'Wildflowers Count' Surveys

 It has been great to get out to one of my sites this week that I have been assigned by Plantlife as part of their Wildflowers Count Project.

The 1km square is located very near to home which makes it even better and is located mostly in a lovely piece of woodland which is highly likely to be ancient.  The survey comprised of walking a 1km route through the square and listing all of the plants observed within a 2 metre strip to one side of the route.  As well as this I surveyed a 5m x 5m square in the woodland and measured the approximate abundance of plant species present.  Overall there were loads of species to list !

 The artwork hasn't been neglected though and I have been working on a Heron sketch for the art project as well as an illustration of an Atlas Moth for an exhibition in August.

I am starting to get my travel sketching kit together for our trip to New Hampshire and Maine in a few weeks as part of our honeymoon - no the artwork never stops!

Wildflower pictures: Solomon's Seal, Yellow Archangel and Bugle

Atlas Moth - picture in progress

Welcome

Welcome to my first posting on my 'artist's blog'.  The purpose of the blog is to record my ramblings about the natural world and my associated artwork.  Some of you would have seen my work on another blog up and running for the artist in residence project that I am involved in at the Swanwick Lakes Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Hants and IOW Wildlife Trust.  The project will run up until November of this year (2011) and will end in an exhibition on the last weekend in October.

Presently (as well as the art project), I am working on a picture of an Atlas Moth which will hopefully be exhibited at the Marwell Exhibition this coming August.  When the picture is complete I will post it on here.  I am becoming very keen on illustrating butterflies and moths and particularly like using coloured pencils.  My preferred pencils are Berol Karismacolour which are not available anymore, but luckily I have managed to get hold of a replacement range - Prismacolour, which unfortunately are only available from the US.  At the moment I have been using hot-pressed watercolour paper, but I keep meaning to try Bristol board, although sometimes I find the white too harsh and bright.

Over the coming week I have a couple of surveys to complete for Plantlife International.  I have signed up for their 'Wildflowers Count' project and have been allotted three 1km squares.  The first two surveys will be woodland habitats, so I need to get out soon and see what plant species are out there, particularly if I want to record any Ancient Woodland Indicator species that may be around - I'll let you know how I get on.