It feels like it was but a few weeks ago that we were surrounded by the hues of brown of Winter and now we have all the greens of Spring. The tree outside my window has changed rapidly from the barest of branches to the most delicate of white blossom all of which has now fallen like snow to give way to the vivid green of new leaves.
The Spring flowers are rapidly blooming across the garden. The garden is at its best at this time of year; a mixture of years of planting and plenty of self-seeding wild flowers. The previous owners had planted daffodils, snowdrops, muscari and hellebore. This year we have added more; deep purple hellebore, creamy daffodils with layer upon layer of petals, and tulips that are just gathering space.
Elsewhere in the garden we have four well established cherry trees. They all flower at slightly different times in the season so we are treated to weeks of beautiful pink cherry blossom. We have an apple tree that we brought with us which is only a few years old and watching how long it is taking for this to grow I feel so privileged that we have these four cherry trees here which we get to sit beneath each year, a canopy of delicate flowers stretched over our heads.
Through most of Winter I felt lacking in inspiration when it came to nature based artwork and photography. My attention had turned towards monochrome abstracts and abstracts inspired by the buildings in the City of London that I work amongst. With plenty of Spring flowers now here, blue skies overhead and a little warmth in the air, I have more botanical inspiration than hours in the day to enjoy it.
I gave myself the last few weeks to draw whatever came to mind rather than setting out with a particular purpose. I wanted to see what would speak to me naturally. I’ve found myself drawn to the flowers and to ink drawings. I’m enjoying layering down the ink to create the different shapes and shading and the challenge of being as accurate as possible in portraying the flowers. It amuses me how this is in stark contrast to the Winter months where I kept finding myself painting abstracts no matter how many times I set out to create something realistic. Perhaps it is simply part of life - that we are as subject to the passage of the seasons and changing with each one as the plants, trees and animals around us. Do you find you do things differently depending on the time of year?
On my last trip to the shops I bought some tulips for myself whilst I wait for the ones in the garden to bloom. One of the candy stripe ones fell over quickly (I wasn’t paying enough attention to the water level in the vase!) but as it still had a beautiful shape I set about drawing it. Thankfully I took a lot of photos of it too - I couldn't do the drawing in one sitting so I had to refer back to the photos for a lot of the detail.
I’m working on this new flatlay piece now. The arrangement is completely wrong - I had no intention to overlap them like this but they all kept getting bigger on the page - and it turns out that drawing in the evenings without sufficient light means that you miss a lot of detail but it’s good practice nonetheless.
Studying the flowers in order to draw them requires such patience and attention to detail that it is giving me a new appreciation for them. This is especially so for the smaller flowers. I like how the Muscari create a sea of green and blue in the garden but last year they weren't exactly high up on my most interesting list. Now that I’ve spent hours looking at them up-close I’ve noticed how each segment of the flower overlaps and as the lower ones open they have this bell-line shape, kicking out at the edges and their deep blue colour fades into a blue toned white. They are far more complex than I appreciated on a quick glance or from far away.
The same goes for these tiny purple flowers. I have no idea if they were planted by the previous owners of our garden or if they are wildflowers that have made their own way here. In fact, I’m struggling to determine what they actually are - reticulated iris perhaps? The structure certainly reminds of iris with the shape of their petals and the way the stamen sits inside. As you can see it’s absolutely tiny; the flower is no bigger than my thumbnail. If anyone knows what they are please do say!
There is so much here to draw that I plan on keeping going throughout the season. I may even attempt to get the paints out at some point. I’m thinking gouache might work well - watch this space!