You may have noticed by now that I love drawing birds and flowers, so to accompany my bird of the fortnight posts, I’m also doing a plant of the fortnight series. Just like its avian sister it will feature three very quick black and white felt-tip sketches of various favourite flora and fauna, then a final watercolour and ink illustration.
I’m kicking off with wood anemone. These are a most welcome sight when I go walking in Wivenhoe wood, so much so we tried to grow them in our garden (they didn’t like our clay soil). Watch out on Friday for my worked-up version.
Earlier this week I posted some super quick sketches of a chaffinch. Here is my finished worked up colour version using watercolour paint and a selection of black ink artist pens.
Wonderfully, chaffinches are one of the UK’s most common birds and, brilliantly, they’re not believed to be in decline. Chaffinches are gorgeous birds and add a real splash of colour to our woodlands, hedgerows, fields, parks and gardens. Unlike a lot of birds in the UK you can actually spot these in most parts of the country; from the parks of central London to the birchwoods of northern Scotland. And I read that they have been found to have regional accents, with slight differences in the typical song depending on where in the country the bird lives. I’m a massive fan of different accents (believe me there is no voice I don’t like) so this pleases me greatly.
Find out more about this fabulous creature at the RSPB website.
Welcome to my new little series, bird of the fortnight. Every two weeks I’ll do three quick black and white sketches then one really detailed, worked up illustration of a bird that takes my fancy. At the start of the week I’ll show off my sketches then give you the finished, polished drawing at the end of the week with some info on the creature itself.
My first one is a favourite of mine, the colourful chaffinch. I love these little guys. Look out on Friday for my final portrait of this most charming of garden and woodland bird.
I couldn’t resist sharing this pic with you. These gorgeous dahlias, so prevalent in the month of August, were actually grown in our garden. There are so many blooms coming from it, we’ve had to cut some for the house in order to let the little blossoms thrive.
Forgive me proper gardeners, I’m still quite new to this. In fact this is our first year of growing dahlias so I’m really pleased with this, having learnt that planting flowers for the garden is all about celebrating the little successes. I’m hoping this wonderful abundance of velvety flower heads isn’t a fluke and we have the same again (or even more) next year.
Despite the rain this afternoon I’ve had a very pleasant Sunday. Amazingly it was spent generally tidying up the house and, particularly, the garden.
Over the past month or so we’ve been enjoying the flowers that late summer has brought us as they mingle among the wildness of dried allium blooms and silvering poppy heads. The latter were starting to look scruffy though, rather than romantic, so today I did a bit of dead-heading and cutting down, which gave me a whole new set of things to display in the house. I like showing off dried flowers as a great, cost-effective way of adding notes of interest to a space; they look very effective as floral arrangements and are a nice way of gently preparing yourself for autumn.
So, that done, I’m also treating me and the good Dr to one of his favourite dishes, a roast tomato and pepper broth with potato, butter beans and greens. It’s warming – perfect for a rainy day like today – but the tomatoes and peppers give it a sweet taste of late summer. Find the recipe here.
They’ve featured everywhere in style magazines recently, but what exactly is a succulent, and how can make them work for you? Here’s my quick guide.
What is a succulent?
They are plants adapted for arid conditions where they might need to store water to survive. To do this, succulents have thick, fleshy leaves. They come from all round the world – cacti from desert regions and Alpine plants that are more commonly seen in garden rockeries. It’s something of a catch-all, umbrella term, however, and sometimes cacti with needles are though of separately. My drawing, above, illustrates some of the common species of succulent – there are many, many variations within each species.
Succulents at Ella’s Place.
Are succulents easy to care for?
Yes. This perhaps explains some of their popularity. They’re easy to pick up from the local garden centre or florist (the ones above came from my local florist and B&Q!). Unlike some plants, they’ll cope with a little neglect. Generally, they like moisture but not being overwatered. Let them dry out completely between waterings and never let the the soil get soggy. If you’re planting outdoors, make sure the soil has good drainage. If they’re in a pot, make sure it has drainage holes in the bottom.
So are they really outdoor or indoor plants?
Some succulents are hardy and fit to survive northern European climates all year round. Some are from tropical regions that need to be looked after indoors over winter. Check the plant label to see which type of succulent you’ve got. Hardy plants can also be grown indoors, of course, and it’s really this that inspires the current trend. They’re great for small spaces and will be happy brightening a windowsill in any room of the house, as well as being a natural point of interest on a vintage sideboard or bookshelf.
