My Nature Journals

I began my journals in 2017. This was a few years after getting my dog Jess. Being a Border Collie she was lively, but this time she sat under a tree, amongst the Dogs Mercury, looking up at a squirrel who seemed to be teasing her. The sketchbook I used had been in my bag for a few years, left untouched, mainly by me not having the confidence to make a start on a brand new sketchbook.

The thought of making a mess of this pristine new sketchbook was preventing me from actually using it! But sitting there and being present for that moment was a critical moment in me connecting with the nature around me. This sketchbook was a Moleskine Japanese Accordion Sketchbook that unfolds and seems to go on and on without any boundaries.

There is no single page that can be “messed up”. Finding nature to draw was also something that took me to “get my eye in”. ? But I did seem to be looking for subjects and don’t ask me why I drew a sun with such lovely lips!

At this time I was using a fineliner for my drawings. My line work was rather sketchy and perhaps a bit uncertain. Overtime the line seemed to gain more confidence and the notation became very much part of the illustrations. During the course of that Spring I began to note when sand martins arrived. I was looking up and down, seeing more and more of nature to draw. It was as if nature was drawn to me too.

This was demonstrated when a hare ran into me one day! And I saw a lizard along the riverside where I live - the first one I had seen and I have never seen another since! A unique encounter for me and a memorable one that still revisit in this first journal of 2017.

Moving on a few years and nature is still flourishing around me. Little things too. A black and orange beetle caught my attention one day - it turns out it was a burying beetle or sexton beetle. A fantastic little beetle with a fantastic life story. Even roof top factories carried a story for me. Still using fineliners and Moleskine Nature Journals.

Moving on to the present and the habit of nature journalling has become embedded in me and I am happily drawing a little bit everyday, capturing the remarkable things as well as the ordinary little bits of nature that I encounter. I have changed my drawing style though.

This has come about mainly due to constant repetition but also moving away from fineliners and onto fountain pens. It was a revelation to discover that you could draw with a fountain pen and using waterproof fountain pen ink allows the use of watercolour paints too. The context of the nature I see is also important and I often include some urban sketching within these drawings. Bembridge Windmill provided an important context in which I saw the funny little green beetle with fat thighs.