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.

VIDEO: Sketching with coloured pencils #1

..and finally - we have a video of me sketching! Watch it here - or for the big HD version click the link and go to YouTube where you can view it on my YouTube Channel. Below you can also view some photographs from my day out at Great Dixter yesterday.

Making a video of me sketching!

I can't remember how many years it's been since I started thinking about making a video of me sketching. Last year I did get as far as making a slideshow of a step by step - see © Katherine Tyrrell Sketching the Long Border, Great Dixter (July 2013)

I've long said I'm going to produce a video of me sketching - and years have gone by during which time I have bought tripods etc and never ever done anything about it. We then come to the advent of the mini iPad and I've again begun to think about videos of sketching.  Yesterday quite spontaneously I finally did it!

...and finally - this is it!

This comes with about 15 seconds of thought and preparation and starts with me taking the mini iPad back into my own hands from "he who must not be bored while I sketch" - who was supposed to be filming me - just as he has yet another hay fever attack.

That's when I discovered I could actually hold the iPad Mini and sketch by looking at the sketchbook through my iPad!  For those of you with iPad Minis why don't you try it?

You might be interested in how I hold a pencil....... however my pudgy hands distress me - they come courtesy of both age and disability!

Other than that take a look at my first go at iPad videos of me sketching.  Like I said - this is spontaneous - and you get the usual features associated with sketching (something falls over , the sketchbook goes skew whiff etc).

More about my day out and photos of the sketching set-up

Who would have thought that writing a book about drawing and sketching would have led to a drought in terms of plein air sketching - and blogging about my sketching? My visual capacity in my brain has been completed filled with selecting and gathering in images (and copyright forms), rescanning and photographing over 100 images of my own plus creating lots of diagrams to explain points.

It was absolutely idyllic yesterday to sit in a very English Garden and enjoy the humming of the mower, the singing of the birds and the shade of a barn on a very hot day in East Sussex - and to also enjoy getting back into my plein air sketching!

The view

Here's the view of The Topiary Lawn at Great Dixter with its edge/fence of ash trees that I was sketching.

The trees reminded me of both Sisley (long slim tree trunks) Hockney (tree surgery!). I liked the people on the big bench as it added life into the garden - and of course show me yew topiary and I'm itching to get my sketchbook out - all those nice big shapes!

This shows you how far away I was actually sat - in the old cow shed which was lovely and cool (it was a very hot day yesterday!) - looking out across the wild flower meadow which surrounds the yew topiary! Listening to the grass paths being mown.

The set-up and kit

This is where I was sat

My sketching kit and where I was sat in the old cow shed

This is the pen and ink sketch - after a bit of judicious work in Photoshop - the photograph shows the white paper as actually being blue - as per the one above.
But you can retrieve blue sketches - see my blog posts about how to do colour corrections on Making A Mark

• Correcting colour: How to stop your white paper looking grey and 
• Correcting colour: another way to stop your white paper looking grey)

The pen and ink sketch I usually do some hatching to indicate shadows and form
particularly when it's a time of day when the sun is moving quite fast.

This is where I'd got to prior to the video. One of the aims of the day was a test of my new Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook with extra heavy weight paper in Natural White (kindly supplied for review by Stillman and Birn via Jacksons Art Materials). Plus a new pen - a Sakura Micron Pigment Ink - size 01 with archival ink. More about this on Making A Mark Reviews later.

The sketching kit in use - before I started the video
Stillman and Birn Zeta Sketchbook - the double page spread is 30cm x 42cm
the pen is a Sakura Micron 01 and
the coloured pencils are usual ecelectic assortment by Caran d'Ache Pablo, Lyra Rembrandt,
Faber Castell Polychromos and there's even an old Karisma Lime Green in there!

More of my sketches at Great Dixter can be found by clicking this link.

The wildflower meadows at Great Dixter

This is what the wildflower meadows are looking like at Great Dixter at the moment. I have never ever seen so many orchids in one place! The meadows are part of The Weald Meadows Initiative developed by the Wild Meadows Partnership. Great Dixter is supporting the High Weald Landscape Trust's campaign to double the number of wildflower rich grasslands in the High Weald by 2015. Now is the time to see them!

