Artiste Botanique
Hello, I have some exciting news: I am running a course at Kew Gardens, painting roses from the wonderful rose garden. Kew’s Rose Garden is home to 170 different species and cultivars, so we’ll be spoilt for choice. Participants will be able to walk in the rose garden at the beginning of the day to… Continue reading Painting Roses at Kew Gardens: A Unique Workshop
Hello, Since I have been painting landscapes in oils, I have been striving to keep this new venture separate from my usual job, which is painting watercolour botanicals. This desirable separation is both physical and psychological.Physical because my oils are messy and the painting area, my clothes and even my face get the regular smudge… Continue reading Is this the best art trolley ever? Meeden…
Hello, As we are approaching the end of April, the garden is moving from its crops of daffodils, bluebells and tulips to the lilies and irises. All these plants have something in common: their leaves are long and thick, with parallel veining. Parallel veining means that all veins run from base to tip, with no… Continue reading Drawing Long Leaves with Parallel Veining
Hi everyone, As the summer approaches and I am painting more landscapes, I have a mission to put together my ideal plein air painting kit. It is quite a challenge for me because wherever I go I tend to pack the kitchen sink… You should see the amount of art stuff I take with me… Continue reading Meeden easel box field test and review
Rosa Botanical Art Fair1-4 May 2026West dean Gardens and College Hello, Would you like to visit one of the most beautiful gardens in the UK? The first week-end in May would be a great time to do so… West Dean Gardens and College are hosting a botanical art fair, organising special tours of the gardens… Continue reading Explore the Rosa Botanical Art Fair at West Dean Gardens
Hello everyone, For Christmas last year I treated myself to an unusual subscription: a quarterly box of pencils. I love Blackwing pencils and I find their themes usually resonate with me. I hesitated with the subscription because their quarterly boxes come from the USA, and the postage is steep. But in the end I thought… Continue reading Unboxing Blackwing Pencils Volume 343: A Nostalgic…
Hi everyone, Is one of your New Year resolution to spend more time creating art, making time in your busy life to do the things that you love?My Patreon site is a good place to start! Since I started in March 2020, I posted almost every week, creating 322 posts to this day. With a… Continue reading Unlock Your Creativity: 20% Discount on Art Patreon Membership
Hello everyone, Wow, 2 posts in rapid succession, that’s unusual and probably highly unexpected 🙂I have recently been exploring painting landscapes in a semi-abstract style using water-soluble oils and I wanted to share with you what I found in my experiments…I received a starter set of basic colours from the Schmincke Norma Blue range to… Continue reading Painting Experiments: Water-Soluble Oils…
Hi everyone,Recently I stayed in a B&B in France one night on my way to see my dad. The B&B’s garden was magnificent, all under the care and hard work of the owner Bernard. The style was more English than French, not too regimented and with areas left almost entirely wild. The accomplishment was even… Continue reading 10 things you really need to know when painting from photos
Hello everyone, A couple of weeks ago, botanical artist Julia Trickey kindly invited me to do an online talk as part of her series called “Botanical Talks”. Of course, my first one had to be about colour and pigments. We ran out of time for me to answer all the questions at the end of… Continue reading Paints & Pigments 01 – Your questions answered