Some new work, some new inspiration and some irritation.

 Actually this isn't that new, but I love the way the leaves have been eaten away and the stem left.  I am waiting until late summer until the same thing happens with the hops that are growing in the arthouse garden. I hope that they are still there this year! 

Irritation: I lovingly cropped these photos on iphotos and then couldn't share them with my blog.  I used to be able to do this, why can't I now?  Oh, I know!! I've upgraded the operating system and nothing works.  I hate Apple, as I have said a number of times.

This is a large monoprint I started a couple of months ago.  It is a response to the wild geraniums that grow at work in the wildlife garden.  The background are the solitary bee homes that have been put there.  I quite like the way they look as if they are blocks of flats.  I left the gaps and was originally going to fill them, but have decided to leave them.  Urban nature, afterall I do live in London.  My garden and the garden at work are important to me.  It's so important to have these urban green spaces in the built environment. 

These are grasses that I picked up, either in my garden or from around the perimeter of the arthouse, growing happily through the cracks in the pavement.

They are printed on chinese calligraphy paper.  WIP (Work in progress) as they say. Haven't thought through what I am going to do with these.  Need to do some reading and writing now. 

At the weekend I went to a fantastic exhibition at The Drawing Room in Rodney Place.  Completely inspiring work by Christine Odlund, who is really fascinating. She composes music and paints using plant pigments.
http://www.christineodlund.se/ 

Mark Dion and a lovely piece of work entitled Herbarium. 
 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-dion-2789 

Some lovely watercolours from David Thorpe and a great talk about Derek Jarman's garden by Jonny Bruce.  Really interesting.  I have copied and pasted the information here, mainly to remind myself of a good Saturday morning out.

"Join Jacqui McIntosh (Exhibitions Manager, Drawing Room) and horticulturalist Jonny Bruce as they talk about the evolution of Derek Jarman’s now famous garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness and Jarman’s continuing influence today.

Artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century British culture. His practice included a variety of media, including paintings, poetries, diaries and nature writings. A passionate gardener, he created his garden between 1986 and 1994 in Dungeness, a desolate coastal corner of Kent and a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Having graduated with a degree in Art History, Jonny Bruce immediately turned to horticulture - honing skills at Aberglasney Gardens in Wales before spending two years gardening at Great Dixter in East Sussex. A passion for plant diversity and sustainable growing methods led to his current work at the innovative, organic nursery, De Hessenhof, in the Netherlands. Alongside the practical demands of the nursery Jonny works as a freelance writer, sometime botanical illustrator and is currently coordinating the new maintenance schedule for Prospect Cottage in Dungeness."

I bought a book "Botanical Drift - Protagonists of the Invasive Herbarium" which is a collection of essays that I will probably struggle to understand, but hope that it will provide some basis for further reading and have since ordered Modern Nature and Chroma by Derek Jarman. 

  

Back to Sweet william.  I wanted to make a cardboard print or a collograph....  This was the first print. I have added colour to it since. I think it might work! WIP again.

 Lots to think about and lots to learn. There is so much to read out there, it's knowing where to start.