One of the Wild Flower Meadows at Great Dixter

There are thousands of common Spotted Orchids 
in the Great Dixter Wildflower Meadows.

Visit Great Dixter

If you want to visit Great Dixter, I suggest you take a look at a few facts

• Address: Great Dixter, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex TN31 6PH
• consult this Google Map of its location
• Opening Hours: Open 29th March to 26th October 2014 Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays. (Closed on all other Mondays) Gardens 11am to 5pm (last admission); House 2pm to 5pm
• read http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/plan-your-visit/ 
• review the map of the garden 

Sissinghurst Castle Garden in August

We paid a visit to Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent on a warm afternoon  in late August. Everything was set off by the brilliant blue skies.

I'm posting sketches in reverse order - because I like the one I finished last the best.  This is a coloured pencil sketch of the Rose Garden in the afternoon - with a contre jour aspect to the sunlight.  The colour was touched in while I was there and then I completed this part of the sketch at home.

You can see the very fast pen and ink sketch done in the garden below the colour sketch.

Sissinghurst Rose Garden - an afternoon in August
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I was sketching very much "contre jour" so I was keen to get down the areas of darkest tone and the outlines of the shapes of the plants and flowers.

The original very fast sketch in pen and sepia ink on Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is the sketch I did as we sat and ate our lunch before going into the garden.

The entrance to Sissinghurst Castle Garden 27 August 2013
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

You can see a lot more sketches of Sissinghurst on this blog - click Sissinghurst

It's amazing how many overseas visitors this garden gets.  I lost count of the languages I heard.

Summer in the Rose Garden, Sissinghurst

Last month I posted my Step by step sketch of the Rose Garden, Sissinghurst, but I completely forgot to post the finished version - completed at home.  Until yesterday - when we started making plans for our next visit.

So here's the final version of Summer in the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst.

Summer in the Rose Garden, Sissinghurst (24 July 2013)
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 16" x 11"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

A lot of what's done at home is about strengthening colours as opposed to identifying them. Sometimes I need to build up a few layers to get proper darks.  My preference is for using complementary colours to get an optical dark green - and I find the colours red and orange come in very useful for toning down the blue of greens!

I also find other tricky bits are getting the blooms to "come out" of all the foliage and finding differences in the greens so it doesn't look like one massive green splodge!

See more of my sketches and drawings of gardens on my website - Pastels and Pencils - Houses & Gardens - sketches and drawings by Katherine Tyrrell or in Pastels and Pencils Katherine Tyrrell travels with a sketchbook - in England

If you'd like to get inspired to sketch, draw or paint gardens check out my website Gardens in Art - Resources for Artists. This is for artists who enjoy drawing or painting your own garden or gardens you visit. Its contents cover gardens in art and how to draw and paint gardens.

Find out more about Sissinghurst - see Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden

Step by step sketch of the Rose Garden, Sissinghurst

Here's a photo montage of my sketching the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst yesterday.  We were there yesterday and this time I sketched the view I sketched in April - after a very cold spring - on a very hot day in July.

My sketch of the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst 24 July 2013
pencil and coloured pencils in large (A4) Moleskine Sketchbook
all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Above you can the arm of "he who must not be bored while I sketch" who was asked to hold the sketchbook up against the subject matter while I took a photo.  It's not finished but we'd agreed 4.00pm was tea time and this was as far as I'd got!  I'll post the finished version when I've strengthened some of the colours.

Below are the stages of sketching

First the pencil sketch

Initial pencil sketch of the Rose Garden, Sissinghurst from the Lutyens Bench

Then I start to add hatching with coloured pencil.  I work all round the image so that I have a sense of the colour relationships and also so that I use the same colour throughout the drawing - which adds unity to the picture

When I'm working on a large sketch I very often create small patches which are the 'finished' colour but wait until I get home to do all the layers which get large amounts of paper to the same level.  I often leave off finishing the sky until I get home.

I'll post the finished version tomorrow.

Starting to add coloured pencils

...and this is where I was sat - under an absolutely glorious clematis called Clematis 'Perle d'Azur'.  I lost count of the people who photographed it while I was sat doing my sketch.

