Kitchen Garden Blog : Lavender Flowers

Plans for getting the kitchen garden growing again.

Through a lack of general garden maintenance, something wonderful was emerging...

Lavender in Kent. Wildlife and kitchen garden blog.

Lavender in the Kitchen Garden. Kent.
This photograph was taken several years ago. The lavender quickly outgrew its space but looked all the prettier for it! A small butterfly was caught amongst the flowers but no bees - usually there were hundreds!

Much of the garden had become a natural wildlife habitat, attracting foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, squirrels, toads, newts, frogs, slow worms, birds, butterflies, bees and bugs.

As the garden lingered in its state of in-betweens - seemingly lifeless and lacking energy - weeds had grown up around fruit trees and wildflowers replaced the garden blooms; even a couple of leeks appeared amidst the wild grasses and a few determined nasturtium draped themselves over a broken flowerpot or other small structure left lying around the garden. The garden was thriving as a wild, wildlife garden!

A kitchen garden and a wildlife garden.

With thoughts on developing the wildlife garden further, it seemed there was no room for a kitchen garden, no matter how small – and so the garden was dedicated to wildness and wildlife.

One plant from the old kitchen garden, that stood the test of time (and neglect), was the lavender, as though providing hope for a gardener during a time of change. As an easy-growing, bee-friendly flower - perhaps dreams of a prettyish kitchen garden could happen alongside a wildlife garden!

That lavender has now disappeared, crowded out by sedum (another excellent source of nectar for bees and butterflies!) but revised plans for creating a kitchen garden include a return of the Kitchen Garden Flower!

Every kitchen garden has its flower!

British Wildlife Watercolours

British Wildlife Watercolours. British wildlife, birds and flowers are carefully painted using watercolours, based on the wildlife and botanical subjects from the garden and local woods. Wildlife such as small British woodland animals (badgers, foxes, squirrels, mice, bats, deer, otters, wild cats, stoats, weasels - even wild boar, pine martens, beavers and, one day, lynx may return to the wilds of Britain!) and UK garden birds, butterflies and bees, along with ladybirds and dragonflies, add to the joys to be found in the garden, or just beyond, all year round. Watercolours can be used to capture the beauty in the animal or plant subject using the fluidity of the paints. Everyone's favourite! A beautiful owl resting amongst the bluebells. British Wildlife Watercolours : Watercolour Owl and Bluebell British Wildlife Watercolours : Watercolour Bird Painting of a Sparrow and Worm Watercolours can be used in a variety of wildlife paintings for different effects bas...

Wildlife Drawing Classes

Wildlife Drawing Classes Wildlife art classes in drawing wildlife. There is more to be gained from drawing British wildlife than drawing and sketching alone – with wildlife art classes, there can be enjoyment in discovering about some of Britain’s favourite animals and birds in the company of other artists and nature enthusiasts, through drawing wildlife classes which bring together like-minded individuals in a pleasant setting. Drawing animals and birds from life is an excellent way to engage with the natural world around us. An understanding of wildlife anatomy, behaviour and environment, through observations and sketches, can help build the skills and knowledge necessary for more detailed graphite or coloured pencil drawings of British wildlife and birds. Drawing class subjects include the familiar favourites such as: foxes, squirrels, hedgehogs, mice, deer and birds, plus some of the more elusive characters from the British countryside – badgers, otters, wildca...

Drawing Hares

Drawing Wildlife. When asked to present a wildlife art demo in March, one animal sprang to mind! The month has been all about March hares! Here's a work in progress study of a hare using coloured pencils. Getting ready for an art session. As preparation is key for any art demo, several images of hares were selected to be used as reference material - and so the wildlife sketching and drawing was ready for working on the easel at home. Drawing Hares and other Wildlife. Planning time to a hare's hair's breadth! The aim of the art demo was to go through the stages of completing a pencil drawing of a hare using coloured pencils. The demo was scheduled for about 2 hours' drawing time... Detailed, realistic coloured pencil drawings can take a very long time to complete, even in the comfort of an artist's usual studio or dedicated art space. Natural nerves in drawing a hare, or any animal, in front of members of an art group (in this case, consisting of...

British Wildlife Watercolours : Garden Birds

Bird Art : from the Garden There are a number of British birds that visit the garden daily for the abundance of naturally growing berries and seeds - and it's a good way to get ideas for later watercolours and drawings of birds. The traditional garden bird, the sparrow, seems to have been replaced by the more colourful birds such as bluetits, goldfinches, long-tailed tits and chaffinches – although a few sparrows do usually manage to make a daily appearance – especially around their favourite bird table where additional nuts, seeds and worms tempt even the most reluctant visitors. A favourite garden visitor is our British National Bird – the robin redbreast – or rather three of them! Plus all the wood pigeons and doves, crows, blackbirds, thrushes, woodpeckers – green and red - even fieldfares – it can get quite a busy! That is the best time to make sure a pencil and paper is nearby – for the birds are always entertaining to watch and sketch – it’s a most enjoyable way to ...

