It's well into February already and the sketchbook continues to grow,  I haven't  updated for quite some time, probably since the final entry in book 2, which was June 2022! So here goes with the story up to date. I'll begin with my latest page, which was a little different for me, then I'll tell you about my new sketchbook channel and share a few images from last year.  My latest entry from January 26th 2024. I had to ask myself why I didn't draw this beautiful oak tree before... the answer is that sometimes the obvious things can be 'too close to home' to see, and this ..read more

Last month I competed two new works featuring the Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, both paintings have been submitted to the Irish Native Tree Project organised by the Irish Society of Botanical Artists. The first is and  enlarged detail of fruits on the branch in autumn and the second is a scaled down drawing of the whole tree in winter, which also has life size details of the bark and branches, painted in watercolour.  Above: An enlarged branch x3 and dissections x 3.5. I don't normally enlarge whole subjects, usually I only enlarge the smaller details - so this was an in ..read more

I love a plant with a story and this plant definitely has a story to tell, which is what compelled me to paint it. I was first introduced to the Stelechocarpus burahol or Keppel Fruit tree in October 2018 by fellow artists from the Indonesian Society of Botanical Artists (IDSBA), Eunike Nughoro and Henny Herawati who were kind enough to take me on a tour of many wonderful places in Yogyakarta, Java. This particular tree, is at Taman Sari, otherwise known as the Royal Garden of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta, within Kraton. The tree is also the Royal emblem for the Special Region Yogyaka ..read more

My last update was early spring, so it's time to add more about the sketchbook. I've not completed so many pages this year but that was expected as we come out of the pandemic, and, with other work to do it's a big ask to complete a page every week.  The aim this year was a page every two weeks, which is achievable, given that  23 are completed to date. There are too many for one post so will do this in two. So here goes with March to June, entries 7 - 13:  I left off in the last post with the promise of Celandine for entry no. 7, and it was indeed completed, but I completed ano ..read more

We're already into the third month of the year and spring will be upon us soon, so, it's time for a quick sketchbook update following on from my previous blog post. This year I don't have time to make a sketchbook page every week, but want to keep momentum with recording plants and fungi and aim to complete one at least entry every other week. The project has now come full circle and I'm seeing the plants painted last year back in bloom, this is definitely driving me forward with the project. Sticking to native and naturalised plants makes it slightly more challenging but there is really no sh ..read more

Another year has passed and I've just completed the first 2022 pages in the sketchbook. This is a continuation of the same project as last year, 'Botanical Sketch Dates', which I've been doing with friend Debbie Crawford. My last post was up to week 38 of the book, there have been a few more entries since that time, so here they are.  First entry January 2022 Corylus avellana, Common Hazel The first for 2022 is Corylus avellana, Hazel. The catkins were out by the first week of January so seemed the obvious choice. It's a monoecious native tree which means it has separate male an ..read more

In late January 2021 fellow artist and friend from the US, Debbie Crawford, invited me to join her in a weekly botanical sketchbook project. The idea of a weekly painting seemed ambitious initially but here we are at week 39 and still going strong... we may be almost 3,500 miles apart but we keep in contact every week, most days in fact - to discuss our subjects, life, art and how we are getting along, this is a zero pressure activity yet it challenges us in a good way. The project and friendship became much more important as time passed through various pandemic lockdowns, we called it #botan ..read more

As with many larger painting projects this Cobaea scandens is being painted over a two year growing period. I first grew it from seed, in March 2020 and now into the second year, so hope to finish before the end of 2021. C. scandens is a plant that's remarkably easy to grow from seed, it germinates quickly and grows rapidly and flowers for a long time, from August and into late December, although this year it's only recently flowered.  This is the story of my progress with the painting to date with the study page and initial composition....it's a fairly lengthy process from star ..read more

This isn't my typical blog post but I think it's important to talk about the business of being a botanical artist. It's not an easy choice to work as a full time artist and Illustrator - I made the decision and took the plunge in 1989 and relocated in Scotland - being an artist meant that work location was flexible and what better place for inspiration! Prior to this, just one year was spent at art school before leaving to work at the Royal Doulton design studio, which was good but I wanted to be an artist. So I started painting, researched the 1980's art market and wrote a half-baked business ..read more

I have decided to write the occasional post about some of the plants featured in my sketchbooks. It seems a shame to present a painting without all of the 'other stuff' or back stories, such as the description, history, process of painting or whatever, it's one of the many reasons why keeping a sketchbook is so appealing to me. Of course a finished painting is a stand -alone piece and takes a lot of time, but the process of learning about a plant in a sketchbook study is much more than the visual sum of its parts, and recording in a broader context interests me more and more as I get older. Mo ..read more