Rose Castle Nature Journal weekend. An exploration of built and natural heritage of this historic location surrounded by beautiful countryside.
Read MoreA completed Chapbook journal showing a mix of nature and historic subjects.
Workshop Season
Okay it is always workshop season to be honest. And whilst you may think you need access to a garden or nature reserve to experience nature …. well who knew - you don’t! Nature is all around. Just look into the gutters, cracks in the pavements, walls, drain pipes, the clouds. There is always something to find and draw. The above sketch was done by one of the attendees in a workshop recently - and we found loads of stuff in a small urban community garden - packed full of interesting nature - from coltsfoot - one of the earliest of the dandelions to flower to bitter dock growing like salad leaves all over the place.
I had never heard of this hoverfly until one of my students drew this one.
Boundless Nature
The latest course at the Natural History of Northumbria’s nature reserve in Gosforth saw us create our own nature journals through a guided and accessible drawing session. The resulting journals will now be accessioned into the archives held at the The Great North Museum at the Hancock.
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A lovely journal created by one of the artists today.
North Shields Library Nature Journal Session
This was a lovely nature journal session at North Shields Library and this little message from one of the artists was so touching. The session involved my little chat about chapbooks, Enid Blyton and how eggs get their patterns. Basically me blethering on for a bit! then a nature walk and straight back into the library to draw.
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A spread of just a few of the amazing things I saw in my last trip to the Isle of Wight.
A journey to the Isle of Wight
Creating a nature journal is not a difficult thing to do and is so rewarding. For many people the fear of “spoiling” the sketch book is a barrier to them starting their journey. My workshops are designed to take the fear away and remove all barriers to creating your own nature journal. you do not need to be an artist to observe and record nature and may people come to me saying they “aren’t artists” but go away with beautiful little nature journals and a new found confidence and belief in themselves.
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Heads down for an exploration of the acrchives
Exploring the Archives
The first session of the exploration of the archives took place this week and we used the Chapbook format that I have developed for nature journalling - this allows us to create a lovely little concertina piece of art.
Read MoreForest Hall Family Day
It was Family Day at Forest Hall Library today and we all had a lovely time drawing the simplest of things. I provided my unique little concertina nature journals which I have made just for this purpose. These little journals are a great way to get started in nature journalling.
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A lovey spread of flowers from one of the artists attending the workshop.
Forest hall revisited
Another lovely nature day with some fantastic artists and lovely people. We enjoyed a half day of doing something really simple and nourishing - drawing nature and loving nature.
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Nature Journal Creation from simple everyday subjects
Love Nature at Forest Hall Library
Another shortcut to nature journalling at Forest Hall Library. Despite being a cold January start we all managed to find something beautiful to draw.
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Ovington Trees nature workshop
Ovington Trees Project invited us to host two workshops in Ovington Village in Northumberland. This was attended by adults and children from the local community. the whole day was so lovely and thanks to the homemade cakes and pastries was a pleasure to be a part of.
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New Season of Nature Journalling
We have a new season of nature journalling being organised. Once again we are happy to be part of Quirky Workshops Spring programme.
We hope to see you there and we will be working on a mini concertina sketchbook that I will be providing. We will be drawing from observation in the gardens at Quirky Workshops as well was from reference photographs and illustrations that I will provide.
If you are able to do a nature walk yourself why don’t you take some photographs of your observations and bring them with you. I will be helping you to develop your own style of drawing and painting so that you can take this away with you and begin your own journey of Nature Journalling.
Dates for this course are Thursday 17th April 2025.
You can book here.
An example of one of the lovely artworks created by one of the attendees in this season’s workshops at Quirky Workshops.
A hare ran into me today and I held my breath.
BOOK 1 - 1 APRIL TO MAY 2017
The first of my Nature Journeys captured in a Moleskine Concertina sketchbook. A journey that began 1 April 2017. The highlight was a hare running into me.
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