Courses!

I've been asked by the Hortus botanicus in Haren (the Netherlands) to give some courses about Botanical Illustration. I put together a full program of different courses throughout the year, starting next April.
If you want to join me there you can look at the schedule on the website of the Hortus (in Dutch).
For more information you can contact me via info@sigridfrensen.com

YAY!

Red List Plants

You might have wondered where I've been and what I've been doing for the last few months. Well, it has been hectic and busy. I didn't want to blog about this project until it was finished. And finishing it took quite some time. I already blogged that I had a tennisarm again. That didn't help at all. But I had a deadline and with that darn arm I kept on working. Now, I'm very happy to say, all the paintings are finished!!! So let me tell you what this project is all about....

About half a year ago Karin Hoogterp, who works at the botanical garden "De Kruidhof" in Buitenpost, asked me if I would be interested in doing an exhibition with them. I love the gardens and I knew Karin from some previous adventures. She told me about the project "BeschermDe Planten" ("Protect the Plants"). This year the garden will (like many other botanical gardens in the Netherlands) focus on plants that are on the Red List of endangered plants in the Netherlands. To tell and show people more about the importance of protecting endangered plants is the main goal.
I selected ten plants of the Red List growing in De Kruidhof to portrayal them. The list is long and many of the Red List are actually growing in Buitenpost in the botanical garden. I'll tell you something about them but let me show you first the entire series.

It's nice to see them all together like this. I was very fortunate to have already two of the list that I have painted some time ago. Maybe you remember the Allium ursinum (top row left), which I painted for the SBA exhibition a few years ago. The other one is even older. It's Scilla siberica (top row right). It was done when I started with coloured pencil and I made it on cold pressed paper.

Anyway, with those two ready I could focus on the the other 8. I thought I'd start "easy" with Tulipa sylvestris (top row, middle). It's yellow and I don't like yellow. But since this is the only wild tulip we have in the Netherlands, I thought it should be on my list of 10 too. I wanted to show the elegance of the tulip. And I had asked myself if I should add more tulips in the painting. I decided not to. Not sure if that was a wise decision but on it's own it looks good enough. Perhaps with more time and with real plants to work with, I would have done a different composition, using more flowers and maybe also the bulbs. But this is it and it's not ugly.

I then started the Calla palustris. I thought it would be great fun but when I started to paint I ruined the leaves. I started again and it turned out terrible once again. At least I thought it looked terrible:

The striped leaves drove me crazy and so I put it away for a few months. Finally last week I got it out again and for half an hour tried again to save it. It didn't work. So again, I started all over from scratch and in a few days finished it. Not super but good enough.

For each of the plants I had to think what I wanted to show and what would be the best way to do it. One of the things I constantly had to keep in mind was that I had a limited amount of time. When I started on the Geum rivale I had to make concessions. Normally I would have painted more flower stems. That's how they grow together, like a round clump of leaves and flowering stems. But the flowers are a bit complicated, the seeds are even more difficult. So I decided to do just one stem with several stages of flowering and a line drawing of a leaf in the back. It worked. Although in this scan you can't see the effect very well.

One of my favourite plants I have in my own garden is Geranium phaeum or Mourning Widow. It looks so beautiful between all the spring flowers. So naturally I wanted to paint this one too. Like the Geum rivale it's often seen in gardens but in the wild it's a very rare plant. It seems strange since they both behave a bit like weeds. The nice thing about this project is that now I know these plants also grow in the wild here. I never realised that before. I always thought to these plants as garden plants and I had never noticed them in the wild. I hope people who will visit the exhibition will realise the same thing.
Anyway, the Geranium was a lot of fun to paint. The dark red is always a favourite colour so this was a real treat. I kept the composition happy and airy. Even though the widow is in mourning I didn't want to make this a serious and heavy one.

