A Cheshire Garden on St David's Day 2015

A Cheshire Garden on 1 March 2015
pencil and coloured pencils in a Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook  12" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've been drawing my mother's garden in Cheshire for some years. I sit next to the French window into the garden and have the benefit of armchair, warmth and cups of tea while I draw the scene outside the window.

Sunday, 1 March 2015 - St David's Day - is nominally the first day of Spring in the Meteorological calendar - or so the BBC weatherman informed us!

The the weather was very good in the morning and very dim and grey in the afternoon!  Of course, the major benefit of staying in one place is that I can get up the next day and continue a morning sketch from where I left off the previous day. However, by midday, as we travelled to catch my train from Crewe, the weather had turned to sleet!

This isn't finished and I might tweak it a little bit more - but I'm loath to do too much now I'm back in London and don't have the garden in front of me.

You can see more sketches of the same garden - at different times of the year - on this blog. See:

• A Cheshire Garden in Spring - and some new plants (May 2011)
• A Cheshire garden in summer (August 2010)
• A Cheshire Garden in July (July 2011) This one features as a large image on the Section Title Page of my new book 'Sketching 365'.
• The Winter Garden (December 2011)

If you're wondering about the size of the bird table it moves around depending on the season and weather. In the winter months it's always very close to the door into the garden so Mother can feed the birds easily.

Brushes iPad video to Blogger via YouTube - April garden in Cheshire

You can compare this video of a sketch done using a stylus and the Brushes app on my iPad with my last post about my pen and ink and coloured pencil sketch of The magnolia in April.

April Garden in Cheshire
sketch created on iPad using Brushes app and Griffin stylus
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

This time I developed the sketches alongside one another (they were developed over a couple of mornings because of the way light moves in the early morning).

This time I was making a conscious effort to use the stylus more like I use a pen or pencil rather than pastels.  At the moment I think I prefer the pastels mode - but suspect this is probably more about me needing to get to grips with the different brushes and ways in which these can be adjusted!

You'll be able to tell from the video below that I do tend to take the "wprk all over" approach to a bit of an extreme!



How I got my Brushes actions movie from the iPad to YouTube to Blogger

I'm going to write down how I got my the sketching actions in the Brushes app off my iPad and to this blog post via YouTube

1. Apple iPad - Click share icon in gallery view
2. Apple iPad - Mail actions to one of my email addresses
3. Googlemail - save the gz file associated with the "Brushes Painting Actions" email to my Brushes folder in my Movies folder on my iMac (Note: .gz is the file extension for gzip files created using GNU zip, an open source file compression program)
4. Open the 'gzip' file on my Apple iMac and save the gz file to the same folder
5. After forgetting that gz files can't be read by just any old video software, open Brushes Viewer (previously downloaded to my Apple iMac)
6. check that the file works in animated form in Brushes Viewer
7. export the file to from gz to my hard disc on my my Apple iMac
8. try to upload the file to Flickr (except it's too long and the .mov extension is not recognised!)
9. export the file again(!) - this time saving it as MPEG-4 video and giving it a real name (this one was saved at 1024x768 pixels at medium quality)
10. I now have a file called aprilgarden.mov which is 354.1 MB
11. Flickr limits movies to 90 seconds so this one needs to be uploaded to YouTube
12. Open YouTube account and upload file - it takes about 50 minutes on a good connection
13. Wait for the file to be processed - another few minutes
14. Go to unique URL for video
15. Create the share code for the the video via embed mode 
16. Post embed code to this blog post!

If anybody has an improved way of getting videos of iPad sketches on to a blog post I'd love for you to share!

Something else I learned from the manual.  Worth keeping in mind for the future!

If your painting has many strokes, exporting a movie may take some time, and the resulting file may be quite large (depending on the settings).

The magnolia in April

The Magnolia in April
pen and ink and coloured pencils on Arches HP block
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

When I visit my mother in Cheshire I draw the garden.  This time, to avoid the fold down the middle of a double page spread of my large Moleskine, I sketched on a block of Arches HP which I've used a lot in the past for both plein air sketches and developing work after sketching.

I didn't quite finish all of the tree branches on the left lots of finer ones need to be added in.

There's another sketch as well - but that one is a step by step video on the iPad and I've not got it off as yet.

Links: Fine Art Paper and Non-Canvas Supports for Artists

The Winter Garden

The Winter Garden
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Continuing my series of sketches of my mother's garden in Cheshire - this is a sketch of the Winter Garden done this last weekend.

I was rather surprised by just how much colour there is in the garden in winter.  Could be something to do with what my mother has planted over the years of course!

