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| Butterflies in the Natural History Museum 7" x 5" pen and ink and coloured pencils copyright Katherine Tyrrell |
It was published last Sunday - see Postcard from Katherine Tyrrell, London
The postcard is of the butterflies which you can see at the very top of the new Darwin Centre Cocoon in the Natural History Museum - just outside the lift. There were lots of different specimens and all I had to do was work out an arrangement which seemed to satisfy my eye. Let me know if it satisfies yours! :)
A Postcard from my Walk
A Postcard from my Walk records a monthly postal exchange of sketches on postcards between 14 members of the Sketchercise group over the course of 14 months - until every person has sent a postcard to every other person. The aim is that we produce a postcard while taking exercise - and then, rather than posting it online on out blogs, we post it in the letterbox!
The idea was the brainchild of my friend Ronell van Wyk who lives just outside Tours and right next to the River Loire in France. She had us all organised and raring to go in no time at all!
Many postcards are travelling many miles before they reach their destination as we live all over the world - as you can see below!
- Albrecht Rissler - Germany
- Alison Staite - England
- Bridget Hunter - Scotland
- Cathy Gatland - South Africa
- Charlene Brown - Canada
- Desiree Dianne Habicht - USA
- Felicity Grace - Switzerland
- Katherine Tyrrell - England
- Liz Steel - Australia
- Martin Stankewitz - Germany
- Pat Reese - USA
- Robyn Sinclair - Italy
- Ronell van Wyk - France
- Vivien Blackburn - England
I'm about to embark on experiments with mountboard! Plus I'm thinking about trying out Daniel Smith's watercolour ground and seeing how that works with the media I use. I'll be posting about how I get on in future posts.
The new Darwin Centre Cocoon at the Natural History Museum
Irrespective of what it contains, the new Cocoon - where I sketched my butterflies from specimens on display - is worth visiting just for its stunning architecture. See architectural highlights here.The landmark Darwin Centre is now open to the public. Museum visitors can explore world-class science in action in a dramatic new public space.
The Darwin Centre is a state-of-the-art science and collections facility. The building is the most significant expansion at the Museum since it moved to South Kensington in 1881.
Natural History Museum - Visiting the Darwin Centre
I spent a long time with my head tilted upward staring at its shape and wondering how they built it - and what on earth it was like inside.
This page on the website explains what's inside the Cocoon.
In reality visitors only see a part of the inside - as the pathway winds down a slope past various exhibitions. It was fascinating to have windows which let you watch real people doing real things to real specimens! I have to tell you Macs seem to rule at the Natural history Museum!
There's lots of emphasis on technology and the Interactive Experience and being part of the whole process. I have to confess my first attempt at packing for an expedition in a rain forest was pretty useless but I tried again and got much better at it. It also taught me a lot about what the naturalists use to preserve specimens these days - which was fascinating given my interest in botanical art.
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| Original botanical specimens - as seen in the Cocoon, Natural History Museum (note the butterfly) |
and finally......
Today this blog is featured in the Daily Universal Register page of The Times newspaper!
See what the Times has to say about me and my sketches!
I'll do a proper post about this later.
Links:
What a great collection of artists to exchange post cards. I am enjoying all of them so much. I agree with you that Ronell is full of creative ideas.
ReplyDeleteAnd your arrangement of butterflies is lovely.
See you on A POSTCARD.
annie
Love the postcard Katherine.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the fabulous Times article.