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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.

Nature Garden Sketches London. Art Workshops Kent. Wildlife Drawing London.
Nature Garden Sketches

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.



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