Clematis 'Perle d'Azure' and the Lutyens Bench I sat on for this sketch
- and the one I did of the same scene back in April

Below are more blog posts about sketching at Sissinghurst.

An Index of posts about sketching at Sissinghurst

• The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst - late Spring 28 Apr 2013 Sketch of the Rose Garden and photos of Sissinghurst Castle Garden April 2013.
• Sissinghurst - from 3rd hottest to 2nd coldest! 26 Apr 2013 Sketch and photos of Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Farm April 2013 plus discussion of weather and impact on plants.
• Vita Sackville West's Tower at Sissinghurst Castle Garden 01 Sep 2012 A sketch of the writing tower used by Vita Sackville West at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent.
• Sissinghurst Moat and Orchard in Spring sunshine 1 Apr 2012 Sketch of the moat plus photos of the orchard on a sunny Spring day at Sissinghurst in March 2012.
• Sketching the Herb Garden at Sissinghurst 24 Sep 2011 Yesterday we went to Sissinghurst. I left "he who must not bored while I sketch" reading The Economist and his latest book about The Eagles, while sat in the Chair in the Cottage Garden while I sketched down in The Herb Garden
• The Gazebo at Sissinghurst 17 Sep 2009 The Memorial Gazebo at Sissinghurst, built of Kentish weatherboard, was dedicated in 1969 to Sir Harold Nicolson (husband of Vita Sackville-West) by their sons, Ben and Nigel.
• Sissinghurst - and tips for time limited sketches 08 Sep 2009 This particular sketch was done right at the end of a trip to Sissinghurst in August. "He who must not be bored while I sketch" read his book sat in the chair outside the cottage while I sat on the doorstep.
• Sissinghurst and the BBC4 documentary 15 Mar 2009 This is a view I love every time I visit Sissinghurst - of the fields seen through the arches of the great Elizabethan Farm.
• Spring fields from Sissinghurst 16 May 2008 This was my sketch from the windows of the Barn Restaurant at Sissinghurst on Monday afternoon which I did while I drank my afternoon cup of tea
• Spring at Sissinghurst 15 May 2008 Here's my latest sketch of the garden at Sissinghurst.
• The White Garden, Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Kent 11 Sep 2007 We went to Sissinghurst Gardens in Kent on Friday and I produced the above sketch while sat in the corner of the White Garden. The White Garden only contains flowers which are white and rather a lot of 'silver/grey foliage
• Autumn at Sissinghurst 13 Sep 2007 Sissinghurst can be very limiting as to set-ups because they won't allow a lot of things (easels/tripods/chairs) into the gardens because of health and safety concerns as the gardens are so popular.
• More sketching at Sissinghurst and a salutary tale 07 Sep 2007 (of a sketch done in 2005) This sketch was a bit of a challenge in terms of placement and perspective, although, to be honest the only perspective I was interested in was whether the trees forms had recession - despite being different in type, shape and colour!

A step by step sketch of the Long Border at Great Dixter

We visited the wonderful garden at Great Dixter yesterday.  The garden was full of tourists from Europe who'd come specially to see the garden - which was looking very full of flowers and plants and absolutely splendid as usual.

My sketch of the Long Border at Great Dixter
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Below are step by step photos of how I got to the above (unfinished) sketch which I did while sat on the seat at the end of the Long Border.  I thought people who've not seen one of my step by steps before might find it interesting.

Media used are as follows.  Links go to either my website Pastels and Pencils - Art Materials or to the Sketching Toolkit module within my website Travel Sketching: How to sketch the places you see

• Large A4 sized Moleskine Sketchbook
• a Pentel e-sharp mechanical pencil
• a Pilot G-TEC-C4 gel ink rollerball using brown (sepia) ink
• a variety of coloured pencils

Here's the sketches one by one

Sketch #1:  Mapping a pencil outline and guides

This was a complicated sketch, both in terms of subject matter, zones, and perspective.  So, as I knew I was going to be drawing with pen and ink I decided to give myself a little bit of help.

I first took a photo.  That's something I very often do to work out what to make the four lines around the edge of the sketch - what to leave in and what to leave out.

I looked at my photo and used it to map out some very rough guidelines quickly in pencil.  This took me no more than two minutes.  I was mentally looking for halves, quarters and thirds relative to the picture format as I found my guidelines.