Bird Drawing Workshops

Bird drawing workshops can be a good source of information for anyone who loves birds and wants to draw them, especially beginner artists and improvers. Drawing Workshops. Wildlife Art. Kent. Surrey. Sussex. London. Drawing workshops and classes are a great place to pick up advice and resources that can be used to discover more about birds in the local area. Workshops can help introduce the beginner to outdoor bird sketching and keeping a bird diary or nature journal that can be used to identify birds and develop the drawings to produce more detailed, realistic bird paintings. Regular sketching can significantly improve bird drawings and paintings whilst developing knowledge of bird anatomy and habitats. There are many strange and wonderful aspects to a bird’s body (skeleton, muscles, feet, feathers and beaks) that serve a function and it is often through sketching and detailed drawing that these anatomical wonders are closely observed and begin to be understood. ...

British Wildlife Coloured Pencils

Drawing wildlife using coloured pencils Coloured pencil wildlife art paintings and drawings. Detailed wildlife and botanical drawings and paintings can be gained using coloured pencils which range from student grade to professional grade. The following animal pencil paintings were achieved using a mixture of coloured pencil brands but mainly Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran D’ache Swisscolour. Detail is captured as realistically as possible whilst retaining the creative style. Realistic British wildlife art by wildlife and botanical coloured pencil artist. British Wildlife : Coloured Pencils : Mouse and Apple British Wildlife Art : Coloured Pencil Drawing of a Robin Snow Leopard : Coloured Pencils Coloured Pencil Drawing : British Bird : Owl Wood Avens : Coloured Pencils Coloured Pencils : Grape British Wildlife Art : Squirrel

British Wildlife Pastel Art

British Wildlife Art in Pastels. Fine art, traditional animal paintings and bird paintings in detail: local wildlife, animals and birds of the countryside - meadows, woods, riversides and gardens. Paintings and drawings undertaken using soft pastels, occasionally enhanced using pastel pencils. Wildlife pastel classes, workshops and demos available. British Wildlife Painting : Pastels British Wildlife Painting : Pastels Countryside Painting : Pheasant British Wildlife Art : Small Mammals

Traditional Bee Drawings

Honey Bee Illustration Traditional Bee Drawings at wildlife workshops. Enjoy a wildlife art workshop drawing bees! Beginner artists and nature enthusiasts can explore the world of bees and bee art through bee drawing workshops, alongside artists wishing to improve their art skills and discover more about the wildlife world of bees! This wildlife drawing of a honey bee was initially created as a quick sketch in preparation for a bee show. The original rough sketch had been done and, with a few colours applied to give an impression, it was left only partially coloured and a very rough version of what had been planned for a complete drawing of a bee. Before it was completed, however, several enquiries had been made, asking to purchase the rough bee drawing and, eventually, this bee was created but not before several hours of research into the anatomy of bees had been carried out! It was a good experience, though, because it provided the necessary information to get on and...

Mixed Media Bee art Workshop at National Honey Show

National Honey Show - Mixed Media Art Workshop. Thanks to my mixed media workshop participants the other day at the National Honey Show – a lovely group who produced some fantastic pieces that were amongst the most imaginative that I’ve seen from a workshop that I’ve run. It can be tricky creating a masterpiece out of nothing but the imagination – I hope my resources and open techniques will give the attendees the knowledge and new skills they need to feel happy experimenting and to create their own wonderful mixture of mixed media bee art! Here's a piece I created a while ago. I was happy with the honey colours but wondered how it would look with another colour – I find mixed media art can be an ongoing process! I changed the background colour in patches and quite like the broken effect seen here - when I return to mixed media at some point I will know roughly what effect I will be after! Mixed media is great fun and a relaxing way to spend some art time – if only there ever was ‘...

Otter Painted in Stages in Pastel

British Wildlife Art from the Riverside. Drawing otters in stages using soft pastels : Wildlife Art Demo : Otter 1) Study the otter and gather reference material for painting Some otters were splashing around in the mud on an icy cold day, which provided the chance to watch them at play for a while and take a few reference photos for later. British Wildlife Drawing : Otters : Demos and Workshops 2) Sketch out the otter Back in the warmth, a rough sketch of the otter was done onto a neutral shade of pastel paper. The main features were added with soft pastels to create some form to work with. British Wildlife Drawing : Otters : Demos and Workshops 3) Build up the layers More colour and depth were created slowly by building up the layers. British Wildlife Drawing : Otters : Demos and Workshops 4) Add some detail The finer details, such as whiskers, were added using well-sharpened pastel pencils. British Wildlife Drawing ...

British Wildlife Artist Writer Illustrator

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