The little things - Heath Fritillary and gypsy blessings...

Today while I was drawing a Heath Fritillary Butterfly (from a photo) a gypsy came to the door and told me that I shouldn't worry because I had a very bright future!! she then blessed me with good luck. (I did buy a small piece of beautiful crochet work from her!).

The butterfly's story is heartwarming. One of our rarest species, in the 1970's it was on the edge of extinction. However since then, thanks to the efforts of Butterfly conservationists, it's starting to flourish again on Exmoor's heathlands. I thought it would be a great little mascot to flit alongside the Moorland plants I've been sketching and while I'm not at all superstitious who knows, maybe my drawing is now endowed with some good luck too.

Early evening on Exmoor near Simonsbath yesterday.

In my sketchbook, much larger than life!

detail...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Bell Heather purple

I've been studying a few Moorland and Coastal plants of North Devon (and their colours) for a wonderful project I'm working on at the moment. For so many years I took for granted the ability of my eyes to endlessly re-adjust their focal range with ease from paper to subject to distance.  I think I did appreciate my sight at the time, but not as much as I do now it's fading and I'm using specs AND a magnifying glass to see fine detail!

When I think of moorland Heather it's a pale muted purple colour, but the hue of Exmoor Bell Heather's flower close up is the vivid magenta purple below! Maybe the colour memory is due to the moorland light, or perhaps it's redolent of later in the season when the flowers are ageing and turning a dusky purple pink then brown (as in the second and third colours in the palette below).

Tackling something far smaller than I would normally consider drawing with dip pen and ink (which is how I love to draw), involved masses of concentration to capture something of the personality of each flower and pay attention to every tiny leaf form and notice how it interacted with the space around it. Fascinating and laborious in equal measure!

Bell Heather (Erica cinerea) along with Gorse, Ling and Bristle Bent Grass according to the Exmoor Natural History Society, are the dominant plant mix on Exmoor. The Heather has just begun to come into flower and soon Exmoor will be a glorious carpet of this purply magenta, interspersed with splashes of Gorse yellow - it's breathtaking...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Foxglove purple (update)

It's only taken three years to finish this pencil sketch! I first documented Foxglove colours in June 2011 and here they are again, lining the hedgerows of Exmoor and the North Devon coast and waving a gentle reminder to resolve my sketch. So...

...the darkest as well as the lightest purple magenta flowers; next comes the fresh green of the flower bud; the muted green of the stem and lastly a deep warm red/brown edging the leaves this year. You can't bottle it!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Gorse yellow

In Spring, Exmoor and the North Devon cliff paths are ablaze with the uplifting yellow of Gorse but lucky for me, it continues to flower throughout the year. As the old saying goes..."When the Whins (Gorse) are out of bloom, kissing's out of fashion".

I loved drawing this Gorse, I'd felt dispirited for a couple of days and drawing such a intricately detailed shrub was daunting. Once I started I drew for about 6hrs (with quite a break in the middle). After about two hours, I noticed that I was feeling loads better - spirited again! Complicated as it was, it had forced my thoughts to focus only on the matter in hand, and there was no place there for anything else - amazing.

Vivid yellow flowers offset against black seedpods, (which appear grey, because they are covered with downy white fur), vicious spikes when you get too close and a sweet coconut fragrance...

..from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Sea Pink pink

Sea Pinks - also known as Thrift or Armeria Maritima are part of the the sensory palette making up the rugged cliff paths here in North Devon. Delicate, slightly bleached out colours from June's radiant sunshine and salty air, yet tough enough to withstand the shock of the most bitter coastal storms ~ exquisite..!

Wishing you a colourful weekend!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Stinging Nettle Green

Four weeks ago I began a course in Mindfulness. One thing we've been encouraged to do is study everything more intensely - expanding what is often a very ordinary experience into something extraordinary. This sense, the visual, is easy for me, not only is this something I do without effort all the time, but something I've spent much of my life striving to be good at.  This is described perfectly by John Hopper when coincidently last week he wrote about Mindfulness, Creativity and Observation on 'The Textile Blog' (here).

I was reminded how beneficial it is to draw and how not drawing these past few months has been negatively affecting me, as though some part of me were missing - like losing touch with an old friend.

The (vicious) dewy hairs of these Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) in the early morning were the palest misty purple, once picked they dramatically wilted and I thought that was the end of them. They revived however, now more an angry shade of red and my hands are still smarting...

