold and wet was still a long way away.

Now I have actually caught up with marking the assignments for the London Art College, so tomorrow I will have to catch up on other admin work as on Monday I am holding a coloured pencil workshop day for the Society of Floral Painters (SFP) just outside Southampton. When will I get back to painting?

I have moved my Wednesday class to Tuesday as I will be going up to London on Wednesday for the Society of Botanical Artists(SBA) Christmas meeting. Christmas!!?

Friday I start another three-day workshop on Autumn colours. I have one vacancy if anyone wants to fill that place let me know. Watercolour of Coloured Pencil.

More pictures from the Palmengarten exhibition? Here they are.

Artwork bySarah Wood, Amber Halsall & Sue Linton

Artwork byCaroline Jackson Houlston and Rosemary Lindsay,

A very unfortunate view along the other part of the L-shaped Palm House. Picture taken prior to setting up of Sales desk. Get a real idea from the picture shown in the blog 4 November.

Palmengarten – Wednesday week 2

November 6, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Early this morning I heard from Sue Henon at Palmengarten, that yesterday evening until very late, she was getting in touch with loads of hotels in Frankfurt to try and find an affordable one for the duration of the strike. Apparently, as many people were out on the same quest, hotel prices were escalating rapidly. Eventually she found one in an area that wasn’t the best (every city has one), which she could afford. Hopefully it will be comfortable.

Sue tells me that the strike starts at 02:00 and lasts until 02:00 Monday morning. You may remember she takes her one day a week break on Monday, but luckily she has managed to get a lift home on Sunday evening after the exhibition closes for the day.

But as Sue will not be going home and won’t have access to a computer, I doubt that we will have any updates about the exhibition until Sunday evening at the earliest. However, if I get any news I will post it. In the meantime I intend to continue with posting the pictures I have from the exhibition.

On a personal note, today I had my normal weekly class. I am so lucky as there are six students who get on so well together. Four of them use watercolour and two coloured pencil. I do enjoy the class and their involvement in it.

This afternoon I have been marking assignments. I’m afraid that I haven’t got very far as the first two were completing the course. I therefore feel it, important to give a very full feedback so that they can continue working on their own. But if I can get more people interested in botanical art- so much the better.

Now the pictures. I wonder how many actually read what I have written, or just go through the pictures?

Artwork by Jenny Jowett & Vivien Burgess.

Artwork by Amber Halsall & Gaynor Dickeson

Artwork by Patricia Regnart, Angie Gray and Joanna Craig McFeeley

Artwork by Elizabeth Sherras Clark, Bridgette James and Gael Sellwood

Artwork by Sarah Caswell (sorry I didn't hold the camera [ or me ]very straight!) — Artwork by Sarah Caswell (sorry I didn’t hold the camera [ or me ]very straight!)

The outside wall of the Palm house looking up away from the reception area. A sneak preview before the e Hinton opened. Interst already.

Palmengarten – Tuesday week 2

November 5, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

It has apparently been a good day at the botanical art exhibition in the botanical gardens of Frankfurt, Palmengarten. They have had quite a few visitors there, interested in both the beautiful gardens and the exhibition.

But tomorrow Sue Henon who is manning the exhibition there will have her life made even more complicated.

Apparently there is to be a week long strike of the railways, starting in the evening. This means that she is now in search of somewhere to stay for the rest of the week as there is no other way in which she can get home tomorrow night and back again to the exhibition. But as she quite rightly says, her problem is no different to everyone else’s who travels into the city by train.

As a fellow member of the SBA I am hugely grateful to her for what she is doing for the society and for me as an individual; I too have some paintings in the exhibition.

Today I have been putting together some designs for new cards and downloading assignments ready to start marking after I have finished teaching my weekly class tomorrow (today actually!). Unfortunately the trip to Germany has left me a little behind with that work. As botanical art tutor for the London College of Art (LAC) I am really pleased to see that there seems to be an increase in interest for learning to paint botanically.

More pictures from the exhibition. Some of the artwork looks as though it isn’t hanging straight in the photos. But unfortunately it was me not hanging straight when I took the pictures!

Artwork by Guy William Eves, Gaynor Dickeson and Rachel Munn

The long wall in the Palm house and vitrines down the centre containing the prizes mentioned on the SBA facebook page, jewellary by Lesley Hall and Glassware by Jacqueline Allwood.