I added in a bit of shading afterwards just to remind myself where the darks are - it's help to locate places within the picture when doing a complicated sketch.

Pencil guidelines and a bit of pencil hatching re darker tones
mechanical pencil in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

2. Starting to draw with pen and sepia ink

This photo was taken after I started to draw in the lines I wanted for my sketch. I highlight shapes - both large and small, squiggley edges of plants, edges of tonal areas, important lines and edges which guide in and around the sketch eg edge of the path, roofline.

I also started to add in hints of the colours as I find this helps me with the drawing.  Saves time trying to work out which bit is which!

Starting the pen and ink drawing for the sketch
pen and sepia ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

3. Starting to add Coloured Pencil

Initial layers of coloured pencil are focused on the things I need to resolve the distances involved.  I find if I get the foreground, middle ground and background issues resolved I then find it easier to find my way around a complicated sketch.

At this stage there are lots of "notes to me" in this sketch - of things that need to further developed and finished later.  For example, I'm using ink to hatch in the beginnings of what will become darker areas.  Plus I'm locating the colours of specific flowers in the border.

Starting to add coloured pencils
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

4. More Coloured Pencil

One of the main things I do when using coloured pencils is to mix colours and tones on the page.  I don't want the 2D flatness that you get when you use just one colour for an area of colour.

For example, there's about six colours in that roof and about four shades of green in the strip of grass alongside the path.

I'm also constantly tying in colours laid down in one place to colours used elswhere - which adds unity to the development of the sketch

Starting to think about darker tones and variation within 'one colour' areas
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

5. Where I've got to

The sketch as it stands at the moment (see top) is where I got before "he who must not be bored while I sketch" decided it was time for tea!

It needs finishing.  Everything is a little bit too light.  The light areas need more darks so they'll start to pop. The main thing is that I needed more greens to complete the trees and the hedges.

I'll post the proper sketch when I've finished it.

UPDATE:  Here's the movie of a slideshow of the sketches!

This is how it was made - Sketching slideshow - iPhoto to slideshow to Quicktime Movie

More sketches of Great Dixter

Below there are more sketches of Great Dixter - ordered chronologically.  There's even another sketch of the Long Border!

• The Bird Topiary at Great Dixter 15 Nov 2011
• The Long Border at Great Dixter 28 Jul 2008
• Great Dixter in the Spring 16 Apr 2008
• Great Dixter 29 Aug 2007

More about Great Dixter and gardens

These are some more links which you may find interesting if you like gardens

• Great Dixter - house and gardens, High Park Close, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 6PH
• Map of Great Dixter
• Great Dixter - Garden Tour
• Great Dixter - The Long Border
• Twitter account for the Garden's Business Manager
• Great Dixter Facebook Page
• A Year at Dixter - the blog of Maggie Tran is the 2012-13 Christopher Lloyd Scholar at Great Dixter
• Great Dixter - a great garden - information for those wanting to pay an actual or virtual visit
• Gardens in Art - Resources for Artists
• my blog post on Making A Mark about Gardens in Art: Arts and Crafts Gardens #1
• Pastels and Pencils - some of my sketches of gardens and parks in England

The view of the Weald from Emmetts Garden

Every year, in Spring, we go to Emmetts Garden in Kent to see the bluebells in the woods.  This is by far the best place I know to see bluebells. I've included a couple of photos at the end of this post.

However the garden is located in one of the highest points in Kent - on top of a 600m sandstone ridge - which provides splendid views of the Weald of Kent if you know where to look and where to sit.  I confess we re-engineered the seating arrangement for this sketch with a bench moved about three feet to the right!

The view of the Weald from Emmetts Garden (May 2013)
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The water in the distance is (I think) bough Beech Reservoir - I've spent years wondering and finally got the map out and worked it out!

Believe it or not if you want to find out about the garden, you're best off going to Wikipedia as the new National Trust website tells you virtually nothing!  See Wikipedia - Emmetts Garden

The garden is mainly an arboretum and has some splendid examples of magnolias which grow to an enormous size - very Himalayas!