And what was next? Tragopogon porrifolius. What??? I know, it sounds like some sort of dinosaur. It actually is the Latin name of Purple Salsify. Another plant I chose for a reason. This plant grows only in a few parts in the Netherlands. One of the areas it grows is very close to where I live. In the western part of the province of Groningen. The plant has a few things that are worth showing. The nice coloured flowers of course and the huge seedheads. A real adventure to paint those.

After the Purple Salsify I felt like doing the rose. There are several roses on the Red List but I picked Rosa spinosissima (Burnet Rose) because it has been one of my favourite roses for many years. To be honest I have never seen it in the wild before, only in botanical gardens. Especially the black hips look very attractive to me. So I sketched the rose, put it on paper and added the colours with coloured pencils. It looked so good that I had to come to the conclusion that adding the black hips would not make this drawing better or more beautiful. The flowers and black hips don't appear at the same time on the plant so I had to do a separate twig with hips. An extra twig would not look good in this drawing. Perhaps I'll do this rose again, making a different composition and with the hips on another twig. For now, just the flowers and a LOT of prickles.

I tried a bit to do the more difficult plants at the end. Rosa spinosissima was complex. All the prickles, white flowers, small leaves... but it made me confident enough to do another plant with very light flowers: Aconitum vulparia or Wolf's Bane or Yellow Monkshood. Gosh that plant was fun!!! Loved the colour, loved the dancing movements of the stems and at the end, I also loved the painting itself.

Having done that one, I only had one more plant to do. And I've postponed it all this time. I even asked myself why I told Karin I would do two different kinds of this plant. I must have been crazy. But I really thought the list of 10 should have at least one wild orchid. Here in this part of the country we have several wild orchids growing. I decided to do two of my favourites. They are both Epipactis orchids. The first is the Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris), a true beauty, the second is the Broad-Leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine), which colours and length may vary depending on the place where it grows. But they are orchids and orchids have complex flowers. So I just started painting and I think it turned out ok. As a small extra I painted a small wasp on one of the flowers. The reason for that is that the Dutch name is Wespenorchis, which means Wasp Orchid.

Anyway... that's it. I'm going to bring my work to the botanical garden this week and some postcards will be sold in their shop. I loved doing this series but am very happy I can now do some other drawings too and most of all, give my arm that well deserved rest.

Ink Flow

I've had a tennisarm for quite a while and it's driving me crazy. Yup, that's one of the reasons why I didn't post something new. Although it's getting better everyday I still can't use it well for painting and drawing like I want to. I have a pile of work waiting for me with a deadline so it's hard sometimes not to get too frustrated. To take my mind of this project waiting for me to continue (and finish in time!) I had to do something to keep me busy.

A friend of mine advised me to take my new ink and my dipping pen and start making quick sketches. No time wasting on observing every little detail, making numerous studies before I really started... no, nothing of that this time. Just sit and sketch with pen and ink.

The first drawing wasn't free at all. I did a sketch first and traced the pencil lines with the dipping pen. The result was nice but not much more than that:

Pyrola rotundifolia (Round-Leaved Wintergreen)

The drawings after this one were much better. Now I must say that I have done this in the past but had totally lost it over the last ten years or so. It's such a relief to let myself go again and not to worry about the mistakes. I HAVE to accept that mistakes will happen and that I can't undo them. I always enjoy much more the sketchbooks and the direct sketches and studies of other artists than their "finished" work. It sounds silly but it never occurred to me that my own sketches might have that same kind of charm.

So for these drawings, I'll show you three here, I made the drawing with my dipping pen (a Speedball pen with Hunt nib 22, extra fine) and three kinds of ink: J. Herbin 'Cacao du Brésil' and 'Vert Olive' and Winsor & Newton Matt Black Calligraphy Ink. Also did wet-in-wet washes with those inks for shape and depth.

Rose hip

Dried Beech leaves in winter

Iris siberica seedpods

Winter subjects with dried old dead stuff is perfect for doing these sketches. So for this the timing is good. Although I really rather have my good arm back and draw for the next exhibition...

