Herbarium Reference Book

 Using dried flowers and sketches to create a reference book of plants.

I've been thinking and playing with the idea in my head to create a sketchbook/scrapbook/reference book of some flowers I collected and dried last year. 

I am using a Seawhite pocket concertina book in a box.

The sketch of the Black Medic plant which has tiny yellow flowers and black seed pods. It is also known as Hop Clover or Yellow Trefoil. It is a wildflower found on dry grassland, road banks and waste places. I found this quite near to home on a path between a school and a field. It is a valuable source for pollinators.

Here the dried flower itself can be see quite clearly, especially the seed pods.

xx

Watts Gallery Sketch Saturday March 2025

Watts Gallery, nestled in the Surrey hills on the 

North Downs Way

Had an amazing day at Watts Gallery today attending a workshop that I thought was going to be just about sketching but actually turned out to be an brilliant mixed media session. Kerry, our tutor, took inspiration from the gallery and 'The Spirit of Charleston' exhibition, building sketchbook pages with a variety of studies influenced by the decorative Bloomsbury style. This style is completely new to me and outside of my comfort zone but I still enjoyed using a number of photographs, Kerry provided, to do some pieces of my own. We experimented with watercolour paints, acrylic paints, oil pastels, watercolour pencils, gelli plate, a technique new to me called Dry Point using a water based oil paint, so here are all my designs and a couple of the photos I used for inspiration.

Dry Point

Painting on a gelli plate.

Everyone's finished art.

xx

Incorporate your own sketches into a collage.

 Pen and Ink sketches on distress ink backgrounds with collage

CREATE

During the Pandemic I did very little art but as we came out of it I started drawing some flowers and also some pen and ink flower shapes as silhouette sketches. I started to create collages with both and a few have been mounted in black sketchbooks. The dates of these begin at 7th Feb 2020. So as I have a number completed and a number of small silhouettes ready to use I thought it would be a good opportunity to record them here and perhaps share them to social media. 

Here is the first one and the title word gives the background to my motivation completely. There was I wanting to get creating and making particularly with my own drawings and at the time the silhouettes fitted the bill.

I used an old die cut.......

... and some gold foil....

.... and enjoyed putting the collage together.

Thanks for looking.