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Everything not Botanical art or personal

Exciting news!

| Gaynor's Flora

I have been seeing some amazing pictures on Instagram, of a fabulous looking 19th century house in France. They were posted by a friend, Alistair, who had been experiencing it first-hand. The house itself has beautiful architecture and was furnished in the style you might expect from that period.

In late spring this year I received an email from Simon and Nicholas, brothers who have restored Le Manoir to its former glory. They wanted me to consider running a botanical art workshop holiday in this splendid place. I hesitated!

There was much to consider here. I had seen the beautiful pictures, but there can be a lot of other things hiding behind beautiful pictures. Was it suitable? How did Simon and Nicholas envisage it would be? How many artists? Etc. Etc.

I got back to them, we had an initial meeting in London a few weeks ago and in the last 24 hours we experienced staying in this amazing house, being looked after by Simon and Nicholas. We now know that Le Manoir is very suitable for an exclusive botanical art workshop holiday.

Le Manoir
Le Manoir

I don’t use the term ‘exclusive’ lightly. Le Manoir is beautiful. Each bedroom is large, with a view and with a very well equipped bathroom (two of them in turrets). In addition to that the kitchen, dining room, sitting room and lounge are all extremely comfortable and very homely. The gardens and surrounding Dordogne countryside are lovely, although slightly baked following a long hot and dry summer. The swimming pool and large open-sided dining area with equipped kitchen completes the feeling of luxury. Actually, not quite; the peace and calm that pervades dots the i’ s and crosses the t’s.

We spent the time available going through details and deciding how together we can create the ideal botanical art workshop holiday. We concluded that the mornings should generally be devoted to tuition and the afternoons to trips to explore the area and meals to experience the regional cuisine, both at Le Manoir and local restaurants.

We do know that the workshop holiday will be one week at the end of September 2017, it will be all inclusive, from local airport transfer (Limoges or Bergerac), full board and lodging, tuition and all planned trips.

But, to make it even more exclusive, it is only available to an absolute maximum of seven students, ensuring a period of individual and undivided attention to everyone. Accompanying partners will be able to take part in all the trips or can be otherwise occupied by exploring the area, hanging out by the pool, visiting vineyards, or playing golf locally.

As time goes on I will give more information about this exclusive botanical art workshop holiday, but, watch this space.

le-manoirdaypool

For more information about Le Manoir visit: http://www.lemanoirstsulpice.com

I am back!

| Gaynor's Flora

I haven’t written a blog, updated my website or done too much in recent weeks. But after an enforced rest (more in another blog)  I am now refreshed and raring to go.

My last blog was in May when I told you that my Malus ‘Golden Hornet’ picture had been accepted for the ASBA exhibition in New York in November. Such a lot has happened since then. and we only have three days left in July.

At the time I was exhibiting in the Cranleigh Arts Centre and at the same time in the last Society of Floral  Painters Exhibition in Chichester. But in the beginning of June I was asked if I would paint two Irises as part of the Cedric Morris Florilegium. I agreed and met up at the garden of Sarah Cook in Suffolk, who is collecting the Benton Irises. All who had agreed to paint an Iris for the intended Florilegium met up for the Saturday and were flabbergasted at the array of Irises in flower.

Iris Benton Farewell, in all its glory.

As you can vaguely see, we were spread out around the garden sitting and sketching on our knees. Not the best of positions, but for the love of painting botanically we almost do anything. I have to say that luckily the sun came out at lunchtime and we all started shedding our layers of clothes. Unlike many of the others I was stupid enough to forget a hat!

I did do several sketches, making notes of size and colour, so that I have a better opportunity to paint the portrait at home.

Luckily, we have two years to complete these pictures and we are invited to catch up with the Irises again in June next year.

Today I will show you a couple of sketches of the Iris Benton Farewell. They are in watercolour.

Some sketches from my sketchbook done in the garden

Ménagerie à trois plus botanical art workshop

| Gaynor's Flora

Please note the difference in spelling!

We have four cats, a pond with visiting ducks, a pair of Crows, Chaffinches, Wrens, Robins (as well as my husband and sister)Blackbirds, Goldfinches, Bearded Tits, Blue tits and Great Tits, two sorts of Woodpeckers, squirrels, rats and the normal rodents etc.

Although we have the cats, birds seem to feel very happy i the garden and seem to be left alone. In fact, one day there was a pheasant in the garden and the ginger one  – Fudge decided he wanted to join him, so walked towards the bird with his tail in the air. They seemed to spend a happy time following each other gently round the garden! The only things that seem to come to grief are the rats – 22 in 18 months!