You can see previous sketches of this Cheshire Garden on this blog in the posts listed below

• Cosmo weighs up the escape routes 08 Aug 2010
• A Cheshire garden in summer 09 Aug 2010
• A Cheshire Garden in Spring - and some new plants 01 May 2011
• A Cheshire Garden in July 15 Jul 2011

A Cheshire Garden in July

A Cheshire Garden in July 2011
pen and ink and coloured pencil on Arches, 10" x 14"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Rampant is a good word to describe my Mother's garden in July.  Cosmo loves it!  He shimmies in and out of the plants - creeping up close and watching the collar doves on the bird table and trying to track down and catch anything small that moves. 

I must however practice drawing doves as these are really not very good.  What I liked about the doves  is that they now realise that Cosmo is never going to be able to jump up and catch them - so they just sit there and taunt him!

I was up in Cheshire to collect my cats from their very long holiday with my Mother - and to recover from my very long drive back from Provence.   This sketch was done first thing in the morning while sat in my armchair next to the French windows. It's the same place I do all the sketches of this garden from.  You can see more here:

• A Cheshire garden in summer 
• Cosmo weighs up the escape routes
• A Cheshire Garden in Spring - and some new plants

Time now to get a proper record of the trip up on this blog as plans for doing that while I was away were thwarted by the lightning strike and loss of internet.  Blog posts were strictly one image only.  So I'll be focusing on that in the near future - starting at the beginning - and including relevant photos of the trip.

I've started to load the photos onto Flickr and if you want a preview you can see them all in a Flickr collection called Provence 2011.

A Cheshire Garden in Spring - and some new plants

Last year I sketched my mother's garden in early August (see A Cheshire garden in summer and Cosmo weighs up the escape routes). This month I did two sketches.

 The first is of what the same garden looks like in Spring - sketched in the middle of April this year.

Cosmo and the white cat - in A Cheshire Garden in Spring
11.5" x 17", coloured pencils and pen and ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

From left to right the garden includes cherry blossom, red tulips, a magnolia, an early clematis plus iris starting in the foreground plus lots and lots of fresh green leaves.

My cats as usual stake out their territory early on.  However Cosmo was rather nonplussed by a white cat who came in the garden and sat down.  Should he chase him off or make friends?  He just sat there and dithered - he's such a woos!

This second sketch is about the plants I bought to go in her front garden which needed a bit of a makeover.  They're all lined up below in the shade waiting to be planted.

I can never remember names - but I do know that there is now a very nice acer now sitting in a pot in the middle of the garden plus there are three David Austin Roses, some iris, a euphorbia and a cornus.  Lots of acid yellow green and red stems and pale yellow/cream/peachy blooms!  Plus some blue greens.  They do say that every green always goes with every other green!

New plants for the front garden
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Orangery at Dunham Massey

Last week my mother and I visited Dunham Massey and its Winter Garden which looks pretty amazing in Spring too!

The view of the Winter Garden from the Orangery at Dunham Massey
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Folio Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The great thing about this National Trust property is that, whereas a lot of gardens close in the Autumn and then reopen in Spring, this garden and the parkland are now open throughout the year.  The new Winter Garden is the largest of its kind in the UK.

The garden contains almost 700 different plant species and a further 1,600 shrubs specifically bred for the Winter Garden. All had to have at least two of the following characteristics of interest: winter bark, flower, fruit, autumn colour or scent and sound.

My mother assures me that we used to go walking in the parkland I was a child and I vaguely remember  doing so.  However I'd never seen the house and moat close up and certainly had never visited the garden.

The Crown Imperials were absolutely splendid!

Crown Imperials at Dunham Massey

However given my recent problems with walking I was pleased to be able to take a break and have a lengthy sit down in the Orangery where I sketched the contre jour view of the doors and windows and garden beyond.

I like trying to get the colour of white walls when they are against the light.  I'm still not sure the value is dark enough but the colours of the reflected light are about right.

A Cheshire garden in summer

A Cheshire garden in early August

11.5" x 17", coloured pencils and pen and ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is what's known as incredibly lazy sketching - done entirely while sat in an armchair next to my Mother's glazed door into her garden.

It was very satisfying to do as it's a scene I know well and yet had never drawn - possibly due to the number of trees in this view.  

Intermittent showers meant that the planned gardening wasn't a great idea.  Plus the image of the doves sitting on top of the bird house meant that it was absolutely necessary to sketch!  My other cat Polly sat next to me at the open door absolutely transfixed by the doves as they preened and pecked.  I think she was only a quarter of the way through the door when they took off - having teased her for quite a long time.

What was slightly amazing to me on my journey north was to find that while London and the Southeast now closely resembles scorched earth due to lack of rain (shades of the summer of 1976), North West England has been getting a lot of rain - hence the garden was very lush with multiple variations on the colour green.  However even there they are having to close down sections of the canal system as the reservoirs which feed the canals lock system are so low.

