SBA to Frankfurt Botanical gardens, Palmengarten

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

There has been little time to do the pen & ink drawing of the Bears Britches as I have been organising the co-ordinated exhibition between Palmengarten and the Society of Botanical Artists; or at least everything from the UK side of things. Additionally I have had to keep on top of marking assignments as the botanical art tutor for the London Art College.

So, the Bears britches has been done at stolen moments of time.

Last weekend however, The London Art College had their annual meeting of tutors just outside Bristol. It was a very nice break away from everything that had to be done, and being able to talk with the other tutors at the college. A very welcome recharge of batteries before the final Palmengarten onslaught.

The exhibition at Palmengarten starts with the official opening and private view next Thursday evening, 23 October. There will be 205 exhibits from SBA members around the world, from as far flung places as New Zealand, Japan the USA, France and of course the UK.

This is the third time that The Palmengarten Gardens and the SBA has liaised in this way. The first time was in 2010, then 2012 and now the largest exhibition will be this year. The exhibition will be open to the public from Friday 24 October until 23 November 2014 and I think will be well worth a visit.

Some of you may well have picked up from earlier blogs that I have been working on this, together with Sue another SBA member in Germany. It is thanks to her that the exhibition is happening in the first place, so our members have a lot to thank her for.

I intend to write a blog as the actual preparation is happening. I have received half of the exhibits in our home over the last few weeks. The remaining half have been collected in Kent. My husband Robin is collecting a van on Friday and with this we will make our way to Germany, collecting the rest of the pictures on the way, arriving on Sunday evening.

I will be glad once we are on our way as setting up is the fun bit – other people are then involved and the load will be shared rather than mostly on the shoulders of Sue and I.

The first couple of pictures are from our guest room. It will be lovely to have it cleared for a short while!

Now a couple pictures from the progression of 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.

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.

Botanical art on Vellum

September 15, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Again I haven’t done too much painting over the last week as we have had family staying and we took the opportunity to have a little bit of a holiday with them.

But now I’m back to painting.

Whilst in Pittsburgh last year there were several botanical artists who tried to persuade me about the benefits of painting on Vellum. I saw some really beautiful work there and was really tempted. My husband bought me a few small sheets for Christmas and it has been lying there. Since then I have seen some more work on vellum and I wasn’t too enamoured. It definitely was not of Rory McEwen quality! You see I aim for the best.

I have been painting a small picture on vellum during the last few days. I had taken a photo of a bee on the runner beans and wanted to do this. Normally I only paint from real life and obviously this was a problem as I didn’t have the bee although did have the runner beans. I did some research on the bee and found out that it is called a Bombus pascuorum worker. It also meant that I had some other bee pictures to make sure that I got the details right. I’m not happy if I haven’t got the subject actually in front of me.

For once I decided to paint it oversize. This is another thing I don’t normally do, so I have several ‘firsts’ here. I know that I had to paint using a dry-brush technique, but still wasn’t sure how. I therefore examined the pictures in the Rory McEwen book ‘The colours of reality’. I had to refer back to this book on several occasions as I built up the layers. I thought that as I had painted on Porcelain many years ago, that I could adopt a similar process. I’m afraid that didn’t work! But I gradually began to get the hang of it and also take advantage of the fact that you can lift out mistakes.

I will put a couple of pictures in this blog, but add a few more as an album on my Facebook page.

If anyone has any tips, please let me know. I haven’t stretched the vellum, but would like to do so on larger pieces.

Runner bean leaves, first washes and details

The Dipladenia: Anything missing?

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

In between marking assignments and receiving pictures for the SBA exhibition at Palmengarten, the botanical gardens in Frankfurt, I have been painting.

Last time I suggested you find the part in the picture where I had made a mistake, but had rectified it.

Now I have three photos of the final work on the picture – I think!

Dipladenia picture: What is needed to balance the composition?

Dipladenia picture: Notice the difference? Does it work?

Part of my shed. The table looks as though a bomb has hit it, therefore hidden!

What to do with the plants now as it is poisonous. It nearly took the life of one of our cats and is very much a temptation to play with – as well as being very beautiful and exotic looking for our colder climate.

Spotting the near miss with a Dipladenia leaf

August 31, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

The sun has just come round and is shining in the shed door. It is the only period during the day that I risk the sun coming directly into the shed and shining onto my work. I had just done loads of detail on a leaf and was doing a gentle wash on top. The sun suddenly appeared and I made a mistake. Hopefully it is recoverable.

I therefore took a couple of deep breaths, went out into the vegetable garden directly outside – picked a runner bean and chewed on it to gather my wits. Whilst the work is drying I have decided to do this blog.

Did you see the detail that I showed you yesterday, which was a near miss? In actual fact I did make the mistake and it wasn’t until I was checking over the days work that I saw it.

In the top left hand corner of the second picture I showed you yesterday, there is a leaf going off the page. To the right of it is a tendril of new growth. It was meant to appear from under the leaf. Guess what I did. Without thinking I had painted the petiole of the leaf (rather than curling it round behind and out of sight) and I connected the tendril and the leaf petiole!!!! How stupid can you get? My picture therefore had the a leaf with a petiole and the tendril as a continuation of the petiole! i.e a tendril with the tip completing one end and a leaf completing the other!