I like big bulbs and I can not lie

Next year the society of Dutch botanical artists will get the opportunity to show their work in the Shirley Sherwood gallery in Kew Gardens, London. The mission is to show lots of paintings and drawings of bulb flowers. Naturally it will have the tulips. I guess there is no avoiding those. But I definitely didn't want to portrait tulips, Narcissus, crocuses or hyacinths. There are so many flowering bulbs worth looking at and many much more appealing than the regular narcissus and tulip. So I picked two of my favourite bulbs. Large and gorgeous. First Fritillaria persica:

I did it in coloured pencil and I love how this flower moves like a dancer, swaying her hips.

The second one is Galtonia viridiflora. Not a very common bulb but I have had them in my garden for years and just love the green/cream coloured elegant bells. This one I started in watercolour but half way decided it would look better in coloured pencil.

Hope they both will be admitted for the exhibition in London and that many of you will be able to visit the exhibition. Of course I'll post the announcement of the opening and exact dates here and on Facebook. Until then I'll get started with my next (fun) project. More about that in future posts too ;)

Schwarzwalder

Zantedeschia 'Schwarzwalder', that's her name. I'm sure it's a she. All those delicious curves. And I think that her name doesn't suit her at all. Far too butch for how she looks. So let's just go for Calla. That's what everyone calls her anyway.

I made Calla for the 30 day challenge on Facebook. You can read more about it in a previous post. Because many people are very partial to "black" plants and flowers I decided to post this one here too. I did it this evening using watercolour and coloured pencils. Black colours are wonderful to mix and to paint with. So deep and rich.... hmmmm....

Kunstformen der Natur 2014

Yesterday was the opening of the exhibition "Kunstformen der Natur 2014". Ria Penthum, Martin Horneman, Ron Offermans and myself show our work inspired by the beauties and wonders we can all find in nature. Ten of my works are in this exhibit and most of them are for sale. Besides us are also some pages shown from the book "Kunstformen der Natur" by Ernst Haeckel, the inspiration of the show. The exhibition can be visited until the 15th of November at Atelier Horneman in Groningen.

Arum italicum - finished

So, as promised, here's the finished Arum italicum in coloured pencil. Always a bit of a challenge to scan the reds but this time my scanner did fairly well. I'll send it soon to my friend in England. Hope it will bring a smile to her face :)

30 Day Challenge

Meanwhile..... I'm working on several projects. Besides the Arum (which still isn't finished) I've also decided to take up the 30 day challenge again. For those of you who are not on Facebook and are not a member of the best group on it (Botanical Artists), the 30 Day Challenge is somewhat of a tradition now. Every year in September the members of this group are invited to join the challenge to paint or draw a botanical subject for 30 days. So every day one finished thingy.
Now because I had to work very hard on yet another project I missed a few days already. Going to catch up in the next few days though. For now I've done 5. Here they are.

Rosa rugosa hip

Rosa glauca hips

Rosa moyesii hip

Clematis x jouiniana 'Praecox'

Amanita muscaria

More of the challenge soon. And for everyone who is not yet a member of the Facebook group (WHY NOT????) here's the link: Botanical Artists. Just request membership. ;)

Arum italicum - WIP

One of my dear friends had an accident some time ago and still is in a bad shape. She feels depressed about it all. She lives in England so I can't go and visit her or help her out but I decided to make her a drawing. Something to look at and to know people think about her and care. My drawings are all a small part of me and giving it to someone is the most personal gift possible. I think all artists will agree with me on that.

I have now lots of seedheads of Arum italicum in my garden. They start with green, shiny berries which start (at the top) to turn into bright orange ones. From a distance they look like orange gnome hats in the shadow under the trees. The common name of this plant is Lords-and-Ladies. A really wonderful name, like so many other English plant names.
They make me happy. I really don't like orange flowers and am not crazy about orange berries either but somehow these bright drumsticks make me smile. Perhaps it is that gnome-thing or maybe it's the memory of the sweet Flower Fairies paintings by Cicely M. Barker.