During the workshop one of the students had her dog with her. She was a little worried at first as she thought her dog might chase the cats. The black & white cat – Allsorts (as in liquorice), brother of Fudge, knows how to deal with dogs. He just sits and stares them down. It always works. I think he took five minutes to train the dog!

These were some of the views from the conservatory during the workshop at the weekend!

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There was a botanical art class between Friday and Sunday. The title was May blossom and Irises. Irises are usually the topic of choice, but there was a whole garden to choose from. In the end there were 1 1/2 Iris pictures, two Canary Rose pictures, one crab apple blossom, a very pregnant Hellebore  and none of the yellow Irises from the pond. Three people used coloured pencil and two watercolour.

From my perspective the workshop was enjoyable and the feedback I have got is that those taking part also enjoyed it and learnt something too.

I am now taking on people who want to start the online botanical art course in June. To see what it is all about, have a look at my webpage on the subject. I restrict the number of people I take on board each month so that it is best to reserve your place as soon as possible. https://gaynorsflora.com/tuition-2/online-botanical-art-course/

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And the results of the weekend so far. As I forgot to take it before packing up, there is one picture missing, but hopefully we will see the finished result in due course.

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New YouTube video for Online Botanical art course

| Gaynor's Flora

I have been working on the coloured pencil section of the online botanical art course, ready for when those who have signed up for the course reach the fourth module when colour is introduced.

The course is for people who want to develop their botanical art skills in either watercolour or coloured pencil. The choice needs to be made before they reach the fourth module.

So far, quite a few people have signed up for and are doing the course. The feedback has been positive as students are gradually introduced to the various topics important within botanical art.

I will be taking on board the next intake of students from 1 May. If you want to be included to start then, you need to sign up as soon as possible as I do restrict the number of students I take on each month. Details are on: https://gaynorsflora.com/tuition-2/online-botanical-art-course/

In the meantime have a look at the video. It is a very speeded up version of the one that will be available on the course. This means that you can see the progression of the painting in coloured pencil, but the detail will only be seen on the online course version. Pink Tulip in coloured pencil – from 7 hours to 2.5 minutes.

Pink tulip CP flower fast

 

 

Teaching botanical art

| Gaynor's Flora

It is now getting towards the busiest part of the year for any botanical artist living in the northern hemisphere. Spring is well on the way and all sorts of flowers are popping up in the garden. There are lots of exhibitions and shows going on or being planned. For me, there has been an even greater focus on teaching.

I was thrilled to be asked by the American Society of Botanical artists to teach at their annual conference in October, which this year is back in Pittsburgh. Of course I said yes and I will be teaching coloured pencil. Additionally I will be doing some demonstrations at the conference, and hopefully attending a workshop or two myself. Learning is never-ending – thank goodness.

The response to the launch of my online botanical art course has been tremendous. I already had people who were trying out the course for me and ironing out problems (which always arise) and they were very positive. There was also a waiting list which in the end I considered my February quota of new students. I am delighted that I have already had positive feedback from some of the newer students too.

I have to carefully work out how many students I can manage at any one time. I want them all to get the feedback they need while leaving me time to paint.

Once I pressed the ‘go’ button to publish the course, the first person signed up literally a couple of minutes later!

I am now taking bookings for people to start at the beginning of May, so if you want to start then, do get in touch soon.

I will be having a workshop in using graphite for botanical art at the end of this week and the workshop after that will be 13-15 May when the subject will be ‘The delicacy of spring blossom – or proud Irises’. There are still places available for that workshop.

Prior to that I am taking part in the Chichester Open studios event over the first two weekends in May. The organisers have arranged a pre-trail exhibition at the Oxmarket Centre of Arts 12-24 April. I will post reminders of these events as they arise.

But in the meantime:

Online Botanical art course, signing up for May – your home.

8-9 April   ‘Botanical drawing and shading in graphite’ – workshop in Bosham

12-24 April   ‘The Chichester Pre-trail exhibition’ at the Oxmarket

30 April – 2 May & 7-8 May  ‘ Chichester Open studios art trail’

4 – 5 May  ‘Spring – The Soft & Structural in Watercolour or Coloured Pencil’ – Goodnestone Park Gardens, Kent with Fieldbreaks.

13 -15 May ‘The delicacy of spring blossom – or proud irises’ workshop in Bosham

24 June – 1 July ‘Norwegian workshop holiday’ – Åsgårdstrand, Norway

If you want to know anything about any of the above, do get in touch via the contact form at the end of this blog.

Light against dark - Snowdrop protected by Hellebores. Coloured pencil.
Light against dark – Snowdrop protected by Hellebores. Coloured pencil.

