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.

Botany and botanical art is very exciting!

September 22, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

On Friday and again on Sunday afternoon after church I was able to continue with my Acanthus ( in case you wondered what my new picture was all about). I finished the sketch and transferred it to the paper I am using for the final work. A warning, the following picture is not the whole composition as it will contain a third element – hopefully. It is a large project, but hopefully it will go well.

On Saturday my husband and I drove up to Leicester, visiting briefly the University botanical Gardens. But we also went to an IAPI meeting on Grasses. Now many of you might wonder what was so special about grasses – and I did too. But, with just one lecture and some amazing views through the microscope, I am converted.

There were so many different types for different types of habitat and temperature zone. They may look very ordinary, but up close they are absolutely beautiful.

Think of a colour wheel and pointillism. If you mix the three primaries, you get a grey shade, depending upon the mix. Optical mixing of colours means that you don’t mix the colours on your palette, but by placing colours side by side, your brain mixes the colours together creating a third colour.

Now back to the grasses. When a grass is waving in the wind, depending upon the type, all you might see is a greyish or beige-ish colour in the frond. Well, at the height of the season, those ‘fronds’ are the ‘flowers’ (inflorescence) of the plant and contains the male and female parts.

I looked at these under the microscope and saw some tiny, really beautiful flowers. Most of all, the colours were amazing ( I know I’ve used the word again, but have to). The one I was looking at had wonderful reddish purple and green parts with the tiny style and stigma in purple sticking out of the tip. The colours glowed.

Unfortunately the pictures I have taken do not reflect the beauty that I saw under the microscope, but hopefully they will give an indication.

Back to optical mixing of colours. Bearing in mind the smallness of the inflorescence, even though the colours were individually very beautiful, they were small surfaces to the naked eye and therefore had the same effect as pointillism – the colours became optically mixed to a dull grey! Could this be natures way of protection?

What do you think? I know the photo does not do the plant justice, but hopefully you can see the promise of the intricate and beautiful design.

A new botanical art project started.

September 19, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

On Saturday I will be travelling up to Leicester for the day to go to an Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration (IAPI) meeting, Grasses masterclass, at the University botanical gardens. I am looking forward to this as I have only just joined the group and this is my first meeting with them.

Monday will again be a very early start to arrive at Goodnestone Park Gardens in Kent for 09:30 in the morning. I am teaching at one of the Botanical art workshops arranged by Field Breaks and hugely looking forward to it. Goodnestone Park is a lovely place to do botanical art and the gardens contain a lot of subjects! Already I know some of the students and some use watercolour and others coloured pencil. I enjoy this mix.

But I have started another picture. I am still doing the initial sketch! But the final picture will be in pen & ink. I have another two-day workshop 1-2 October which will be pen & ink. How far I will get with this picture by the start of that workshop, I don’t know – but it will be useful having something on the go.

So far I have only started sketching it. Guess what it is!

Fruit & Veg or Strawberries and Cream Botanical art workshop

August 1, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

We painted the vegetables and ate the strawberries and cream!

I was very disappointed for two students who at the last minute were unable to come to the workshop because of personal difficulties. We did think of them often during these two days.

Quite early on during the workshop I felt that the students would have some results that they would be proud of. Having picked suitable subjects from the garden, as usual we spent time on the preparatory work; the composition and drawing. Having said that, one of the subjects we knew would fade very quickly and therefore it was important to get down the first layers of colour fast. This time most people used coloured pencil and only one person used watercolour. It is exciting using different media in the same workshop as each student sees how each affects the final work; although less than one would imagine.

You want pictures, so here they are.

What concentration on a lovely summer day!

Today – at the end of the workshop. They promised to finish the pictures that still had work to do on them.

What a beautiful little Courgette. Watercolour

Home grown tomatoes - but not from my garden. Coloured pencil. — Home grown tomatoes – but not from my garden. Coloured pencil.

Globe artichoke before its haircut. Coloured pencil and no embossing tool.

After just two days work, aren’t these amazing?

The next workshop is entitled ‘ Hedgerow produce – those colours!’ Tuesday 2 September until Thursday 4 September. As usual it is between 10:00 – 16:00 each day with lunch included. I do have spaces on the workshop, so get in touch as soon as possible.

Workshop and Summer Open Studio

July 30, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

It has been just over two weeks since I last wrote a blog. In the meantime I have almost managed to forget that I had a holiday!

Since I got home I have worked continuously with the organisation of the SBA Exhibition at Palmengarten Botanical Gardens in Frankfurt. But now I have a slight breather.

Actually the breather is necessary as tomorrow I will be running another workshop. It is called ‘Fruit and Veg; Strawberries and cream’. I think I should have stuck to the Veg, or just beans and courgettes. This is from my garden at the moment. No fruit and definitely no strawberries!

Next weekend 9 & 10 August and 16 & 17 August, I will have my Summer Open Studio Event. For details have a look at my website: http://www.gaynorsflora.com.

But for the last few days I have actually been painting again. I needed a new picture to exhibit at Palmengarten and had drawn a layout for the Mandeville (or Dipladenia)plant. The following two pictures are just a portion of the picture. I have to get going to get it finished in time, but I thought you might like to see how much is done so far. You may remember I started one flower a while ago, but somehow the paper was damaged and I had to start again.

Red is not easy to paint, and the right red even more difficult. By the way, this picture is in watercolour.

GAYNOR'S FLORA

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

Tuition