Botanical Art & Natural History Drawing & Painting Courses 2013 - 2014

As the new term is getting ever nearer, I thought that I would give an overview of the courses and workshops that I teach at Peter Symonds College AHED in Winchester.

Starting Monday 30th September 2013 - 10 week course
BOTANICAL ART: DRAWING & PAINTING TECHNIQUES - Improvers/Intermediates
Time: 15:00 - 17:00

This course is suitable for students that have already attended either part of or all of the first year of the Botanical Art course.  It is also appropriate for those who have some experience in observational drawing and the use of watercolours.

Students do not have to attend the whole year and each term is taught as an individual unit.  Therefore within each term we cover subjects such as: detailed drawing methods, recognising and applying tone, colour-mixing and colour theory, paint application techniques and those techniques that are particular to a specific plant family or species.

For the Autumn term we will be: studying a tree of personal choice and completing studies of its bark, leaves, fruits, seeds etc.  We will also be learning how to draw fungi and lichen, as well as painting autumnal leaves with acrylic inks.

 

 

Starting Tuesday 1st October 2013 - 10 week course  BOTANICAL ART: DRAWING & PAINTING TECHNIQUES - Beginners.  Time: 17:15 - 19:15

This course is suitable to those that are new to drawing and painting plants and flowers.  During the first term the emphasis will be on building up our knowledge and skills of observational drawing, accurate depiction of tone, using different shading techniques, understanding the fundamentals of colour-mixing, creating naturalistic greens, how to compose a botanical picture and starting to understand the structure of botanical subjects.

 

 

 

Starting Wednesday 2nd October 2013 - 8 week course



DRAWING & PAINTING THE NATURAL WORLD
Time:  19:00 - 21:00

This course covers a wide range of subject matter and the main focus is on depicting natural objects in a detailed and accurate manner.  As with the Botanical Art courses we start with observational drawing, depicting tone and build up to applying colour. 

A range of media is also used.  You may start off using pencil, but there is also the opportunity to use pen and ink, as well as mixed media techniques.

Subject matter can be feathers, butterflies and other insects, drawing birds, stones and shells and even antlers and horns !

For further information and to book a place on any of the courses please go to:

http://ace.psc.ac.uk/enrolment/how.php

 

There are also Saturday workshops available at Peter Symonds AHED

For a full list, see my website:

 

http://www.natures-details.com/petersymmonds.html

Swallows, Swifts and no stings !

This post doesn't have a totally bird theme, as you can guess from the title.

We have had a lovely time away exploring the Wye Valley, the Brecon Beacons and the picturesque town of Hay-on-Wye, with its amazing array of bookshops that you can get lost in for hours.

Our home for a few days was a little annexe located in Hendre, a tiny village west of Monmouth.  Our bedroom had the most fantastic views from three aspects and I spent a lot of time just watching the Swallows soaring above the fields opposite the house.  Swooping down to collect their food, with occasional breaks to perch on the wires.

I had always wanted to go to Hay-on-Wye after hearing about the annual literary festival held there.  I wasn't disappointed and apart from the tempting bookshops there were some inspirational galleries - I especially liked the Bowie Gallery  http://www.hayclay.co.uk/   and the HayMakers http://www.haymakers.co.uk/home.html , and we also had a relaxing time mooching round an antiques shop with numerous little rooms that often brought back childhood memories when we spied an item that our parents or grandparents had also owned.

As we were walking through the town back to the car we both looked up and watched the Swifts for a while, delighting in their screeching calls, a sound that we hadn't heard for a long time.

For us both the highlight of our travels that week was seeing the view from Symonds Yat Rock.  It really did take your breath away and it felt as though you were looking down on the world from on high !  It made me think of my Grandad's trip to that part of the world when he was a young man and him showing me the black and white photographs (or more like sepia !) of the same view.  An added bonus was having the chance to see the Peregrines that were nesting on a nearby cliff-face.

 

 

With a few days in Devon added onto the end of our trip, our holiday was nearly complete.  Whilst on our friend's farm I was treated to a viewing of their beehives.  This was unexpected and I must admit I am now hooked and looking forward to seeing how the hives are doing when we visit in September.

 

As the hives are new ones for this year, it was important to check to see how many Queens were in each hive, as there should only be one per hive.  I am not experienced enough to explain all of the technicalities of bee-keeping and the ecology of Honey Bees but here are a few images that will hopefully help you to understand how a bee hive works.

Each section of the hive is called a 'super'.  Here we are lifting off the top super which is where the honey will be collected from.

 

The boards in the top super.

 

Here you can see one of the boards lifted out.  The capped honey cells are clearly seen - those covered in a creamy white waxy substance.

 

The lower super is where the brood is kept.  This metal grid is a queen excluder to stop the Queen from coming through to the upper super.

 

The drones are larger bees than the workers.  Here you can see some capped honey too, which is reserves for the brood itself.  The darker cells are where larvae are.