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Coloured pencil or Watercolour for a botanical art subject?

| Gaynor's Flora

In actual fact, I’m cheating a little, as I was going to write this blog this evening having spent a couple of days off from writing my botanical art online course, to sketch some Fritillaries in preparation for a commission in watercolour. But, I also got a query from a lady this evening, about the use of coloured pencils and how I choose whether to use watercolour or coloured pencil for a subject.

My answer to her and anyone else who asks ( as I do get the question fairly regularly), is that I have no idea. I just have a feeling that I want to do one or the other.

But, when I did my last RHS exhibit in 2014, I deliberately chose to do it in coloured pencil to show that solid subjects (crabapples), dainty subjects (blossom) and delicate detail (dissections), could be done in coloured pencil. The judges said they didn’t realise I had used CP and thought it was in watercolour!

Back to the commission; I had bought some Fritillaria meleagris at the local garden centre and Fritillaria Michailovskyi at Chelsea Physic Garden when I was there at the beginning of the month. I think we are innate plant hoarders! So this week I have been doing a series of small sketches in my sketchbooks.

Without thinking too much, I started out in a Stillman & Bern Epsilon sketchbook, realised what I had done (as the Zeta is better for watercolour), but continued in it, deciding to do my colour samples in coloured pencil. Although you can’t compare CP and watercolour by the names, or know how one colour mixes with another, I know the two mediums well enough to be able to convert fairly happily.

I’m afraid the following photo is not brilliant as I took it on my easel this evening, but I think you get a reasonably good idea of the results on the page.

Fritillaria meleagris in coloured pencil.
Fritillaria meleagris in coloured pencil.

By the time I had finished these, the one dark flower I had was looking a bit faded as it was being subjected to being in the warmth of the shed during the day and outside during the cold night. I needed to concentrate on the foliage as it was a bluish green, except near the base, but felt I really should do this in watercolour.

I changed to the Stillman & Bern Zeta sketchbook. Shame they aren’t all in the same one – but never mind! I had hacked (dissected) the one flower to pieces and done one or two small sketches, so decided to draw a portrait of the bulbs. In the end, all of the sketches on the 2nd page are watercolour over graphite. The bulb is from the Fritillaria meleagris, but you also see the Fritillaria Michailovskyi. I have taken a photo of that one halfway through so you can see the amount of graphite shading I actually did. Before adding colour, I did a wash of clear water to ‘set’ the graphite so it wouldn’t discolour the colours I was going to use.

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The Tigger cards arrived with their rightful owner.

| Gaynor's Flora

Surprisingly, my daughter already has got the cards I sent to her of Tigger. She will have to wait to get the original until we see her at Christmas. She has done exactly what she wanted to do initially and that is to give a picture of Tigger to the Vet in Tønsberg as a thank you for saving him this autumn. Tønsberg, by the way, is in Norway and not far from Åsgårdstrand where we have the summer botanical art workshop holiday.

Back to the vet and Tigger, apparently he was so ill, that they downed tools and concentrated on him, also giving my daughter additional help when she was unable to get medication into him. When he eventually recovered, he actually walked home by the side of her – and he doesn’t like going out!

Helen has just sent this picture as she is about to post the card. Now you can guess that it is written in Norwegian, therefore most will not understand what it says. I just thought it looked rather sweet with Tigger seemingly peeping round the edge of of the card.

Tigger again

Fruit & Vegetable workshop + gluttons for botanical art workshop (punishment).

| Gaynor's Flora

Yes, gluttons for punishment! On Tuesday and Wednesday I was teaching the Gloucestershire society of Botanical illustration. Two from that group took the long trip to Bosham for the Fruit & Veg botanical art workshop, when they had already been on the pen & ink one at the beginning of the week. They assured me that it was really Robin’s cooking they came for. I have to say, his lunches are getting really good.

Anyway, once again I am told that the students who attended the workshop over the last couple of days, had a good time and learnt a lot. The group included a couple who hadn’t done any botanical art before and a couple who wanted to learn to use either coloured pencil or watercolour, when they had used the opposite very successfully for many years. They did well, although I know from experience it can be a struggle converting one to the other. It will be interesting to see if they try the new medium again. I hope so, as it is useful to be able to ‘master’ more than just the one medium. Although, I don’t think anyone can claim to ‘master’ any of them. It would be useful to hear if anyone thinks this possible?

We had incredible weather over the two days, so there were some frequent trips to the kitchen garden.

The first picture only includes a few of the students. I’m afraid I forgot to take these until the other tables had already packed up.
image

Now the gallery of pictures. Make sure that you have a reasonably good Internet connection. Unfortunately, it seems that when out and about, some of the connections limit what you can pick up and sometimes one is unable to see the pictures until you have a full broadband.

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