Sunography

Its not botanical illustration but it is crafty and botanical so I thought I would share this here.

A few months ago I won this Sunography kit as part of a goody bag at the Wildlife photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum.

With a sunny afternoon and not much else to do I decided to have a go.
The kit consists of 6 small pieces of light sensitive fabric. The idea is to use any objects to create a pattern on the fabric by leaving it in bright sunlight for 15 minutes. When you wash the fabric in cold water the areas that were exposed to sunlight change colour leaving a silhouette of the object on the fabric.

I picked various bits and pieces from the garden. The picture on the left shows the fabric as it is being developed and on the right the finished image.

This one is Nigella (Love-In-A-Mist) which is growing in abundance in the garden at the moment:

I think this one is a Calendula but I'm not entirely sure:

I did all six pieces of fabric that were included but a couple of them didn't turn out very well. I chose the best four pieces and sewed them together to make a panel to hang on the wall.

Hope you like it !

Tree of Plant Evolution

This is  for Paul's study wall.
The structure is based on a postcard from Kew showing the evolution of plants based on the APG III classification system.

Honeysuckle

Lonicera periclymenum

The honeysuckle in the garden finally flowered so I could paint it. This is for Laura :-)

Tomatoes

The grotty bank holiday weather meant that I spent most of the day indoors, painting.

And this is what I painted. While I wait for my tomato plants to grow I will have to make do with ones out of the veg box.

Nuts

I haven't used watercolour for quite a while, so I was a bit unsure about painting again. Turns out it wasn't as awful as I had convinced myself it would be. I will try and persevere with the watercolours.

Brazilnut, almond and three hazelnuts.

Pitcher plant - Nepenthes

After the excitement of discovering acrylics last weeks, I've gone back to basics and done a pencil sketch of the pitcher plant which is currently keeping the kitchen windowsill fly free.

I visited the  Society of Botanical Artists exhibition at Westminster Central Hall today which has inspired me to try something in watercolour. 

Watch this space....

Something totally different...

Today I attempted something totally different and tried painting with acrylics. I enjoyed it :-) Its very different from the careful observation, measurement and concentration of botanical illustration.
I'm going to call this 'Summer Field.' Its now hanging proudly in the downstairs toilet.

Nigella damascena in pen and ink

Nigella damascena 'Love-In-a-Mist'
This is one from the garden, which I did last year. Only just got round to scanning it though. Hopefully I'll get around to something more seasonal (and colourful?!) soon.