 

In this image some of the larval cells have been capped.  Those with a more bulbous cap contain larvae of the drone bees and the cells with the flatter cap contain larvae of worker bees.

 

Here in the lower part of the picture you an see a Queen just about to emerge.

 

 

I have been attempting to do some painting too, but with the weather having been so hot the paint just dries so quickly.

 

Whilst in Devon I was able to dabble with my acrylics and completed two small paintings, both 10x10 cms in size on natural linen canvas.

 

 

Further painting projects are underway, with new paintings ready for exhibitions next year - watch this space !







 



Sharing our knowledge and skills.

This week I completed my first year of teaching in the adult education sector.  Previously I had taught workshops for the Wildlife Trust, also for adults, but never formally in an education setting such as Peter Symonds College in Winchester.

Teaching in a setting such as this can be different in various ways - more paperwork and admin, working as part of a team, the opportunity to seek advice from your peers, regular teaching hours and the major difference for me, was teaching a course.

Even though I have familiar faces that re-visit my all day workshops, sometimes there are long gaps between seeing the students, and it can be harder to grasp the progress that they have made.

The Botanical Art Course at Peter Symonds started last September and each term lasts 10 weeks, with each session lasting just 2 hours.  The main concern that I had was that once the course had started, I wanted to make sure that any new students that joined us as the year progressed, were not made to feel that they were catching up or left behind because others had started before them.  This was something that I experienced many years ago when I used to attend painting classes at a local college.

The solution to this was to treat each term as an individual course, covering the same subjects for the first few weeks each term.  This started with working in graphite pencil and practising forms of shading and representing tone, leading to drawing leaves and then gradually moving on to colour-mixing/colour theory.  Additional subjects such as, drawing flower forms; fruit, nuts and seeds; twigs; painting yellow and white flowers; illustrating fungi; expanding our colour palette, can be taught throughout the year and some of these can be used on a seasonal basis.

Existing students tend not to become bored repeating the same subjects at the beginning of each term, as they are glad of the re-cap and very often the actual subject matter is changed each term.  So the subject matter for tonal shading using graphite pencils may be using leaves one term, and pears the next term.  I think those students that have completed the whole year will agree that in each term there are different challenges to overcome.

It also has to be appreciated that for some students this is the only time that they have to draw and paint.  It may give them the chance to escape from their everyday routine and meet other like-minded people.

The one thing that I hadn't appreciated enough, until this last year, was that everybody has their own learning style - meaning individuals learn differently. Therefore it is important to vary the approaches to teaching the subject.  My students all agree that they value the demonstration that I do at the beginning of each session on that week's subject, and of course the one-to-one time as well, but this is not the end of it and these approaches do not suit everybody.

Some years ago when I was in early years education, I came across this saying:

If a child cannot learn the way we teach,

maybe we should teach the way they learn

 

This saying, although now applied to teaching adults, has taken on new dimensions to me.  I try hard to vary the teaching approaches throughout each term.  These can include quizzes, step-by-step pictorial handouts, step-by-step You tube videos,  giving students the opportunity to demonstrate or describe something they are knowledgeable of, providing a resource table and also opportunities for question and answer sessions.

 

Enough of what I think, here are some examples from the artwork completed by the students on the Botanical Art Course this last year.  Some of them are completely new to drawing and painting, whilst others are now returning to it after a long break.

 

At the end of the session this last week, we were all looking at the artwork and giving feedback to each other.  One of my students said I sounded like a proud mother ! 

That is what I am - PROUD - that they have all worked so hard and perservered to produce such wonderful results !

 

For me it has been an immensely rewarding year - thank you to everyone !

 

 

 



Coming across some 'Bruiseroot' !

After a busy few months, things are starting to quieten down.  The end of term is approaching so my courses with Peter Symonds AHED and the workshops with the Hants & IOW Wildlife Trust will be having a break over the summer, as will I.  From teaching at least, but there are lots of painting plans afoot !

The weather in our area of the south of England has been relatively good.  The garden is looking very green, with varying colours appearing within the vegetation.  The odd day of rain, really seems to help the garden get through the dry hot times.  Some of you may be surprised about how I am going on about the hot weather ............. well we are in the lucky position, that even though our garden is small, it is surrounded by a brick wall, so it has somewhat its own little micro-climate.

Despite this positivity we decided to escape last Sunday to Lepe Beach.  This is located the other side of Southampton Water and is within the New Forest National Park.  This area of coastline and the adjoining marine habitats, have a variety of important conservation designations.  It is within the Solent and Southampton RAMSAR (a wetland habitat global designation),  Solent and Southampton Special Protection Area (SPA), Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and also smaller areas include Lepe Point National Nature Reserve (NNR) and the North Solent Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

One of the reasons for going was to see if we could find some Restharrow in bloom, for the Irish Botanical Alphabet that I am involved with.  No luck there !  Never the less we found one of my favourite plants - the Yellow-horned Poppy Glaucium flavum.

