Design workshops with Alysn

'Getting good ideas from nowhere and making them better'. Alysn led two workshops for Kickstart this year, and the slideshow to the right are pictures taken from a very successful day at St Pauls Wilford Hill near Nottingham. 22 participants were led through a series of exercises consisting of group work in the morning starting with mind maps of associated words, to picking out areas for repeat pattern; with time to develop initial ideas in the afternoon. The excercises could work for any subject matter and though this was based on flowers at the beginning you can see the progression to often very abstract ideas at the end of the day.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'keeffe used flowers as subject matter for decades; concentrating on the centre of the flower. Read here okeeffemuseum.org what Georgia herself thought of the sexual connotations of her paintings.

Do you have a look at other blogs - the Sketchbook Challenge this month is garden doodles - have a look at what others are doing and challenge yourself!

One of Lesley Riley's experiments

Back to ScienzeNaturali again - see the faces & figures?

There will be an additional workshop with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden on Sunday 28th July - Venue TBC - watch this space.

There are still plenty of places for the August, September and October workshops

Flora Grubb Gardens

Flora Grubb Gardens

For a different outlook on garden centres - where you might find much inspiration take a look at Flora Grubb in San Francisco - virtually of course!

Back to ScienzeNaturali - what about flowers that flatter to deceive?

Scienze Naturali

Scienze Naturali, a set on Flickr.

If you have a facebook page you can follow Scienze Naturali for photos like these..

Joan Miro on art and gardens

Quelques fleurs pour des ami

Joan Miro wrote "I think of my studio as a vegetable garden. Here there are artichokes, over there potatoes. The leaves have to be cut so the vegetables can grow. At a certain moment you must prune. I work like a gardener or a winegrower. Everything takes time.  My vocabulary of forms for example did not come to me all at once.  It formulated itself in spite of  me. Things follow their natural course. They grow, they ripen, you have to graft; you have to water, as you do for lettuce. Things ripen in my mind."

Landscape with rabbit and flower

 The front cover of this year's book is a design by Angie Lewin
Angie Lewin studied art and then printmaking in London in the 1980s. After working as an illustrator she then went on to study horticulture followed by a return to printmaking.

Angie looks at plant communities on an intimate level, even the fine lines of insect eggs on a flower bud are observed in her work. Still lives often incorporate seedpods, grasses, flints and dried seaweed collected on walking and sketching trips.

Angie also refers to her interest in the work of Eric Ravilious "A Wedgwood cup designed by Ravilious, may contain feathers and seedheads"

The cup and saucer illustrated in her design above is one of Ravilious's Garden design:

the designs in this collection vary, and include gardening implements as well as plants. Have a look at other designs -such as the cucumber house...
 or flowers on a cottage table: