Last day botanical art workshop holiday overlooking the Oslo Fjord

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

What a day! Busy, busy and some lovely botanical art finished using both coloured pencil and watercolour.

I have to say that I was amazed at the results. Those who hadn’t painted before and those who hadn’t done botanical art before used the week extremely constructively and beneficially. Some of the results really astounded me. The change was huge. They know which ones they are!

Absolutely all of the finished paintings were very good and every person progressed. All I can say is that I am grateful to those who came – for coming. In achieving so much, they gave me a huge thrill.

The last supper!

Served by Sarah,

In the celebration of:

Some of the plants are not common , so in case you are wondering what they are;
Gentian, Pink Cornus, Magnolia, Harebell, Blåklokke, Hydrangea Paniculata, Rose, Multe (Norwegian) or Cloudberry.

First day botanical art workshop by Oslo Fjord

June 30, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

The sun shone in my window at 05:00 this morning – bright and powerful. I went back to sleep!

After a lovely breakfast in the Thon Hotel Åsgårdstrand, we started the workshop by choosing specimens to paint.

I had been very lucky to get some Norwegian plants from the mountains in Telemark as described yesterday. I had also got some standard flowers from the local garden centre, but nothing exotic from warmer climates. In addition to this, some of the students had been out and picked some flowers (with permission) round the hotel.

The plants chosen to paint were Multe or Cloudberry, pansies, Dianthus and the lovely Hydrangea Paniculata. Some people will be using watercolour, and some coloured pencil. It already looks very promising. So far graphite drawings have been done and traced ready to start painting tomorrow. Although one person has already completed one small picture.

The first picture is from my bedroom at 07:00 this morning. The remainder are from the room we are using to paint. Please make particular note of the final picture which is a view from our painting room.

The Norwegian Botanical art workshop holiday about to start

June 28, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I am in Norway, in my daughters house, in the lovely town of Tønsberg. I have at last got this far.

I have been chasing my tail for over a week and you can be allowed to feel really sorry for my husband who has borne the brunt of it. Every day , I thought today I would paint – but no. What has happened?

Apart from putting everything together and packing for this workshop, I have marked assignments and spent hours on preparation for the Palmengarten exhibition in Germany.

But worst of all, one of our cats – in fact my daughter’s cat on permanent loan to us, suddenly became seriously ill and nearly died. We have spent a lot of time at the vets and he was hospitalised and on drips to give him some fluids. But, we were allowed to bring him home on Wednesday and we can safely say he has definitely used up one of his nine lives. We now have a lovely cat sitter looking after the animals whilst we are away.

We travelled to Norway yesterday and tomorrow will be trying to find some suitable plants in preparation for everyone’s arrival tomorrow afternoon. I will also be meeting a lady from the Botany Society who has taken a trip up into the mountains to get some special Norwegian Flora for us.

Today was rather cloudy and colder than it has been. In fact my daughter tells me today was the coldest day since March! I have been going on about the beautiful warm weather they have had here. But my tall, strawberry blond daughter is beautifully brown- so it must be true.

Hopefully I will get a few minutes each day to keep you updated about the workshop holiday.

Photos from the small picture of a dead rose head in watercolour. Try as I might I didn’t get a chance to finish it before I left. The other picture is showing a little bit of the chaos in sorting for the Norwegian workshop.

Culmination of the botanical art Rose workshop

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

Three lovely days with lovely people. And what’s more there was improvement and each grew in confidence about their abilities. Some used watercolour and others coloured pencil.

One person hadn’t been on one of the workshops before and in fact hadn’t used the medium for a number of years, or even done any botanical painting. I was impressed about how quickly the technique was picked up and the result was very good.

The roses didn’t always behave as intended. We had some cloud and a lot of sun. And, blow me down but the flowers opened up and followed the sun! We drowned them in a bucket of water each night, but there was one sort that didn’t even benefit too much from that. One rose was picked on the first day and we noticed that there was only one tight bud left that was unlikely to open up until the end of the week!