They just have something magical about them. So I picked a few from the garden and started to draw. It's not finished yet. I'm currently working on another big project as well so this takes a bit longer. My son told me I should do it in coloured pencil because it has been too long since I did a coloured pencil drawing. Who am I to disobey. Here's what I did so far. I'll post the finished one soon.

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More bulbs!

I know I've just posted about the tulip mothers but when I uploaded it I saw that I forgot to tell you about my previous bulb painting. They are also tulip bulbs. Very different though. These are very small and have no babies. They are not as silky and shiny as the "Black Hero" bulbs. They are rougher and have the colour of cinnamon. I really love these small ones. They are botanical tulips and look a bit different from the "normal", popular tulips you see everywhere.

So here they are. 6 Small bulbs of Tulipa batalinii seedlings. The scan took away the roots and detail in the fluffy parts a bit but you get the idea.
Not so sure if I'll paint the flowers of them, or of the Black Heroes. I just love bulbs more then the flowers they produce. But... you never know...

Tulip Mothers

A week before Christmas I went to the garden-centre to buy some small stuff for Bertus. At school they make some Christmas arrangement each year from twigs, berries, sparkling ornaments, a candle and other things. So, to buy some bird ornaments and gold glitter stars, I went there and saw the corner with spring bulbs. All on sale now because it's really a bit too late to start planting them now. I found a bag with 5 tulip bulbs (50% off) of a tulip called "Black Hero". The flower was ok, and I saw that the bulbs had small green shoots. When I got home I took them out of the plastic bag and put them in a row in front of me. They all had small babies! So I decided to paint them all... the young mothers with their vibrant green sprouts.

My own little sprout made a gorgeous Christmas arrangement at school, BTW. So... I guess that makes 6 proud mums in total ;)

Sloe on Vellum

It has been a long time since I last painted on vellum. Two weeks ago I found my vellum again and thought it would be fun to paint something  on the calfskin. I rescued last Monday a branch of the Blackthorn in front of our house. Just before the big storm arrived. I love Sloe, the twigs with the thorns, the white flowers in spring and of course the berries in autumn.

It always takes a while to get used to painting on vellum again. It's so different from painting on paper because the paint sits on the surface and doesn't get absorbed. The result is more brilliant and warm. It's more alive. Maybe more on vellum soon...

I Conquered the Conkers

Or "Bonkers for Conkers" could have been great title too I guess. Here it is, at last... the composition I made with the Horse Chestnuts and some twigs and dried leaves from the tree. It's all in coloured pencil and a lot of fun to do. I'm very happy though that I now can do something else again... This weekend I found my vellum. So maybe.....

More Chestnuts

Horse Chestnuts that is. They never bore and they are all so different. I just had to make a series of them. I might do one or two more but thought I'd share what I've done so far. All in coloured pencil.

Conker

So... not reaching the target of 30 this year. Last year it was my arm and now the cold spoiled it. Oh well, I'll just continue with a few, just for fun. Here's a conker in coloured pencil. There might be more of them since there are still many on the trees. And they are loads of fun to draw.

Pomegranate

I will not get all 30 drawings done for the challenge. I got a cold and felt bad the last couple of days. I'll continue though for fun but 30 is no longer my target. It doesn't matter so much. I had fun the first weeks.

Last days I "painted" a pomegranate in coloured pencil. My Italian friend gave me two nice red ones and I had them still in a bowl waiting to be eaten. But before eating them I wanted to paint or draw them. So, with a runny nose and burning eyes I did just that. Time to eat it now and get better ;)

Learning by Teaching

Today I posted this on my wall:

Last week I had a new student here in my studio. It was great. Going back to the basics and telling her lots about graphite techniques and even more about form and shading. Explaining why you put shadows here and not there, why you should do this and not do that.... wow....
All these things I do so automatically and now I need to explain my every action and decision.
It's not easy when someone asks you so many elementary questions. A wise man told me that it's like teaching a foreigner about your own language without being too familiar with all the grammar rules.