One of the Giant Magnolias at Emmetts Garden
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However it is famed for its Bluebells which carpet the woodland.

Bluebells in the woods at Emmetts Garden
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Bluebells in the woods at Emmetts Garden
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Near the Rose Garden, there is a new 'natural' planting of tulips and very young cherry trees which looked splendid against the fields in the background.

a new planting of tulips and cherry trees
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst - late Spring

Let me provide a caveat for the title of this post - this is the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent in April after an exceptionally late Spring (see Sissinghurst - from 3rd hottest to 2nd coldest!)  Which means there was very little to sketch in terms of flowers.

So I went for the big shapes instead!

The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden (22 April 2013)
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Normally "he who must not be bored while I sketch" sit next to me on a bench and he reads his book while I sketch the scene.

However HWMNBB has got himself a new camera!  So this time you get a photo of the sketcher sketching the view as well!  He climbed all the way up the top of the tower to take this one.  Could this be a sign of things to come?  However I still retain editorial control - which is why you're not seeing the one which has provided an imperative to diet!

Katherine Tyrrell sketching the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst
Copyright: He who must not be bored while I sketch.

Here's some more photos of the gardens.

There wasn't  a lot going on in The White Garden although the absence of foliage pointed up the geometry nicely.

Not a lot going on in The White Garden, Sissinghurst Castle Garden 
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Here's the view of the White Garden from the other way on

The view of the White Garden from the Lower Courtyard 
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

In fact, one of the advantages of the visit is that it emphasised the lines of sight and views between the garden rooms which had been deliberately designed into the overall plan for the garden.

The Rose Garden Statue from the Lower Courtyard
(this is the same statue as the one which can be seen at the end of the vista in my sketch)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

For those of you who have a National Trust Calendar for 2013, compare the April page of the calendar with this view of the same corner of the Cottage Garden - that's how far behind everything is because of the cold weather!

View of the Moat Walk from a very "late" Cottage Garden 
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The one area which was holding its head up high was The Nuttery where the spring flowers were rampant - I guess because they've had some shelter during the cold weather.

The Nuttery - note the Trilliums in the foreground
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

We'll be back again when the weather is better!

Note:  The Rose Garden in Summer is amazing.  Rose growers might be interested in an old newspaper article I found about how roses are grown at Sissinghurst - see Growing roses, the Sissinghurst way

LINKS

• Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Biddenden Road, near Cranbrook, TN17 2AB (Google Maps)
• National Trust - Sissinghurst Castle Garden
• Travels with a Sketchbook - more posts about Sissinghurst
• Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden - detailed information about the garden

Birch, Witch Hazel, Acer Palmatum, Fir - at Sheffield Park

This week we went to Sheffield Park, near Uckfield in West Sussex, for our annual trip to admire the colours of the Autumn landscape.  It was a very grey day - which of course is the very best sort of day for seeing the colours!

It's always a bit of a challenge to get a sketch done here as the landscape garden is not over-endowed with seats - which is very odd as people are always giving seats to other gardens!

However we did manage to nab the seat to the left of the Cascade Bridge from where I did this sketch.  I had planned to do more but it was one of those damp days where it's best to keep moving before I seize up!

Silver Birch, Witch Hazel, Acer Palmatum, Fir - at Sheffield Park 25 October 2012
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in small Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'd not heard of the American Witch Hazel before but it was certainly putting on a good show with a variety of shades running from lemon through orange, coral pink and red.  According to the RHS its correct name is Mountain Wych Alder (Fothergilla major AGM) and it's a member of the Hamamelidaceae (the witch-hazel family).

I forget which type of Acer it was - but it's one of those deep plummy purple red ones and in all probility it's an Acer palmatum 'Atropurpureum' (Purple Japanese Maple).

One thing I do know - it's incredibly difficult to reproduce the colours seen on the trees in coloured pencils!

We also spotted what was left of the second largest tree in the garden - the Giant Redwood (Sequoia) which exploded after a lightning strike in January.  If you've ever wondered what the inside of a redwood looks like - see below!

After the lightning strike - Giant Redwood at Sheffield Park

Here are some photos of the trees in colour - and some links to last year's sketches of Autumn at Sheffield Park.