That night the one rose disintegrated entirely! The student painting it felt a little despondent, but we looked up the garden and there, in front of us was an absolutely splendid open bud. The petals were rich and velvety and we couldn’t believe our eyes. The flower lasted that day and long enough for her to complete it. Luckily, there were plenty of leaves available.

Pictures from the workshop:

_MG_6241 — A good start and the perfume was heavenly

A hard earned picture using two roses. What a result!

Rose Deep Secret - and very tired. Goodnight! — Rose Deep Secret – and very tired. Goodnight!

Stansted Park Garden Show – stand AD25

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

You are all invited to come to Stansted Park Garden Show. This a yearly show situated near Chichester. For those who love their gardens, this is the place.

I have a stand in the Art and Design Marquee – and I’m terrified! Not that there is anything to be terrified about.

I believe that I am the only botanical artist there although there will be a plenty of general art and design. But there will be plants and lots of them.

Summer still does not seem to have reached us yet. Chilly and cloudy with the occasional sun burst. But I am told from several sources in Norway that they have summer proper! I can’t wait for the workshop there in four weeks time.

In the meantime, I have again spent most of the day on the organisation, information, form design etc. for the SBA exhibition at Palmengarten. I think that so far I must have spent a week solid on this. The emails come in fast and furious following sending out an email to all members asking if they intend to submit. The response so far has been really good and today I got the instructions and forms finished off and sent to those thinking about exhibiting.

I managed to start painting at 17:00. Not much of the day left. My husband had got some more Irises for me to work on the Coloured pencil picture, so I did a little on that. By the way, I intend to work on the irises in coloured pencil and the Mandeville in watercolour, at the Stansted show. But it will be different days spent on each. I haven’t decided which days yet.

This is how far I have got with the Irises. I’m afraid the lighting was not very good for the photo, but it’s better than nothing.

Tomorrow will be the last weekly botanical art class until September. After which I will be packing things together to take to Stansted for setting up on Thursday.

Demonstration at Society of Floral Painters in Chichester

June 2, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Following a lot of preparation on composing and drawing a new botanical art picture, I spent the day starting the watercolour painting as a demonstration for the SFP.

The day dawned sunny and warm; the first nice day for a while. Watching the weather forecast as I write this, it reverts to cooler and wetter weather for a few days! Has spending the day inside demonstrating botanical art been worth it?

I am told that the SFP exhibition at the Oxmarket in Chichester, has attracted a lot of visitors. Visitors who I spoke with today, found the exhibition to be very interesting and many were amazed at the variety of floral painting; from very loosely painted Irises in oil, through the tighter botanical art, to strict botanical illustration. There is something there for everyone.

From previous experience, I knew that even though warm outside it can be cool sitting and demonstrating. I was well prepared. We didn’t have huge numbers of visitors and I am told that Sundays do not seem to attract the crowds. However there were quite a few people interested in my demonstration and I was able to talk a little of what I was doing.

The following is pictures from today finishing off with what I have done so far. The plant is a Mandeville, or Dipladenia.

Tomorrow I will be catching up:
– with London Art College assignment marking;
– preparation for the exhibition in Palmengarten Botanical gardens in Frankfurt, Germany. A joint exercise between Palmengarten and the SBA. My husband and I receive botanical art from across the UK and take it over to Frankfurt in October for the exhibition;
– preparation for the Garden Show at Stansted House (http://www.thegardenshowonline.com/gardenshow_stansted/) this coming FRiday, Saturday and Sunday. We have a stand there for the first time. Do come and support us. I intend to demonstrate some more.

Demonstrating colour pencil in botanical art at Oxmarket, Chichester, tomorrow

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

I have mentioned before that at the moment the Society of Floral Painters (SFP) has their annual floral painting exhibition in the Oxmarket Centre for Arts in Chichester. Tomorrow I will be there demonstrating the use of coloured pencil. I will be there from 11:00 until 16:30 – except for lunch.

Do come and see what I am doing. I will have a similar picture in Watercolour as an interesting comparison. The flower is the Iris that I have been doing for just over a week in between all the other mad things I’ve been doing. This is how it looks now.

In between botanical art demonstrations.

