Mysore Fig

I'd like to say that I am still working outdoors but I confess I retreated inside one of the greenhouses. I have been drawing a Mysore Fig that has grown rampant and is extending to the roof. Definitely inside the tropical part of the three climate greenhouse is the place to be. However this winter continues to be mild temperature-wise. I have managed a brief watercolour session out in the botanical gardens. The huge storms coming over do mean that watercolour proves to be a challenging medium.     

Mysore Fig

banana plant from the same greenhouse

banana plant again

tea

A New Year and while I can I am enjoying the strangely warm weather. I was working in the Hortus Botanicus today. The investigative project on the life and death of trees continues.

Dusk at the Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam

I could claim my head was full of lofty, creative thoughts but the reality was I spent quite some time dreaming of a nice hot cup of tea. 8 degrees C is not particularly cold but not exactly the sort of temperature for working outdoors and after being immobile for an hour my fantasy did not extend beyond hot beverages. There is something profoundly grounding to work outdoors, to feel the temperature, the wind, to try to grab seconds of sunshine and to focus on essential things like drawing and tea.

"hints of … perfection…."

Sometimes returning to familiar environments can be both reassuring and energizing. I have Swiss family and since I was 3 months old I have been visiting Switzerland. To start my New Year I spent a few days in the French speaking part.

view from the Chateau of Prangins

The weather was astoundingly mild. The sky blue and the view of the Lake of Geneva was beautiful, I know it has hints of chocolate box perfection but this is a special view of the Alps and from this distance they are like lace edging to the sky. They are hiding their more grey, foreboding nature.   

Trees at the entrance to the Chateau

My obsession with trees continues despite having a day off and visiting the Chateau de Prangins- one of three National Museums of Switzerland. 

worked stone

I've returned from my first trip to Orkney. This had been on my wish list of places to visit for many years. I thought December in Orkney would be all horizontal rain and storms but I arrived between storms and it was warm and quiet. Warmer than further south which was pleasantly bemusing.

There is so much I want to draw I am not sure where to begin…

house at Skara Brae looking at the stone dresser 

I started with 3100 BC and spent two hours visiting Skara Brae, Europe's best preserved Neolithic village. Wow. So much remains of these stone structures, it's an environment where people lived and worked and conveys a sense of reality. The entire complex of houses are interconnected, like nests in the dunes, snuggled away from the wind. These were the people who also created the extraordinary shard-like Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.

One of the stones of Stenness. 

Orkney has so many layers of history. Driving through the landscape there were remains from the First and Second World Wars. Here are the ruined sheds by the site of the gun emplacements at Yesnaby.

Finally the hills of Hoy from a beach near Stromness. The winter afternoon light was dissolving into blue night. The longest night is almost upon us and daylight is precious.

chestnut rain

I had a short but extremely intense residency in the Netherlands. The first time I have ever been in residency in the country I live in. I was a guest of the Artist Residence Dalen supported by the family Sanders-ten Holte. I want to thank them for their kind support and their belief in my Tree project. 

Oak tree drawing in progress 

These were probably the wettest 5 days I have experienced in the past few months. The drawing above would not dry outdoors. I had to work on plastic sheeting (generously donated by the interior design shop next door) and I carried this indoors to dry, the paper was so damp it took two days to fully dry out. This hadn't stopped me working.

After three days there was a break in the clouds and in those moments I worked under the shelter of these trees (amongst many).

horse chestnut trees Dalen

The winds meant that all around the trees were dropping seeds and the noise of falling chestnuts and acorns was audible.

snack bar Dalen

Dalen is a friendly, small town. Even for the brief period I was there I enjoyed it and felt welcomed. I would also add on the evidence of the snack bars, outrageously optimistic, it takes a brave soul to eat ice-cream in cool, rainy weather.

another snack bar in Dalen

two recent exhibitions

Suddenly after spending a quiet summer making drawings I had two group exhibitions. The first has just ended last week. I was part of a group drawing exhibition at Art Affairs Gallery in Amsterdam. It was the first chance to show the drawing of the Turner's Oak since its creation in the Botanical Gardens this summer.

Turner's Oak, 2013

Then at the same time I was selected to show in the Salisbury Open Drawing exhibition in Salisbury, Wiltshire. I hadn't been to Salisbury for years and I loved the opportunity. The exhibition is still on view until early November at the Salisbury Arts Centre. Lobster Head Cove was made as a result of my earlier residency with Gros Morne National Park and The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery.

Lobster Head Cove rock formation

Between showers

Haltingly temperatures have improved. The rain has stopped long enough for me to draw for several days. I have joined the Amsterdam Botanical Gardens. This is the trunk of the Turner's Oak there. A hybrid of the Holm Oak and the English Oak, the original grown in the Essex nursery of a Mr Turner in 1783. This one is of a later date but equally fascinating. I am quietly obsessed by the convoluted form and I draw it regularly. 

Turner's Oak

I bring my large paper roll into the gardens and I have gained a new friend perhaps because I am a little unusual and sit at duck height on the ground. I am visited daily in the hope that I might finally learn to bring food with me. Apparently this duck and its mate spend the whole summer every summer in the gardens. They nest under cafe tables.