Links to last year's sketches:

• Autumn Colour at Sheffield Park
• Autumn reflections at Sheffield Park

Hampton Court Palace and its 300 year old Yew Trees

We recently visited Hampton Court Palace next to the River Thames in Surrey.  I'd never realised before how easy it is to get to (via a train from Waterloo) or how huge it is in terms of the Palace and Grounds.  We only covered about half of it in the time we were there and, since they're only closed on the 24, 25 and 26 December, I expect we'll be going back to visit again sometime soon!

Hampton Court Palace East Front and the Yews, October 2012
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 8" x 10" in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

As we entered the gardens (this is a map of Hampton Court Gardens) I was absolutely stunned to see the simply amazing size and shape of the Yew Trees in the Great Fountain Garden.  Apparently some of them are 300 years old having been planted around about 1707 in the time of Queen Anne.

I gather the original idea was they should be kept tightly clipped but somehow over the years they just grew and grew until we have the amazing conical shapes we see today.

Yews at Hampton Court Palace, October 2012
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 8" x 10" in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

In this post you can see the two sketches I did while sat on one of the broad avenues bordered by the Yews which lead up to the Long Water - looking first one way and then the other.

I've since seen other images of them and I'm already thinking about better drawings I can make in the future!

Plus what I want to sketch in the rest of the Garden!

Vita Sackville West's Tower at Sissinghurst Castle Garden

We went to Sissinghurst Castle Garden last month and I had a second attempt at sketching the tower where Vita Sackville West used to write her novels and gardening columns.  I love it!

Vita Sackville West's Tower at Sissinghurst Castle Garden
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 14"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Here's my photo of the sketch at the point at which I was umming and aahing about adding in garden to the right - which in the end I decided to do as the sun came out!

Time out to have an internal debate as to whether to use two pages!

My second sketch was actually done first - and while we had eat our sandwiches and completed the crossword of "he who must not be bored".  I'm allowed to have a go at the clues he can't get!

In front is the great grass lawn which we had learned earlier this year actually covers the remains of the French soldiers who were buried there when the Castle was used as a prisoner of war camp during the Seven Years' War.

The main challenge with this one was not so much the drawing as the very dark values which inevitably had to be worked on when I got home.  It takes time to get a good intense dark! Here's where I got to on site

I then spent a very long time when I got home developing the intense dark greens which you get when looking at a big tree on a sunny day.  There is a huge amount of crimson in that tree!  It's started to make me think about developing some swatches for tree colours which I can carry round with me when drawing trees.

Sissinghurst Castle Garden - The Front from the former French Graveyard
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Sissinghurst is a wondeful garden to visit between March and October - it changes all the time and the compartment gardens are always fascinating.  If you'd like to know more about the garden check out Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden

Mansion Pond at Wakehurst Place

Wakehurst Place is Kew Gardens in the country - down in Sussex.  We visited recently and this is my sketch of the Mansion Pond.

Mansion Pond, Wakehurst Place, West Sussex
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

We have a new sketching routine - he does his crossword while I sketch.  Periodically "he who must not be bored while I sketch" asks me for answers to clues.  So far it's working well and I'm getting longer periods of sketching!

About Sketching Trees

I find I have a tendency when sketching plein air to do the big shapes and I sometimes end up losing the sky holes in the trees - plus the edges which indicate the depth and recession.  Plus the changing sky behind the trees does tend to mix things up a bit - first it's white cloud and then it's blue sky!

This is where photography does come in handy for restating those sky holes!  I go round with my battery powered eraser when I get home and pick out the holes again.

Plus my photos help to remind me what was in front of what in places where there's just a big morass of mixed up greens.  Mostly I don't need to be too specific but in this sketch there were a couple of areas where restating the relative values of the foreground and the background helped with the overall structure of the greenery.

I've also started using a Rembrandt Carbon 308/3 Pencil to reinforce darks and I find this very useful for the dark values which you can get with very large pines!

About Wakehurst Place

Interestingly I've got two passes for free admission as I'm a Friend of Kew and a member of the National Trust and Wakehurst allows free access to members of the National Trust within the UK.

The garden has 465 acres of ornamental gardens and woodland comprising temperate zone trees.  There are ponds, lakes and streams in the garden plus lots of shrubs and trees and not a lot of flowers - although it does have a magnificent iris garden and a heather garden.