A total of 26 pictures now have red dots on them.

Botanical art trip to Palmengarten, Frankfurt

October 19, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

It’s now Saturday at 23:00 and we are due to get up at 04:00 to drive to the Channel tunnel train leaving around 06:00. There is no wifi at the moment, so can’t even connect to get the pictures taken earlier today. However, as soon as a connection is made I will get this blog off. It’s amazing how dependent we have become on modern technology!

First thing this morning we were rushing around finding all sorts of extra equipment for hanging the SBA members pictures once we get that far. It was incredibly warm and felt like summer as I rushed thinly fled from house to shed (some call it a studio- but it’s a shed) and back again. Our journey to Kent was uneventful apart from the usual hold-up with road works.

Another SBA member had been the delivery point for most of the other half of exhibits and kindly offered us supper and a bed for the night once she had also helped with the reorganising and loading of her store of pictures.

She like I were amazed at the empty spaces we had once the collection was loaded onto the van. The van was packed fully. I’m glad that there weren’t more pictures.

Hopefully I can access the pictures I took today- tomorrow.

And the Bears Britches

Another Pen & Ink workshop

October 3, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I thought that last Saturday was likely to be our last day of summer, so used the opportunity to go out with the kayaks in Chichester Harbour – the Bosham inlet. It was fantastic. But low and behold we got several more opportunities to go out in them. We would have gone again on Tuesday at high tide, but a lot of preparation needed to be done for the Pen & Ink workshop starting the next day. However, I did get what I think might be my last trip (without wet suits) in the kayak this year, on Wednesday evening after the workshop. It was lovely and warm and relaxing – 1st October.

So why did I need something warm and relaxing? The Pen and Ink workshop was only Wednesday and Thursday, therefore I had my work cut out to teach a new technique to a full house. As normal I encouraged people to choose more realistic challenges for themselves as they needed to draw their subject before branching out into the ink technique. It was a lovely group of people and luckily they took my advice – although I think some of them might have chosen something more difficult given the opportunity. But when doing a new technique, it is always much better to choose something simple, get a feeling for the technique and thus a good result.

At the end of the first day everyone had their first layer of ink on and was ready to take a break. By the time they came back on Thursday, nearly all were enthusiastic and they stormed ahead getting the results you see. I am glad to say that most were really encouraged by their results and are very determined to do some more pen and ink work in this style.

Chief cook and bottle washer in the background

And so the results:

It was a seed head of some description, but we are not sure from what.

Horse Chestnut - or conker before getting bashed! — Horse Chestnut – or conker before getting bashed!

Pine cone. How would we manage without Fibonacci?

Dried up Pineapple top. Notice the intriguing technique used here. I would like to see more of this.

Botanical art workshop at Goodnestone Park Gardens, Kent

September 24, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

On Monday and Tuesday this week I lead a workshop at Goodnestone Park Gardens in Kent. I have a couple of workshops there per year for Fieldbreaks.

The subject was Hedgerow produce and most of the students were using coloured pencil. One of them had neither used coloured pencil nor watercolour previously, so this was an experience. She did very well, although it felt a bit scary for her.

They are very good at Goodnestone and allow us to pick what we want from the gardens to use as botanical subjects. Some of the subjects we can find there can be quite exciting. But funnily enough, at a workshop I often find that other than new students who have not yet grasped that the ‘prettiest’ is not always the easiest to do, people generally choose very simple subjects. I think that this is because they are more intent on improving technique or learning something new to add to their repertoire of techniques.

Here are the results. I am very pleased with them and I am sure you will think them very good too.

Tree Peoni seed capsule. Coloured pencil.

Tree Peoni seed capsule pair. Coloured pencil.

Portugese Laurel berries. Coloured pencil — Portugese Laurel berries.
Coloured pencil

Lily seed capsule - Coloured pencil — Lily seed capsule – Coloured pencil

Rose hips - Watercolour — Rose hips – Watercolour

Rose leaf - watercolour — Rose leaf – watercolour

This morning I had an ordinary weekly class and since then I have been working on the pen & ink Bears Britches.

I have only done a small portion of it so far and this is only establishing the flowers and fruits. Once I have established all the elements in the picture I will create tone and then…….. But you will have to wait for that.

GAYNOR'S FLORA

Botanical art, illustration, artist, illustrator, teacher, workshops, classes

Botanical art