"Tender handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains:
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains"

Aaron Hill, 1753 (British dramatist and poet)

(Try this if you like but don't say I didn't warn you!)

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things - Robin Redbreast

The little things in life that make the difference...

...Roy introducing me to his friend in the local woodland (location and inspiration for so many notebook sketches on my blog) - amazing lovely and amazing (!!) and well it certainly made my day today, (thanks Roy!).

Eye contact...

"Don't push the river, it will flow by itself" (Chinese proverb)

A few months ago I stopped drawing (which felt very strange) and took time to reflect on the past three and a half years of documenting colours in plants, birds, shells etc. and writing about them on my blog.

As far as possible I ignored the pre-conceptions that I'd had about what should be the outcome, and also what I thought others might think about it, I just did whatever I felt most enthusiastic about and let it develop. When I worried that I should have chosen brighter or more varied plants and colours, I accepted that I've always been attracted by simple forms and more muted tones, that this journey has never been about fashion or trends anyway (quite the opposite in fact), that it may or may not be the most creative conclusions I'd ever come to but it would be whatever it would be!

I'm very happy with the outcome :)

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, so an opportunity to take some studio shots of the finished screen prints, The sun came in and out of the clouds but I did get a few images if a bit dark, here they are...

And then there were three...

Spider Chrysanth and Bamboo (72" x 32") - a plant in your room which you don't have to water!

Screen-printed onto natural linen, Bamboo and Ivy...

My favourite - a deep purple Ivy screen printed block repeat!

Emptied a pot from the garden to take this photo - made me smile!

In reality the colours of these prints are subtle and beautiful...

...and today, drying on my print table - a special edition of the Twine table runner in two of the amazing colours of Stauntonia Hexaphylla (leaf green coupled with flower pink)..!

On Tuesday, I'll be delivering this work to the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey, as part of 'Land, Sea, Sky' exhibition! It does feel like an end as well as a new beginning somehow. (though I hope to still post occasional colours and plants which inspire me!).

I hope you can make it to the exhibition, but if you can't, you might like to know that I'll also be showing these at Cornwall Design Fair (August 15th - 17th).

I should add that they are of course all for sale! please email me if you'd like information and prices.

(Many of my early notebook sketches were drawn spending time with my dad before he died just over two years ago and looking through them has been coloured with memories. I'd been on the edge of starting print workshops in my studio, just before he died and now with the invaluable support of Womens Development Unlimited , I'm very excited that from October, I hope to at last be starting these, and teaching people who'd like to learn to design, print and dye textiles - in fact all the things I love doing myself...watch this space!).

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

It's my birthday and I'll print if I want to!

First (paper) test printing of the Bamboo, lunch with a lovely friend, special scarf - perfect day!!!

must be time for a glass of Prosecco - Cheers! x

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Postcards

Selecting just twenty-five favourite images from my notebook pages to exhibit during the Land Sea Sky exhibition is proving difficult, but having to choose just six as postcards has been ridiculously hard! In the end I ran out of time and couldn't faff about any longer. In no particular order here they are...

First: Monterey Cone's remarkable popularity continues, 10,651 page views at this moment. While I do like it - I'm not sure it especially warrants this kind of attention (but I did include it!).

Second: Old Tea Rose. I like this for the drawing as well as the colours. It's discovery on such a cold February day, gave me such immense pleasure and I think I captured something of this in the drawing (which is always astonishing).

Third: Sunflower. "Are there any flowers more full of Summer's sunshine" is what I wrote about this last year in France. I may have even had a glass of wine in my hand at the time...need I say more?!

Fourth: Spider Chrysanthemum. I drew this straight off in pen and ink without sketching which required intense concentration. Now it's screen-printed at a scale of 1.83 metres! It reminds me of my son Josse and feels like only yesterday it/he was only a little plug plant!(x)

Fifth: Bamboo. Elegant, rustles in the wind, reminds me of Sikkim and also 100%Design. Probably one of the most difficult plants I have ever drawn and I really really want a large screen print of it in my living room!

Sixth: Dandelion Seed head - Because I am in love with clocks, watches and therefore of course Dandelions!


...from my Seasonal colour sample notebook. 

Posy - Pussy Willow, Cherry Blossom, Moss...

Happy Mothers Day..!

