OBSERVATIONAL DRAWINGS
Practicing figures by drawing from Gardener's World
Conte, black pencil & oil pastel
Conte, black pencil & oil pastel
Conte
Conte, watercolour & oil pastel
Conte, black pencil & oil pastel
Conte & oil pastel
Using hyacinth flowers and gouache to create texture, plus conte sketch
Developing figures
More observational drawings
EXPERIMENTING WITH REPURPOSING FOOD WASTE
GARDENING AT HOME AND AT PLATT FIELDS MARKET GARDEN
Repotting a redcurrant bush
Clearing the garden
Planting calendula seeds
After prepping a bed for planting
Free lunch on site!
DAVID HOCKNEY - 'SPRING CANNOT BE CANCELLED'
I love Hockney's work and how 'alive' his drawings are. His digital work is vibrant and saturated, and his latest collection of work 'Spring Cannot Be Cancelled' is no exception. I like the similarities that occur between the message that both mine and Hockney's work share - capturing the tenacity of nature and how we can learn from it. I am particularly interested in replicating a similar energy to my observational drawings and think Hockney's work teaches a lot about playing with colour and perspective in order to create a feeling rather than just an image.
PRACTITIONER RESEARCH - AMY MOSS
Similar to why I am attracted to Hockney's work, I like the energy Amy Moss' work has. I especially like her tendency to leave elements unfinished or let a single line give the illusion of something else. I also think her way of working and documenting information has a lovely authentic quality to it, something I also want to come across in my own work.
MORE OBSERVATIONAL DRAWINGS ON SITE
Sketches documenting an externally funded session at the market gardens.
VISITING HARLOW CARR
My visit to Harlow Carr ended up being really insightful! It was a completely different style of gardening to that at Platt Fields Market Garden and, being much larger, had a wide array of different styles of planting. From floral borders, to a woodland area, bamboo section and a veg garden.
Taking photos of all the naturally occurring colours has also really inspired me and I'll definitely be drawing inspiration from these photos when establishing a colour palette.
Harlow Carr had also recently partnered with The Poetry Project, and there were plaques and standing signs with poetry related to gardening and wellbeing placed throughout the garden. I really liked this element and approached the poet James McInerney to utilise one of his poems for my publication, which he has very kindly agreed to!
BEGINNING TO RESEARCH LAYOUT DESIGN
Annotations are on the captions for each image, hover or click on the image to see.
Looking at how type and image work in unison. I especially like the designs where illustrations come out of a bound space.
Classic design; layout reminds me of newspapers
Looking at the variety of seed packet designs and which ones appeal the most. I am most drawn to the classic and centred styles
INVESTIGATING TYPE
Taking notes on and gaining perspective from the Monotype 2021 Trend Report
GARDENING AND WELLBEING RESEARCH
This video from the RHS gives insight into a study, whose results suggest that the greater frequency that a person gardens, the greater health benefits you can gain. They surveyed over 6,000 gardeners and found that people who gardened daily had higher levels of wellbeing and lower levels of stress, followed by people who garden two - three times a week.
“when gardening, the brain is distracted by the nature around us. This shifts the focus away from ourselves and our problems and thereby restores the mind and reduces negative feelings”
RHS Wellbeing Fellow, Lauriane Chalmin-Pui