JOURNAL

Your Daily Petal...

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How could you not love a Hellebore? The very first flowers to usher us from Winter in to Spring, so hardy against the frost and snow, and yet giving us a burst of colour, texture and beauty... a promise of what is to come. They are pretty high on my favourites list (yes, it's quite long!) and I so enjoyed painting these ones!

Day 12: #yourdailypetal

XO

Your Daily Petal...

Hello! Day eight of #yourdailypetal are these cheery wee Anemones!

Really enjoyed this colour palette of pinky purples, and the super dark navy blue centres. They are reasonably playful studies, and I love the way the watercolour pools at the edges of the brush-strokes...

XO

Your Daily Petal...

I drew these stunning Dahlia's once before, but only in pen and ink - I photographed them a few summers ago at the Botanic Gardens in Belfast and fell in love with their hot orange colour, wavy and wany petals and just how gorgeous they were! It was such a treat to revisit this subject, but this time in colour...

Dahlia's are right up there as one of my favourite blooms, so it's nice to spend some time with these as peak season is still some way off! 

XO

Your Daily Petal...

I used this foxglove as the promo image for the #yourdailypetal series... thinking I was going to do some more work to it. But sometimes, you just have to leave things as they are, and they're finished before your mind and your hands are ready to stop. I'm glad I took a break on this one, as I love her exactly as she is!

Those beautiful shades of pink, (warmly advancing and coolly receding), have my heart. Hard to beat a foxglove, you know.

XO

Your Daily Petal

Day four of my #yourdailypetal drawing challenge is these cheerful little fellows... 

I photographed them last Summer at Rowallane Gardens, and I just loved their delicate petals, bright yellow colour and sturdy pom-pom-like centres! I couldn't resist busting out some of my vintage cigarette cards to see if I could spot any just like these... I didn't, but the colours were to pretty not to include.

XO

Belfast in Springtime...

When I first started dating my lovely husband, and began visiting Belfast (we were dating long distance between Glasgow and N.I.), one of the first things he did was take me to the Botanic Gardens. So I often find myself pouring over that set of photos, from April 2009, loving on the magnificent Magnolia's and beautiful hyacinth beds. Last week we decided to take the morning and have a stroll around the Botanic Gardens and see what was growing... everything is ever so slightly later this year, so it will be another few days until the blossom is in fullest bloom and the big fat pink Magnolia's are out... though I was lucky and caught an epic display from the white ones, against this *stunning* blue sky...

Double Daffodils and Narcissus galore... pom poms of yellow, and feathery whites... so gorgeous!

The Camellia were pretty spectacular, and the Rhododendron were on form, too... I even loved the dried and unkempt edges from Winters touch - contrasting so beautifully with all the new Spring greens.

Visit soon, if you can. 

XO

Your Daily Petal...

Day three of #yourdailypetal drawing challenge... is a petite one! The mister asked me to draw a bee for a friend of his who keeps bees, so I couldn't help but add a few flowers - after all, what is a bee without pollen?! It was taken from a series of photographs I took last summer in the Botanic Gardens of bees buzzing around on the plants - this one was especially cute & photogenic!

Quite enjoying pushing myself to find a looser, faster style (of course a lot to do with reduced size!) for these little ones...

Hope your weekend has been lovely!

XO

Your Daily Petal...

Saturday 2nd April - Today's #yourdailypetal illustration is a Fritillaria Imperialis... these spiky beauties are so grand and majestic, aren't they? I really enjoyed the palette of burnt orange through to soft burgundy purple tones on the stem and contrasting with fresh greens. I'm not normally the biggest fan of orange, but these would convert anyone!

Thank you for following along with my Daily Drawing challenge...

XO

Your Daily Petal...

I kicked off my new drawing challenge, Your Daily Petal #yourdailypetal, yesterday to celebrate the start of a new month! 

The plan is to share something I've drawn, illustrated and/or painted every day for as long as possible. Couldn't resist sharing this one - new Meijer Four Seasons Roses, incredible mutant Parrot Tulips (which had petals growing half way down the stem... amazing!), white ruffly Ranunculus and elegant Veronica. A pretty little grouping, don't you think?

Lots of people message me about the materials I use, so I thought I would mention it at the beginning - I use Windsor & Newton Cotman Watercolours, Staedler 0.05 fine liner pens and Edding 0.1 fine liner pens. I do my drafting in H pencil... pretty straight forward, really!

Hope you will follow along on my instagram, facebook page and keep an eye here on the blog too for updates...

Can't wait to share more! 

XO

NYC Flower Market...

Last year, hubs and I were lucky enough to spend two weeks in New York. It was our first trip to the city for both of us - and we were staying over in Brooklyn, in an awesome air bnb brownstone apartment. It was as amazing, inspiring and as electrically creative and unique as we expected it to be - even more laid back, and much more than the sum of it's parts. We would pretty much move there in a hipster heartbeat given the opportunity!