Last week I came to the conclusion that there's an "English garden green" that I need which I didn't have with me as I was continuously mixing greens.  I'm still trying to work out which is the missing green......

Cosmo weighs up the escape routes

I've been up north this week in Cheshire and Scotland.  My cats went with me and as always spent a long time trying to work out different ways in and out of my mother's garden.  Variety is after all the spice of life and my cat Cosmo does like to ring the changes.......

 Cosmo pondering the escape route options

11.5" x 17" coloured pencils and pen and ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This sketch was done one morning as Cosmo tried to decide whether it was best to break out of the garden through the trellis, tangle with the blackberry brambles or dislodge the clematis which covers the loggia....

Mind you I reckon he was indulging in wishful thinking about it really as he's now ten, carrying a bit more weight than he used to and doesn't race up and down vertical surfaces quite the way he did when younger.  Although he still makes regular appearances on the top of the doors at home.

Some of my favourite gardens

As many of you will already know, I love sketching in gardens. I've written about them previously in Gardens and Botanical Art over on Making a Mark. However I've been making a lot of websites about gardens recently so that I can share them with people - and I thought they might be of interest or use to fellow bloggers who enjoy sketching in gardens

The gardens I've been making websites fall into one of two categories. They are:

• either some of my favourite gardens
• or important gardens which deserve highlighting - and are going on my 'to visit' list.

If you fancy travelling with your sketchbook to some of my favourite gardens (or just pay a virtual visit) why not check out the following websites - you'll find all the logistics details as well as what commentary on what they have to offer. You can easily bookmark them or share them with others using the functions in the right hand column of each site. Now I've got my laptop up and running again, I'm planning to include some slideshows of photos I've taken at some of the gardens

You'll also find some of my sketches providing some visual interest on a number of the sites!

Some of my favourite gardens

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
Over a million people visit the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew each year. The 300 acres of gardens and botanical collections are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means they rank alongside Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and the Taj Mahal!

RHS Wisley - a Great Garden
Wisley Garden, in Surrey, is the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and is probably the most visited garden in the UK after Kew Gardens.

Munstead Wood - a great garden
For garden designers, Munstead Wood in Surrey is one of the most famous gardens in England. It was the home of Gertrude Jekyll who is renowned as a plantswoman. She created ways of planting which were very innovative in their day - and the garden at Munstead Wood was one of the places where she tried out her ideas.

Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden
Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent is probably the most famous 20th century garden in the UK and is an English Heritage Historic Garden Grade I. It's also recently been the subject of a BBC Documentary series. It's one of my favourite gardens for the sheer variety and yet domestic scale.

Great Dixter - a great garden
Great Dixter in East Sussex was created by Christopher Lloyd and is a garden which is extremely popular with plantsman gardeners - those who particularly like plants and flowers. It's also quite close to Sissinghurst.

Tatton Park - a great garden
The gardens at Tatton Park in Cheshire are rated as being among the most impressive in England. Tatton Park has also been the the home of the RHS Flower Show since 1999. The 50 acre gardens are laid out in a traditional Edwardian fashion around the mansion home of the Edgerton family. Both are located within a 1,000 acre deer park. This is a garden I often used to visit as a child and that I now return to as an adult when visiting family.

Bodnant Garden - a great garden
Bodnant Garden in North Wales is one of the most beautiful gardens in the UK and is world-famous. It comprises lawns, terraced gardens and is noted for its botanical collections and wide range of plants. I used to visit when a child and memories of the laburnum arbor are still very fresh in my memory

Giverny - a great garden
Giverny is a very famous garden created and painted by Claude Monet. When I visited Giverny for the first time I was immediately struck by the fact that Monet did not only create art with oils.

My 'to visit' list

The Lost Gardens of Heligan - a great garden
These Cornish Gardens are now famous in the UK. They were left to grow wild for decades before a major restoration project was started in 1996 by Tim Smit. Although still part of an ongoing project, the garden now attracts a huge number of visitors

Malmaison - a great garden
The Château de Malmaison was the home of Napoléon's first wife - the Empress Joséphine and became the birthplace of the tea rose. The garden she developed included more than 250 varieties of roses and other exotic flowers from her native West Indies, and rare species from Australia. The catalogue of the garden became famous as one of the most exquisite publications of botanical art in the world.

In reality, you only need one bookmark if you want to keep track of what's going on - and that's Great Gardens of the World - which also includes some gardens recommended by other people

If you like any or all of the garden sites - or have visited any of the gardens - please leave can comment below or on any of the sites. You don't need to be a member of squidoo to comment.

Early morning light in Cheshire

Sunrise from Jan's Study
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the tips I remember being given a very long time ago is "never neglect a chance to sketch in early morning or early evening light" as the light, colours and shapes can be a lot more interesting. So if I'm occupying a bed away from home I always look out the window very early to see what the view looks like and lots of sketches over the years have been done before breakfast!

