April Round-up
Pop the kettle on it's time for a brew!
Dear Reader,
Welcome to my monthly catch-up.
This is where I give you an overview of what’s been going on this month and highlight any particular projects that I think will be of interest.
I will also include a favourite sketchbook spread, flowers that I see springing up on the Lizard, a comment on the weather and any thoughts on the season and at the end share with you what’s coming up for May.
April Stats
Wildflowers spotted: Red Campion, Forget-Me-Not, Kidney Vetch, Spring Squill, Yellow Archangel, Borage, Perriwinkle, Western Fumitory, Green alkanet, Early Purple Orchid, Three Cornered Leek, Celandine, Dog Violet (and many more)!
Weather: Definitely more days of sunshine, but still at times cold
This month I have mostly been: Leading my art retreat, running a zoom session, creating maps and making zines!
This month has been a mix of illustrating maps for my regular clients Ferment and Glug, finishing work on a couple of client maps (including the one above) and preparing and planning for my art retreat that happened 24th-26th April. I’ve also be creating new designs for greeting cards, postcards and my latest zine which I’ll announce in a later post. If you can’t wait till then, you can have a peek here.
Just a few days ago I ran my first Art Retreat here on the Lizard peninsula at Penmenner house and it was a wonderful few days of drawing, walking, exploring, meeting new friends and eating great food. I will give a proper review of the time away and what we got up to later in the month but suffice to say it went well, the weather remained dry with just the odd shower on the last day and we said goodbyes in blazing sunshine.
I felt blessed to have been joined by such a lovely encouraging, international group, (we had Beate from Norway and Cat from the Isle of Man) that were willing to trek over path and sty and even at 7 in the morning for a quick sketch. If you want to watch and see more I’ve just posted this video to YouTube that gives you a longer look at what we did.
Draw-a-long Wildflower Session Recap
Some of you may have joined me for my wildflower Draw-a-long that also happened this month. It was a frantic time of introducing over 30 wildflowers and drawing them. It’s been lovely to see all the sketches of what was drawn and I was particularly encouraged to hear how the session helped warmed folk up and got them sketching. I hope to run more of these in the future.
Coming up at the end of May I’ll be taking part in Cornwall Open studios at Lowenek Art Studio, where I was last year and will be running a wildflower themed colour and collage workshop. If you will be in the area and want to join please find all the details to book on here. I’ll be writing a longer post to let you know what I’ll be sharing and showing later in the month.
Favourite Sketchbook Page
My favourite page this month was created the day after my art retreat finished! I rose at 6.30am and went out towards the cliffs. It was dry and completely quiet bar the birds. A very restful time spent sketching and reflecting on the month.
Coming up for May on Substack
Here’s what I’ll be writing / sharing with you on Substack this month (P for paid and F for free) A few extra things are coming in for May!
Process and Play *NEW series P
Upcoming events and new products! F
Art Retreat review F
Sketchbook pages for March P
Explore and Draw podcast Ep.14 P
Sketchbook Surgery no.5 P
May Roundup F
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Hope this newsletter find you well,
I know your studio during the tour will be lovely. Wish I could come across the ocean to see