Last year I found some plants at our local beach, but never the numbers that we found here at Lepe.     

This plant is found on shingle banks and beaches and is generally in bloom between June and September, with each flower only lasting a day.  The flowers are a beautiful sunshine yellow, and its leaves are a glaucous greeny-blue with a waxy, hairy surface.

The most distinctive feature of this plant are the thin curving, sometimes twisting seedpods, which can reach to 30cms long.

If the plant is broken, it can exude a yellow sap which is poisonous, so care must be taken.

It was once thought to be good for applying to bruises, hence it was known as 'bruiseroot'.

Back to Lepe beach - as you walk eastwards along the shore, you approach an area where the Mulberry harbours were assembled prior to the D-Day landings.  Many vessels also left this area for the same purpose.  It was along this  stretch that we came across the numerous plants, some bordering the fence of the NNR, others scattered across the upper beach.

 

 

 

We settled down and found a suitable spot for sketching the plants.  Hubby went off to look at the remnants of the Mulberry harbour construction area and I set to portraying what I could of these fascinating plants. 



 

I hadn't realised how windy the spot would be.  It was difficult keeping any part of the plant still, especially the petals.  I carried on and got as much information down on paper as I could.  What I wanted to be detailed painted observations, ended up being more of a sketch, filled in with a somewhat 'looser' painting style.  I was happy with the results though.

With a small part of a plant in my collection box, a couple of more detailed studies were completed back at home.  The leaf, a petal and the early formation of the seedpod with some of the stamens still attached.

As always, I like to find out more about the plant that I am thinking of doing a painting of.  One series of books that is always my first 'port of call' is the 'Drawings of British Plants' by Stella Ross-Craig.  Each of the books consists of line drawings showing all parts of the plant and at various stages of growth.

Yellow-horned Poppy © G.Bell and Sons 1948

 

I then remembered that I had a painting by my good friend and fellow artist, Connie Harrison.  Connie is wonderful artist with a really good sense of design.  This painting I bought as a folio last year at one of the SFP exhibitions.

 

© Connie Harrison 2012

I hope you enjoyed this post.  I'll try not to leave so long next time !  In a couple of weeks we are off to Monmouthshire and will be exploring some of the Wye Valley.  I'll have my new Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook in tow !  In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures of the Yellow-horned poppy.

 

 

Surrounded by Carnivorous Plants - in Dublin !

Last Friday I made a flying visit to Dublin for the day.  Yes the day - a bit mad I know, but a really worthwhile trip.

The main purpose was to meet with many members of the newly formed Irish Society of Botanical Artists (ISBA website - http://irishbotanicalartists.com:8080/).  We are working on a lovely project, illustrating each of the 18 letters of the Irish alphabet with native wild plants.  We have each been assigned a letter and a plant, neither of which we had prior knowledge of, so that made it all the more exciting ! I am illustrating Restharrow, and also because I am a sucker for punishment, an additional plant - Teasel.

For more information about the project go to:  http://irishbotanicalartists.com:8080/an-irish-botanical-alphabet/

Images from the ISBA Botanical Alphabet support meeting

I had the morning spare, being let loose in the National Botanic Gardens Glasnevin and in the afternoon we had an 'alphabet support meeting', with the wonderful Brendan Sayers who is the Curator at the gardens and Susan Sex, who is the most amazing Botanical Artist.

Back to the morning - where to go ?  The wind was getting up and feeling a bit tired from my early morning flight I decided to venture into the warmth of the glass houses.  I went into the first one I came across and was faced with the most beautiful sight of several Sarracenias.  If you haven't seen these before they are carnivorous plants that originate from the southeastern USA.  These plants are also known as pitcher plants.

The pitchers themselves are modified leaves and insects are attracted to the pitchers because they mimic flowers.  They are often brightly coloured and have glands or nectaries located near the pitcher opening - which is a dangerous place for insects to be!

There I stood mesmerised by these plants and I started to sketch.  The first plant I drew was Sarracenia flava 'Maxima'  which had a large yellow-green flower, surrounded by pitchers.  I had taken my colour pencils with me to make colour notes, but I must admit I preferred to use my trusty watercolours.

© 2013  Sarah Morrish

The flowers are fascinating

 

© 2013  Sarah Morrish

 

 

© 2013  Sarah Morrish

© 2013  Sarah Morrish

After stretching my legs for a short walk around the gardens I returned back to the Sarracenias and drew a couple of the pitchers.  Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the plant name.  Both of the pitchers below were drawn life-size in my A4 Moleskin watercolour book.

© 2013  Sarah Morrish

 

© 2013  Sarah Morrish

Lunch was then 'calling', which was a very social affair meeting up with other members of the group, some of whom I had 'met' on Facebook, so it was lovely to meet them in person !

 A couple of the glasshouses at the Botanic Gardens