Nature Garden Sketches

Nature Garden Sketches.

Nature Art Workshop: filling the sketchbook with flowers, fruits and flyers from the country park garden.

Workshop: Saturday 10th August 2019 : 11am - 3pm

Visit High Elms Country Park this summer for a relaxing day out, sketching its formal gardens and wild patches: nature garden sketches of flowers, fruits and flyers (butterflies, bees, birds, dragonflies) are in abundance in the gardens and wildlife patches of this beautiful country park managed by id verde for Bromley Council and historically linked to Kent countryside, just along the road from the home of Charles Darwin.

You will be offered refreshments upon arrival and meet the BEECHE Educational Team Member, whilst you view, sketch and make brief notes on the natural history items displayed at the BEECHE Visitor Centre.

We will then walk a short distance to take in the view across the formal gardens and pause briefly to sketch the garden landscape.

Capture the different flower and plant structures and the more detailed patterns of the petals and leaves that grab your attention, using simple sketches, brief notes and short quotes. There is no need to be able to draw or paint and the workshop is for anyone with an interest in the natural world: nature lovers, nature experts, accomplished artists and beginner artists, gardeners. Sketching the garden, even a country park garden, is an enjoyable way to learn more about the subjects you are interested in - it is a journey, or process, that is most rewarding, rather than the finished product.

What about the flyers?
Some flowers attract more flyers than others. Some gardens are more inviting to wildlife than others.

The formal gardens have wild flower borders and nearby wild patches which, as nature gardens, will increase the chances of spotting birds, butterflies and bees to sketch.

We will return to BEECHE for a break, where you will be able to enjoy your own packed lunch brought from home or a quick lunch in the award-winning Green Roof Cafe, known locally as 'Bromley's most picturesque Cafe', where you can sit out and look across the Wildlife 'nature' Garden and pond.

As wildlife can sometimes be hard to find, you will have another opportunity to revisit and sketch the natural history specimens after lunch (such as nests, eggs, a bird and feathers from a similar large bird, cinnabar and emperor moths) and will given other resources to use with your nature journal or sketchbook before heading out again to discover more flowers and fruits in BEECHE Wildlife Garden, a pretty nature garden with herb garden, orchard and various fruits nearby.

The ornate pond is currently scheduled for repairs but should have a number of pond flowers available to attract dragonflies and damsels. A coot often puts in an appearance amidst the yellow water irises and woodland birds are fly about by the orchard. There should be plenty of bees buzzing around from the apiary managed by Orpington Beekeepers, situated at the end of the Wildlife Garden.

The combination of different resources and subjects available to sketch will give you options to develop your nature sketchbook, or nature garden journal, into a personal record of your observations, which you can look back on later, after the event, or use to develop your art and/or further your interest in nature.

This workshop on nature garden sketches is the second of four nature-themed workshops.

Friday 9th August 9:00-13:00 High Elms Pond wildlife

Saturday 10th August 11:00-15:00 Fruits, flowers and flyers

The next two are:

Friday 16th August 9:00-13:00 BEECHE wildlife garden

Friday 30th August 9:00-13:00 Woodland Habitats and Hedgerows

Book a place on the workshop

Bookings are managed by idverde UK for BEECHE at : www.bromleyparks.co.uk/bookings/

The nature garden art workshops are within an hour or so from areas near Bromley, Sydenham, Clapham, Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Hever, Epsom, Esher, Warlingham, Tandridge and Crawley.

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...

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...

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...

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 ‘...

Watercolour Bird Painting : Green Parakeet

Bird watercolour paintings. Painting animals and birds in detail can be intensive work due to the amount of focus required to, first, 'see' the detail and, then, 'capture' it, in the required medium. A short break from such work can be a useful way to restore energy and bring focus back to the right level of detail. Different art styles - detailed to loose watercolours. This loose watercolour painting of a green parakeet was done a couple of years ago following some traditional, detailed wildlife art. Alternating art styles can provide a rest from looking at wildlife in such a focused way whilst continuing with art and developing new ideas. Unfortunately, this parakeet didn't return the following year for further studies... Watercolour Bird Painting. Green parakeet in the garden. ...but the other morning, when the sky was grey and all other colours were muted into a motionless blank canvas - a parakeet visited the garden and perched in an app...

British Wildlife Artist Writer Illustrator

Search This Blog