This is the posy I gave to my wonderful mum today...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook XXX

Selvedge Spring Fair

I'm delighted to be exhibiting in a few weeks at Selvedge magazine's Spring Fair in Chelsea Town Hall, London on 4th and 5th of April !!!

I'll be showing a Spring Fair edition of the Spider Chrysanth wall panel!

not to mention a few familiar faces...

Hope to see you there!! 

For more information go to Selvedge Magazine.

!!STOP PRESS!! 

I have a few free tickets to give away - so if you're interested in visiting, please email me at sam@sampickard.co.uk ASAP!

Colour from the season - Winter Yellows!!

Two sunny days in a row here in North Devon! I've been decorating, painting walls not paper but I did update a few yellows from past notebook pages (February/March) and thought I'd share their cheery colours...

Forsythia...

Elegant Spiketail...

Encrusted with Lichen - Damson Blossom buds...

Dandelion - and yes the bees are definitely out and about..!!

Gorgeous and Furry - Pussy willow!

Dancing Daffodils (have you noticed how many Ladybirds are already out and about this year!)...

Today, wandering lonely as a cloud(!) chanced across these wild ones - What a happy sight...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour sampling - Chrysanthemum print

From experience I know the only way to develop new work is to make a start, get the ideas out of my head and onto paper, fabric, or wherever, accept that much of this early work may not be be brilliant and keep going.

At last, after colour sampling trials this week (huge sigh of relief!), I'm finally getting somewhere.

First samples: I printed the colours I'd sampled from the real Chrysanthemum flower back into the printed flower - as in my original notebook page, with interesting results...

Then I printed colour squares behind the flower as on my notebook pages. The white seriously mis-printed but you get the idea. To give an idea of scale the squares are 25cms...

Now a change of line colour. Here the flower outline is leaf green, the infill is dusky petal orange. Subtle, and reminiscent of Art Nouveau?

I decided to simplify. Do I have to fit every colour in just because nature manages to!
Here I've printed only one colour in the petals and the leaf green. I also introduced a shadow. Inspired (as I often am) by the work of Patrick Caulfield, I thought a hard edge shadow would be achievable and dramatic.

I nearly always use unbleached linen (partly as a positive environmental choice and partly because I really love it) therefore in all the above samples I'd adjusted the colours to take into account this underlying base colour and keep as near as possible to the colours in the plant. However I did (lastly) trial print this sample onto bleached linen in Chrysanthemum bud dusky pink.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Screen Printing in the studio - Chrysanthemum flower

After a difficult start to the year, I've come out the other side feeling pretty positive again! This has been helped along no end by putting new work onto screen and sample printing in the studio this week. Also driven by the forthcoming exhibitions and applications this year which won't hang around and wait for me.

Here's what I've been doing. It's just the start!

I'd already (digitally) printed out a giant Spider Chrysanthemum onto drafting paper to get an idea of how it might look scaled up. I had to scale it down a little from that to fit on my screens but as you can see here (I'm 5' 7") it's still quite big.

I decided to do a test print onto fabric in black and white. Just lifting the screen on and off the print table can be challenging.

Printing white. Lucky that I remembered to check the size of my biggest squeegee when I scaled the flower. Only just fits!

Lifting the screen is always a wow moment!

Now printing the second screen - the black...

and finally - well - just a peek!

...and to think that I grew this Chrysanthemum from a little plug planted in my greenhouse!

Next week I'm print sampling in colour - more to come on this...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Rose (Raspberry Ice) red

A rose for everyone who might be in need of one today!

From our beautiful planet with love xx

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Magnolia white

In need of some early Spring cheer I bought a few branches of Italian Magnolia from my local market. On Friday they finally shed their gorgeous furry cases and burst from bud to flower!

Drawing from life means you can't wait 'til next week or even the next couple of days - Carpe diem!

Forgetting this, I started the pencil sketch on Friday early evening and on Saturday morning it may as well have been a different flower! I had to finish it from memory which is why (for those who may notice!) it's a little upside down on one petal.

Nonetheless! - I hope the joy from a small sample of Magnolia's Spring colour might uplift you a little (as it did me)...

Saturday flower!

Inspiring image of American Textile Designer Marion Dorn in front of her stunning Magnolia fabric from July 1947 House and Garden, photograph by Horst P. Horst.

This photo is for sale on the Condé Nast website here..

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.