I was staying at the home of my cousin and her husband in Cheshire earlier this week and found the clocks going back on Sunday meant I was getting up earlier than usual. So I took some time to sketch the views in very early morning light from rooms which look out from the front and rear of the house over gardens and fields. I even managed a sunrise!

Sketching a sunrise is a tricky business - the light changes really fast and I had to draw even faster than usual, plus use my memory of what colours had been there. The nature of the tonal range and contrasts and the speed with which these changed were a real challenge as well. As I think I've explained before, I usually get some colour down fast and try and indicate its area very loosely without trying to get a more 'finished' sketch. That way I can finish the sketch after the light effects have changed.

I'd like to have a go at working the sunrise one up. I've just had a peek at my camera card and I've got a couple of photos which provide me with good information about the cloud formation but of course the camera has then made everything else completely black - such is the way in which cameras cope with areas of dark values when faced with intense light! I guess I'll work something out....

The view from 'bedroom 5'
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This next one is a favourite view of my cousin's and I've been on a promise to try and produce a drawing of this for some time. The combination of the sunshine and colours of the early morning clouds juxtaposed with the autumn colours of the beech hedge and silver birch in the garden plus the other hedges and trees in the fields creates an attractive vista. Again, this is potentially one for working up but I think I maybe need to experiment with a different crop or format for this one.

Have you ever tried sketching a sunrise?

Sketches from Tatton Park

Last Saturday, I sketched at Tatton Park - these are views of the rear of the recently restored Japanese garden and the view of the park from the Italian gardens just in front of the house. 

The Japanese Garden at Tatton Park

Tatton was one of those places I used to go when I was young - a special treat was rolling down the terraced lawns - the terraces were just wide enough to allow some speed to be generated and the rolling to be spectacular.

The view of the formal Italian garden from the top of the slopes

Nowadays I'm rather less mobile and mother (in her late seventies) is even less so. For those who like visiting gardens but have difficulty walking, Tatton is an excellent place to visit as it provides electric wheelchairs of the sort you see many older people now using to do their shopping. Mother whizzed around gravel paths and on and off grassy banks in one - she even managed the steep slope at the side of the Italian gardens! Fortunately I managed to persuade her to sharpen all my pencils for me before she started getting too ambitious!

The sketches are graphite with coloured pencil in an A4 size Daler Rowney sketchbook - the one with a hard black cover and perforated pages. I drew most of it on site, and then completed a bit more in colour and tonal terms soon afterwards while the images were still fresh in my mind.

[Tatton Park is the place where the Royal Horticultural Society have their big show in the north of England - see the link below for further information]

[This post was first published in "Making A Mark" on 18th April 2006. I've added the reference to the RHS Show in July and links to relevant websites]

Links:

• Tatton Park - the website
  
• Tatton Park - the RHS show (18-22 July 2007)
• National Trust - Tatton Park
  
• Google Maps - Tatton Park, Cheshire WA16

Travels with a sketchbook.....in the north of England

The refectory windows at Fountains Abbey
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in daler Rowney A4 sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm interrupting the posts about Kent for a new section of sketches recently done on my trip to the north of England. Over the next week or so I'll be posting sketches of:

• The Rill Garden at Wollerton Old Hall Garden, near Market Drayton in Shropshire
• The view from Sutton Bank - the finest view in Yorkshire according to 'James Herriot'
• Fountains Abbey - part of a world heritage site in North Yorkshire
  
• Views from Rievaulx Terrace, North Yorkshire
  
• The centre of Helmsley in Ryedale, North Yorkshire
  
• The ruins of the cistercian Abbey of Rievaulx, North Yorkshire
  

[10th June 2007: Revised/Updated ] This summary post will be updated as blog posts are posted to this blog.

Sketches have been transferred from Making A Mark. These include:

• Staffordshire: Drawing people and delaying the cream tea (13th April 2006) - a visit to Biddulph Grange Gardens - and its tea room.
  
• Cheshire: Sketches from Tatton Park (18th April 2006) - two double page sketches of scenes from this 50 acre garden set in a 1,000 acre deer park.

Both of the above posts on this blog now include links to the places mentioned in the blog post.

[2nd November 2007: Revised/Updated] More sketches from the North of England:

• Cheshire: Early Morning Light in Cheshire (1st November 2007) - sketching the views and the early morning light - including a sunrise - from windows in my cousin's home.
• Manchester: Eating in the Gallery Cafe at Manchester Art Gallery (2nd November 2007)

A link to this summary post is inserted into the "Travels with my sketchbook in...." section in the right hand column (which groups together all summary posts).