I don’t know how many times I say to students, paint what you see and not what you think you see. That also applies if composing a picture from various parts of a plant to make a cohesive whole. The details in the picture have to be completely botanically correct even though taking elements from different parts of the plant.

To correct the whole, I had to lift the edge of the leaf, petiole and end of the tendril – luckily it doesn’t show. I re-painted the tendril to disappear a little lower down the leaf, and then added a stem coming in from above the leaf. That meant I also had to slightly change the direction of the stem coming out from below the leaf. All very complicated and of course that mistake has knock-on effects with the composition in other areas. Hopefully I have managed it reasonably well.

I know that some people will find the above explanation and detail unnecessary in a blog such as this. But I am already being very honest about this picture, so why not go into the detail. It might even help someone else avoid similar stupid mistakes.

Anyway, the first of today’s pictures is the corrected view. The second picture is more leaves that I have done. These include views of the underside of Dipladenia leaves, foreshortened views and a full frontal view(!). The last is not finished yet.

By the way, I have found that for these leaves I have needed to use smaller brushes than I normally use and a dryer mixture.

Dipladenia progression

August 28, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I have to be honest that the photos I am sending out in my blog are ones taken during work done over the last couple of weeks. I suppose that rather than show you them as I am doing them, I am still hesitant as to where the painting will go and if I will get over my fear of doing it badly yet again!

I am still spending quite a bit of time on the Palmengarten exhibition organisation which means that some days I have virtually no time to paint. Additionally I mark the assignments for the two botanical art courses at the London Art College. It all takes time off the actual painting. But, I am enjoying seeing the assignments that come in and the development of the students.

Do have a look at the London Art College website if you are interested in doing botanical painting either in watercolour or coloured pencil. Obviously getting hands-on tuition is the best, but sometimes distances preclude this and the distance learning is a good option.

Now a couple more photos from the Dipladenia picture.

Dipladenia flower pair with bud and a flower having lots its fused, tubular petals. — Dipladenia flower pair with bud and a flower having lost its fused, tubular petals.

Dipladenia flower shrivelling & two buds.

Dipladenia – again

August 27, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I am now on my 6th attempt – I think. I’m losing count.

It is a while since I last wrote a blog and since then I have been trying to get my head around my temporary(!) lack of skills. I had decided to paint a Dipladenia plant for the Botanical art exhibition at Palmengarten, Frankfurt in October. The title of the exhibition is Poisonous and Medicinal plants.

Prior to going to Norway I had sketched out and gently started the picture. For those who may not know, the Dipladenia is as poisonous as Poinsettia. But it grows long tendrils and these are a temptation to a playful cat. Unfortunately I didn’t know how poisonous the plant was and I now know that when the cat suddenly became seriously ill before we went away, that in fact he had been poisoned by the plant.The trouble is it also seems to have had a negative affect on my painting skills.

The plant is now in the shed – well away from playful cats, and will be given away once the picture is finished. I will not give up.

This time I have reduced the design and have painted most of the flowers first. I suppose that is asking for trouble as I seem to get a blockage when I get to the leaves. I know what I want to do, but somehow there is a disconnect between my head and the messages sent to my hand and skills with the brush, pigment and water!

I am taking some photos as I go along.

First layer of the dipladenia flower. Note what looks like a heavy dark tracing. It is in fact not heavy and is traced in the method I have demonstrated in an earlier blog. Because no sharp tool, even a pencil is used to do the tracing, the graphite is easily lifted off completely with a putty rubber, leaving NO indent.

The layers of watercolour are almost complete.

Summer botanical art show and open studio in Bosham

August 10, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

It’s raining,
It’s pouring,
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed,
And banged his head, and couldn’t get up in the morning!

Yesterday was beautiful and we had quite a few visitors. This exhibition and open studio is the one I normally have once a year for two weekends during Bosham’s Junior Week. Bosham is a sailing community and all events associated with sailing are very important.

For me, my open studio yesterday was successful in many ways as we had a lot of interested visitors. There is also evidence of a returning economy. But for the young sailors this week, the weather is awful. They want wind to sail – but not dangerous gusts as we are having now. Rain isn’t too off-putting as they get wet anyway. But sun is much better and the norm at this time of year.

How the remnants of Hurricane Bertha will affect the Open studio today I don’t know. It might mean that I paint undisturbed! But time will tell.

I will not show you pictures of my ongoing painting at the moment. I have shown you a little of it previously, but I think the photos were from my first attempt. I am now on my fifth and I have a severe blockage.

The picture is a Dipladenia. The flower is elegant and beautiful and the leaves soft and shiny. Think of Camellia leaves that for a change are very soft and shiny and with clear side veins. I know what I want to do and how I want to do it (watercolour), but the result is not how I feel it should be and I have now thrown aside four pictures. Had I put them all together the picture would have been finished.

People looking at the pictures cannot see what is wrong with them, but I can and that is what is important. But I’m now dreaming about it all. And I have a deadline. It is a picture that will go to Palmengarten this Autumn. I cannot be the one organising everything from the UK and unable to paint a picture!

Any suggestions?

Maybe I should stand outside in this very windy and very wet weather and have everything washed and blown away. I hope you can see what I mean from these photos outside the conservatory.