It is wheelchair accessible in part but also has some very steep inclines which limits the scope for walking for people with limited mobility.  That includes me because when my dodgy feet start to rebel and give up I have to hold on to somebody to walk up steep slopes.

The different status of the paths are usefully indicated on a map when you get there - but this is not obvious from the websites of both Kew Gardens and the National Trust.  However the Kew Gardens/Wakehurst Place does have a downloadable pdf file of a map of the garden at Wakehurst Place - if you spot it.  In my opinion, it's very good - and the paths are well waymarked as per the map - however the map could do with being in a much more prominent place on the website so that people can check out the nature of the garden and its suitability for visitors before visiting.

Map of garden at Wakehurst Place - available as a pdf file
Red marks the very steep paths, yellow marks flattish paths suitable for wheelchairs

Wakehurst Place is also the home of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank which I have still to visit.  The botanical/nature fans will probably like their Seed Bank Blog

The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is the largest ex situ plant conservation project in the world. Our focus is on global plant life faced with the threat of extinction and plants of most use for the future. The seeds we save are conserved outside their native habitat.

Address: The address for Wakehurst Place is: Ardingly, West Sussex, RH17 6TN.

• Instructions on how to get to Wakehurst Place
• My Garmin satnav thinks it's on the left of the road as we drive south on the B2028 - however it's actually on the right and entrances are reasonably well signposted

Opening Times: From 10am every day except Christmas Eve Christmas Day.  Closing times vary with the season.

Chiswick House - and a "lost" phone

Tree at Chiswick House
11.5" x 8", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook

© Katherine Tyrrell

Last Friday was one of those fine mizzle days (being the product of mist and drizzle) - as if somebody is spraying you with a fine wet mist.  Which is not much good for sitting outside and sketching because the paper gets wet and then the surface changes and the drawing tools don't work.

However I sat under cover at the Cafe in the grounds of Chiswick House and sketched the tree next to Chiswick House with the drawings of Caspar David Friedrich in mind. I have a wonderful book  - Caspar David Friedrich: The Art of Drawing - in which he draws (and paints) lots of trees and other motifs within the landscape.)

This was the sketch I was doing when my mobile phone slipped out of my pocket.  (It now looks like I might get it back next week.........fingers crossed!)

It's of the Italian Garden which is a Parterre garden with a the large Araucaria araucana (Monkey Puzzle tree) at one end, swags marking the boundaries and Bay Trees clipped to form balls.

Italian Garden at Chiswick House
8" x 10" pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in small Moleskine Sketchbook
© Katherine Tyrrell

Italian Garden
This semi-circular garden, bordered with evergreens, with geometric flower beds cut in grass was designed by Lewis Kennedy and laid out in 1812 for the 6th Duke of Devonshire. It became an example of the massed bedding system and 19th century experiments into colour theory. The garden has been beautifully restored and provides an elegant setting to the 6th Duke’s Conservatory.

Italian Garden Parterre

The Gardens are particularly relevant to artists because of their history in relation to the Landscape Movement and to New Yorkers in particular.  Read more about the history

But there is more to Chiswick House Gardens than mere beauty. This is also the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement and the inspiration for great gardens from Blenheim Palace to New York’s Central Park.Originally created by Lord Burlington and William Kent in 1729, the garden was inspired by the sights of the Grand Tour and romance of classical Italian landscape painting; it was conceived as a single, living artwork.About the Gardens

I know I'll be going back to Chiswick:

• (hopefully) next week - to pick up my phone
• next February - to see the wonderful collection of Camellias in the Glass Conservatory.  They must be absolutely amazing then in full bloom.

The property is maintained by English Heritage.  You can download documents relating to Chiswick House Gardens

Site Plan for Visitors
A downloadable map and site plan showing some of the main features around Chiswick House Gardens
 pdf (2,201.89kb)

Map of Chiswick House Gardens
A visitor map of Chiswick House and Gardens
 jpg (1,147.21kb)

Chiswick House Gardens
Description and map for a 1.5mile walk around Chiswick House Gardens
 pdf (481.48kb)