May 23, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Following my botanical art demonstration at Westminster Central Hall during the SBA exhibition, I have hardly done any painting until today.

We had a few days good weather last week, so I did some much needed weeding in the garden. My husband and I also sorted what vegetables were to go into our new raised beds in the kitchen garden (he did the work). And I spent one day colour matching on Photoshop two pictures that I have just had framed. One is of Hellebore heads and the other was the large Hydrangea head in black and white.

I also had to mount some prints in preparation for the Society of Floral Painters (SFP) exhibition in Chichester handing in was on Monday and I was on one of the two assessment teams.

The arrangement of teams was quite impressive. The SFP is Floral and not necessarily botanical. I am strictly botanical, and as a counter balance, one artists paints very loosely and the third member is in between. In this way we got quite a good selection of paintings.

Once all the pictures had gone through the selection process, we were again divided into teams to hang the pictures. My husband had been a runner during the morning session and was also now hanging the pictures. In the end the SFP committee thought they would to adopt him!

Hanging the pictures lasted two days with the opening on Tuesday evening. Do go and visit the Oxmarket Art Centre in Chichester. It is a good exhibition and there is something there to suit all artistic tastes, as long as it is in relation to the kingdom of plants.

I am demonstrating coloured pencil and botanical art this first Sunday between 11:00 and 16:30. Do come and watch and ask questions if there is something you would like to know. I will be demonstrating again the following Sunday 1 June, but this time watercolour. Other artists will be demonstrating other techniques whilst the exhibition is on. Have a look at my website http://www.gaynorsflora.com/page12.htm for the address, dates and times of the exhibition.

On Wednesday my husband and I drove up to London to collect pictures following the SBA exhibition at Westminster and to attend the AGM meeting. One of the topics was the exhibition that the SBA are providing pictures for at Palmengarten, Frankfurt in October. We are both heavily involved with collecting the pictures from across the UK and getting them to Frankfurt. But more about that at a later stage. But we managed to start the collection of paintings during the AGM. We are off to a good start.

Today was my usual weekly class and since then I have been painting.

Do you remember the Irises that I did in watercolour and then demonstrated in coloured pencil at Westminster? I have continued with that today and will be using the same to demonstrate on Sunday. I think I have been doing myself a disservice in trying to keep it true to the watercolour as it is quite different to the iris I am now painting from. I’m tying myself up in knots.

This is it so far. The completed watercolour one first followed by the very incomplete coloured pencil one.

Today at the SBA exhibition at Westminster

May 13, 2014April 4, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

It has been a long day but a very good one.

We took the 2hour train journey up to London today in time to start demonstrating when the exhibition opened at 11:00. I had hardly time to get out my equipment – let alone sit down, before keen botanical artists arrived to watch me demonstrating.

As planned, I took out the Watercolour of the Irises to use as my subject for the coloured pencil demonstration. Luckily I had managed to get a bunch of Irises in the way through Victoria Railway Station that was exactly the same colour as the original irises. I now had both the irises as a suitable botanical subject and the completed watercolour painting,

At any one time there were quite a few people sitting or standing to take in the demo. The actual demo went very slowly as everyone had so many questions about the technique. This meant that apart from a lot of talking, I also showed people how to do several different techniques associated with coloured pencil. I am told that they found this interesting and useful.

Apart from anything else, I hope that I have encouraged those who had some interest in botanical art, to try it; or those who have only used watercolour to have a go with coloured pencil.

I met several people who had been to the RHS botanical art exhibition in April and who had seen me and/or the crab apple exhibit. In some instances the exhibit seems to have encouraged people to come to watch the demo today. I hope it was worth it. It definitely was for me as I met so many lovely people.

My husband took the following picture this afternoon when there were fewer people watching.

This second picture shows two of my pictures hung at the exhibition in the black and white section. They are of course in pen & ink. Additionally you will find two further coloured pencil pictures exhibited.

Tomorrow I will be teaching a class in the morning and marking assignments from the London Art College after this is finished. I doubt that I will have time to do any painting for myself, so the coloured pencil irises will have to wait. A shame as I have the right colour ones for the moment!

GAYNOR'S FLORA

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