How do I style them to look their best?
The fleshy leaves and range of shapes and colours of succulents means they’re already impressive-looking plants. Try grouping them together against a clean background to show off their various forms and textures.
And here’s my own test for any flower, foliage and plant trend: does it work for a wedding? The answer, as seen below in a table setting, is yes. Stunning!
Last week I spent a few days in South Devon and the weather was beautiful. At this time of year, when nature is starting to reach its vibrant peak, colours come into their own and seem to create a palette of pink, white, green, yellow and blue.
PINK
The hedgerows, meadowlands and walls were full of wild red valerian, which is sometimes known as kiss-me-quick, fox’s brush or Jupiter’s beard. It was everywhere.
WHITE The white ‘albus’ form of valerian also smothered swathes of the cliffs at Berry Head, while the higgledy-piggledy buildings of Brixham’s harbour reminded me that what we think of as ‘white’ is usually a mixtures of other, softer colours – creams, yellows, blues and pinks.
GREEN Some of those harbourside walls are gradually being ‘greened’, while a walk through the Grove took me back to Andrew Marvell’s poem ‘The Garden’ and the line ‘a green thought in a green shade’.
YELLOW The sunny week in June saw me and Dr B spend afternoons in some of the secluded coves along South Devon’s coast. I am fascinated by lichen (it’s starting to cover the roof of my little studio) and on one afternoon the dappled sunshine was reflected in the golden colour of the lichen on the rocks at the foot of the cliff – it’s almost an abstract painting.
BLUE And of course, when it comes to blue, the sea and the sky around Torbay provided perfect inspiration.
One of the things I love about June is seeing the phlox in full bloom. I love its masses of small, star-shaped flowers bedecking garden borders, filling them with colour.
Most phlox people grow in British borders are derived from the American native phlox paniculata. Phlox is a relative new come to British gardens as it was brought from America by phlox-breeder Captain Bertram Symons-Jeune in the 1950s and made popular by gardener Alan Bloom in the 1970s.
Annoyingly, much as I love them, and however many times I read they are easy to cultivate, these flowers do not grow in my garden – they don’t seem to like our Essex estuary clay soil. So I will have to content myself admiring other’s borders and with drawing these flowers instead.
The robin has been crowned the nation’s favourite bird in the National Bird Vote.
More than 224,000 people took part in the poll, the result of which was announced today.
As someone who loves birds and drawing them, this vote was of real interest to me. It was organised by ‘urban birder’ and Springwatch contributor David Lindo and polls closed on the day of the general election. Thirty four per cent voted for the robin – a garden favourite – with the barn owl coming second and the blackbird taking third place.
My favourite bird, the puffin, came tenth.
The result didn’t particularly surprise me as my robin cards and garden bird cards have been hugely popular for a little while now – you can check them out on my Not On The High Street Shop.
Here’s the National Bird Vote top ten in full
1 Robin
2 Barn Owl
3 Blackbird
4 Wren
5 Red Kite
6 Kingfisher
7 Mute Swan
8 Blue Tit
9 Hen Herrier
10 Puffin
Henry Moore, Antelope 1982 Etching. From the Animals in the Zoo album
Years and years ago, I had an exhibition of my screenprints at Medcalf Bar in London’s Exmouth Market. Me and Dr B ended up spending quite a lot of time in the area showing friends and family my work. On our various visits we would end up popping into a gallery, Inked Art, at the top of the Market.
Run by the wonderful John and Pat Crossley, the gallery featured some amazing prints by 20th-century British artists, including some absolutely stunning etchings by Henry Moore. John is a master printer and learned his trade at Bradford College of Art – where Hockney studied. John has made prints for some of the most celebrated British 20th-century artists, some of which made it into the gallery.
Obviously I’d seen Moore’s sculptures before and I’d studied his war shelter drawings as part of a personal project, but I had never seen his animals sketches. The sensitivity of his line and deftness in which he draws conjures up feelings of both awe and envy in me. I’ve since been obsessed with Moore’s line and cite him as a key influence in my own work.
Henry Moore, Sheep with Lamb IV 1972 , Presented by the artist 1975
You can see some of Moore’s animal pieces here. The gallery is now a luxury kitchen showroom (that’s gentrification for you) but you can still buy from Inked Art and check out its print collection at the gallery’s website.
This is the shop for Ella Johnston. Here you can buy original artwork, prints, stationery and homewares from my archive. Dismiss
