This is a drawing I made at Walworth Garden Farm's botanical drawing class in South London earlier this week. When I heard about it I thought it'd be a good way of getting out of the studio and into some more experimental drawing and to see a new garden besides. Walworth Garden Farm is a few blocks down the road from Kennington Underground Station - one of those secret London gardens filled with bees (there are hives), quiet shady places amongst the spring blossoms and inspired planting.
It was so fun to go back to basics with no pressure at all to produce a masterpiece of any variety. Illustrator and workshop teacher Karen George took us through a range of drawing exercises and also generously shared her own sketch books with us. I loved that we did warm-ups, I hardly ever do those any more.
It was so great to choose from someone else's pile of materials - boxes of potentially new ways of mark making and drawing materials that I wouldn't normally go for. I decided to step away from the watercolours, as I wanted to play around with other ways of adding colour.
On the second day, we were handed secateurs and told we could pick anything we liked from the lovely flower garden and greenhouses - yay! I always love these spiky guys (forgot to ask what they are - anyone?) but a leaf study is a not a Thing of Joy in my books.
I went for a burst of yellow happiness - forsythia, instead, and began by doing a biro contour drawing before adding pastels and chalk pencil. The Euphorbia got added in afterwards.
It was so lovely to be drawing in a group, to chat and have tea and not get too serious about it all. If you fancy signing up for the next one, you can register for email updates on the website at Walworth Garden farm. Next up is a wooden spoon carving course, which should be loads of fun too.