Perhaps it was me being the student, not her...

I needed to let it all sink in I guess before I could come to this conclusion. If you can call this a conclusion. It doesn't matter what it is. It was a good thing and that's what matters.  

So talking about this session with my new student, I thought it would be nice if I could show her how you can use atmospheric perspective in a drawing to create a sense of depth. For making this example I had cut off a twig of a Snowberry shrub near our house. I personally don't like them but just like the Cherry Laurel, it looks fine in black and white ;)

I first made a line drawing (my number 12 drawing for the challenge). 

So I created that same twig (using the line drawing as a base) for the tonal study (the no.13), using a bit of atmospheric (aerial) perspective this time.

The photos here didn't turn out so well. I need to try and make better ones. But you get the idea... hope my student does too ;)

Cherry Laurel Update

I managed to finish the Cherry Laurel today. So here it is. No.10 and 11 of the 30 day challenge.

Graphite Warm-Up

On Wednesday I'll be welcoming a new student in my studio. I haven't met her yet but she sent me some photos of her work. What I saw was very promising. We agreed to go back to basics and start with graphite pencils. She already made some pencil work but it looks a bit rough and unfinished. So we'll dive into the graphite techniques.
I haven't worked in graphite for quite some time. And if you have to start after a long break you feel rusty and a bit clumsy. Like a machine that needs to be oiled and warmed up before working well again. Well, that's how it is for me anyway. And I know this. So, to prevent myself from drawing like a beginner next Wednesday, I ordered myself to a warm-up. And since I'm also working on this 30 day challenge on Facebook, I thought to combine the two. So here they are...

First a leaf from some sort of crab-apple in our street. No idea what kind of Malus it is but I always like the leaves and how they curve. It's my first one and I did feel very rusty. I think it shows too and I made a few stupid mistakes (like working too fast and putting in the veins with an embossing tool) but the leaf itself and the lines worked nicely.

Like I said, I knew this would happen. It always does. So next I tried to work slower but it was a small drawing so it went rather quick anyway. A nice Acorn. I love to draw and paint acorns. No idea why but it's just one of my favourite subjects. It went rather well and although it could have been more detailed and smoother I was happy with it.

Today I started a project that will take at least two days. I think the 30 day challenge should be all 1 day pieces but I divided the drawing in two parts. Today I did the fruits, tomorrow I'll do the leaves. I cut a twig of a Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus). I really hate that shrub and never thought I would draw it but in graphite everything looks good. I guess it's like photography. If all else fails, do it in Black and White ;)

More later.

More Treasures

I'm still busy painting my small finds for the 30 days challenge on Facebook. The results are here but the photos are not that good. Most of them taken with my iPhone. But it's just to share it and give you an idea. Also I would like to add that not all thingies are that well painted. I hate painting leaves and the one leaf I did of the Amelanchier lamarckii turned out a bit poorly. So let's start with that one:

The next one I painted was much better and also more fun. It's the seed pods of Iris sibirica. I paint them almost every year because they are never boring.

The one I painted after that was the most fun so far. The seed of a Lime tree or Linden, if you prefer that. Tilia x europaea seeds with a small leaf. It went surprisingly fast and turned out so nice. I'm really happy with this one.

Yesterday I painted a small sprig of flowers of Clematis vitalba. Again, this is a terrible photo but it's the best I could do with my iPhone. Perhaps later I'll try to take a better picture of it.

And today I painted a teeny-tiny Hydrangea flower of my Preziosa. Again, it's one of those subjects I paint every year because I never get tired of them. Actually I'm painting an entire sheet full of those flowers. Each year I take out that sheet and add a few more flowers.

There will be more to come....