June at Kew Gardens

After nearly 3 months without going (hello house-move stress!) I finally went back to Kew Gardens this week. I had an awful journey to get there, and when I finally arrived it started raining, so I didn’t have the best start to my day. But the sun eventually came out, and I had a beautiful day - sitting on the grass drawing trees, finding new flowers in the Great Boardwalk, and exploring the always beautiful Rose Garden.

I took just one small sketchbook, and a pretty simple pencil case with brush pens and a few pencils (but forgot the sharpener!) and I think it made me much more productive. I didn’t spend time drawing to dice what materials to use, and instead just got straight on with a drawing which resulted in 12 sketchbook spreads over the day. Not having a sharpener probably helped too, as I couldn’t stop every couple of minutes to sharpen the pencil, I had to just keep going as it got blunt which left a slightly different result than I usually get.

The few hours I was sat on trains & tubes to get there were spent coming up with plans for my new studio (I can’t wait to share more about our upcoming house move, but I’m waiting on an exchange date before I say more!). I also remembered when I was at college & university and I would tape large pieces of paper on to the wall to paint on - I always loved the results of working like that, so it’s definitely something I want to try again. I think working “big” with a paint brush and ink will work really well with the drawings I’ve been doing lately, so it’s on my list of things to do once I’m in the new studio! For now, its just a sketchbook and pen on the sofa - because there are boxes EVERYWHERE!

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