I was super inspired by all the beautiful flower shops I stumbled across, and one of my 'must do' things before arriving was to have an early morning start and visit the NYC Flower Market itself. And boy, was I glad I did...

Rather than being one big under-cover market, the NYC Flower Market is actually one long street, with lots of different shops and traders - selling their flowers wholesale, to trade customers (Florists & Stylists). Each specialising in their own thing, and of course, with some cross-over too. Some of the shops are trade only, whereas some will sell to the public, but they were all happy for us to come in and browse and they all let me shoot some photos when I asked permission, which I am happy to share with you today!

Before I went, I had watched and re-watched this fab video from Amy Merrick (who, just in case you don't know, is a floral genius and one of the pioneers of todays modern floristry style that focusses on simple natural form) for design*sponge, which I had bookmarked three years ago.

I think you'll enjoy it too and it will show you the market in more depth...

Although we were there in the depths of winter (the worst NY snowfall in 120 years!) and there wasn't the same variety of blooms as you might find in warmer seasons, it was still a wonderful experience for me and I loved over-hearing the NY florists designing their weeks curation based on what was fresh, beautiful and inspiring... it was really inspiring to see how creative, in depth and considered that purchasing was - it's not just grabbing some wraps of chrysanthemums or lilies (because that's what people want), it was really discussing how they could offer something different, challenging and unique for their clients - and their customers were obviously interested in something new, fleeting and truly seasonal and expected to see something different in store week to week. We found the design market in general in NYC much more open to something more considered, handmade, and in turn, more expensive... Really inspiring and encouraging!

Although it was Winter, so there was a lot of early spring flowers (narcissus, anemone, ranunculus, hellebore, tulip etc), what I was especially excited to see was the variety of flowering branches, foliage and structural plants that we just don't have access to here - fiddle leaf fig trees, which are SO hard to get in the UK - fruited branches, vine plants such as unusual trailing jasmines and clematis, and my big US discovery - Tweedia - so beautiful, in blue and white. So, from a creative point of view, these materials allow floral designers so much option, and it was really great for me to see this produce in person and get lots of ideas. Best - Day - EVER, essentially.

It's pretty rainy here in Belfast today, so this is making me want to hop on a plane pretty badly! Who's with me? XO

Your Daily Petal, coming soon...

An important part of what I will be doing at PETAL studio is re-focussing on my botanical illustration work... although I have worked as a designer for over a eleven years now, as most designers and makers know, you spend a surprisingly short part of your year actually doing the fun stuff! 

So I am working towards launching a daily drawing & painting practise and I actually can't WAIT! It will give me a framework to accomplish some projects I have in the pipeline and a chance to explore different subjects and mediums without needing the excuse of a specific project/subject or deadline. For an artist, this is pretty much the most exciting thing EVER!

I will ideally be aiming to share an image on my instagram account daily - of something I've drawn, painted and illustrated. Now, this is maybe a tall order, as some of my more worked up illustrations can take up to 20+ hours, so there will be a variety of pieces shared... some doodles, some in progress, and some completed. Sometimes, schedule dictating, I might also create more than one drawing per day, and then share it over the following days - but I know that is normal for 365 art projects!

It will be called 'Your Daily Petal' #yourdailypetal and I can't wait to officially kick it off in the next few weeks!

Hope you'll join me for daily floral goodness! xo

Flowers at Dior...

I don't know about you, but sometimes, you first realise that you really care about something (and I mean, REALLY care, even if you already knew you loved it) when you have an unnaturally strong reaction to something. Something seemingly innocuous. And so...

One evening we plonked ourselves down in front of Netflix and scrolled through our nightly options as we waited for the pooches to have their mad half hours and fall asleep. This mainly consists of them biting each other whilst growling, sometimes on the floor, sometimes while jumping on our heads... their tails are wagging, and if I try to stop them they innocently look at me like I've stolen all that is good and light in the world, so, after all these years, we just resolve to sit through it and wait for the calm after the storm.

Following the storm, we settled to watch the documentary, 'Dior and I' - as a bit of an antidote to our series binging, but also because we had meant to forever, and it looked so great. The premise is, Raf Simons, former head designer at Jil Sander (known for minimalism, clean lines and pared back utilitarian chic) had been hired as head of Womenswear at Christian Dior - possibly the most beautifully feminine, indulgent, French, adorned and adored fashion house in the world, made famous for inventing the "New Look" post war - celebrating female bodies with cinched waists and hourglass forms. The appointment of Raf Simons as creative director at Dior, after the removal of John Galliano (a more natural fit aesthetically) was highly controversial so the documentary focusses on the weight of the appointment on Raf himself, personally, the impossibly tight deadlines in the fashion industry and how this affected the House as a whole, the staff who craft the clothing (he doesn't speak French! Mon Dieu!) and the point he had to prove in rejuvenating the brand and upholding the faith that had been placed in him to embody the spirit of 'Dior'... 

But that's all beside the point.

As the runway show draws near, Raf wants to create something unbelievably striking and pitches the idea of a Floral installation to the Director of Dior. He wants to bring on board the Belgian florist Mark Colle to line the walls of a Parisian townhouse (which is unbelievably stunning in it's own right!) where the collection is going to be walked through for the Fashion Show, with flowers. It's a huge undertaking and the budget eye-watering.

The Boss says yes.

You watch as every wall, alcove and doorway in the building is completely bathed, blanketed and enswathed with flowers - both mixed blooms for a neon explosion of contrasts and textures, to entire rooms of one colour, one flower, such as delphinium which engulfs the room in cobalt blue... changing hue on each wall, as the light floods in through the enormous windows. It took a team of 50 people four straight days to install the flowers and as I watched it emerge, I cried.

It was so unbelievably beautiful, so overwhelming - that flowers could look like that, create that, that people would care so much about them to invest in something like this, both financially and physically... it was just mind-blowingly incredible. Apparently you could smell the scent of the installation for three blocks. I mean, wow. Right?

The tear inducing beauty of these flowers, these rooms and how amazing it was, was one of the things that made me realise - that maybe, just maybe - flowers were supposed to be even more important and present in my life than they already were.

 

*all images c/o Mark Colle website and the photographer is Sophie Carre

Wintering...

It's been such a mild Winter so far, it's unbelievable that so much is still blooming... hello geraniums and the odd Rose in the garden! But following a few days of darkness and rain, I was ready to get my boots on and be outside. We were rewarded with the most beautiful day December had yet produced - crisp, bright and full of fresh air, ready to be sucked in to our lungs with appreciative breaths.

We have some playing fields near us, where, on Saturday mornings, scores of little boys with long socks and football boots come and get thoroughly muddy and worn out while their Mums and Dads look bleary on the sidelines, but shout on encouragingly nonetheless. There's also a well tended bowling green behind the playing fields, where the local gents - some, probably 'the boys' of old round the area - now firmly Granda's and adorned with wool caps and corduroy slacks, plot their strategy. They huddle together muttering little between them, those men of few words, in accents that, even after living here for almost seven years, I still can't quite always pick up... "'bout ye', and a nod. I'm still not entirely sure what the correct response to that one is? 

It's a lovely community, and behind it is a wonderful wooded area - man made, I think, but full of ivy and pine, and beech and birch trees. The odd bird and squirrel with distant mooing that makes me think if we could get past the brambles, we would find some friendly heifers...

We armed ourselves with buckets, and secateurs and set to gathering the best of the season, to add that little something special to our wreaths. There's nothing quite like mixing flower market finds with locally foraged ones... so we pulled and poked and selected some special little bits to weave through our wreaths and hang in our homes. The outside brought in, to celebrate this warm, long, winter. A little bit of light in the dark months.

Wreath making is fast becoming one of our favourite traditions and it's so nice to think about what someone would like when I'm gifting one, or making one for a client - all the while staying true to my preference for keeping things natural, and beautiful - a little more on the wild side? A touch of tradition? A hint of seasonal sparkle? It's so much fun, and there are so many possibilities...

Best of all? My goodness do they smell incredible!

Donegal...

Hidden away in an idyllic and blustery little cove, we spent the week in a small caravan in Donegal, Ireland, complete with our own private beach. Some people crave fancy foreign resorts, sunshine and all you can eat buffets, but to us, this was a little slice of heaven. We hunkered down for a whole week of just 'being' and did little more than sleep, swim, walk the dogs, read and really talk to each other about the road ahead and what we wanted for our future.

All the talking felt a bit like tugging on the end of a bit of wool, which has unravelled on the edge of a tightly knitted jumper. Oh-so tempting to just pull, and revel in the wiggly, tangled, unravellingness of it all, but equally bound to the worry of undoing what you have made and no going back. Fear, really. The fog of uncertainty didn't fully lift during that week, but seeds of ideas were planted and took hold.

Although it was late October, the beautiful, large, papery poppies and trailing nasturtium were in full bloom and montbretia was flowering with abandon in the hedgerow amongst the last of the brambles... I couldn't help but pick a few stems and arrange them in a little glass to my liking - a little thank you to be left for our hosts. An ode to Autumn, and to orange.

There was something intoxicatingly magical about the peppery crushed green scent that rose to meet me as I cut the stems with a knife on the driftwood table, which then married with the salt and seaweed on the breeze. 

And as looked out into the wild atlantic sea, I thought - yes, this is life. This is what I want.