June Brings Joy
Good intentions and painting outside with gouache
Hello Creative Souls 🤍
Wow, what a joyous month! Although my favourite season is Autumn, I have to admit that my most favourite month has got to be June. What’s not to love? I say that after walking Audrey in the pouring rain, trying to take shelter under the tree canopy, which proved useless, we both got soaked, but hey, who cares, it’s just water and thinking about it positively, the garden needed it and after spending 5 glorious days on holiday down in Cornwall, I cannot complain.
I am sat in my garden room with a strong cup of coffee, gazing out onto a garden that has popped. The fields and hedgerows are vibrant with wildflowers and vegetation. The fields here in Dorset are full of beautiful yellow buttercups and grasses swaying in the breeze. My little wildflower meadow is brimming with Ox-eye daisies and I am patiently waiting for the cornflowers to appear, which I planted as little plug plants back in May. I’m not sure they are going to make an appearance as it’s been so cold.
I’ve have my first flush of roses, which are prolific this year, but sadly many of them are riddled with black spot after a cool and damp May. I love roses and have a bed dedicated to just roses. In the evening, as the day cools, I often sit outside just to observe them, their gentle fragrance scenting the air, my favourite rose being Emily Brontë. A daily task of mine (and my husband’s) is to deadhead the roses, a pleasure for me, rather than a task. A time to ponder, relax and breathe in a space that we created.
“It is the month of June, The month of leaves and roses, When pleasant sights salute the eyes, And pleasant scents the noses.” – Nathaniel Parker Willis
In this post I will share with you my good intentions for May and June, which has involved setting up a summer studio in the garden room, my progress with my garden birds project and as I’ve already mentioned, I’ve been on holiday to Cornwall, painting plein air, using my new ‘stay wet’ gouache palette. So, now’s the time to grab a cup of tea or coffee, sit back, put your feet up and escape with me for a few moments.
Summer Studio:
In my last post I shared with you that I had decided to move into the garden room for the summer. Well, I did…
I managed to track down an inexpensive drawing desk from Temu. It’s made up of a glass top on a metal frame, so should be ok in a ‘not so weather proof’ space.
I am sat here now, typing away and the wind is whipping through the open door. It’s an amazing space, not only to draw and paint, but to observe. I guess it doesn’t help with my procrastination issues, as this space is perfect for time wasting. It’s a particularly windy day and as the wind whistles around the room, my mind is wandering to Lady Whistedown, the secret writer from the Netflix series, Bridgerton. For a brief moment I am considering sneaking into the lounge to binge watch the last episode of season 3.
Anyhow, I haven’t really had a chance to use this space as a studio yet as May and June has flown by. I have spent quite a bit of time in Cornwall and when I’m at home I tend to be pottering in the garden on a fine day. Studio time is always less at this time of year. I feel a bit guilty sitting indoors when the sun is shining.
Garden Birds Project:
This is where I confess that I had good intentions of starting a garden bird project in May. Drawing and painting all the birds that visited the garden. There was much activity in the garden with nesting birds and feathered visitors visiting the bird feeders and feeding table from very early morning until dusk. I set up my wildlife camera to capture the action and found myself topping up their food 2 or 3 times a day.
I did manage to observe many species visiting the garden on a daily basis and I spent some time listening and recording the bird song on my Merlin app. In the warmer weather it is lovely to be able to sit quietly outside and listen out for different species of birds. I was lucky enough to hear a song thrush, although I never saw it.
We had blue tits nesting in the bird box which was quite traumatic at times. We noticed that a woodpecker and a magpie were taking turns to intrude on the blue tit’s nest. Pecking around the entrance hole on the box to make it bigger. My husband fitted a metal plate on the entrance to make it smaller again and to stop the babies from getting swiped out of their nest. Sadly, we did find the nest on the ground outside but we remained hopeful that the babies had survived as the blue tit parents continued to work hard, feeding them all throughout the day and evening. The box is quiet now so we are desperately hoping that the family made it out safely.
Above the blue tit nesting box we noticed a robin building a nest right above in the porch rafters of our house, we aren’t sure how the robins faired but all seems quiet there too.
Next door there were blackbirds nesting in the trees and excitingly so were the great spotted woodpeckers, both of which were very noisy whilst in residence, especially when the predatory magpies and crows disturbed their nesting sites.
Watching and feeding the birds daily was the highlight of my day, however, in reality, I also found it very stressful. Nature is amazing, but I feel also very cruel.
My garden birds project will still happen, but maybe once the summer is over and I have more time to focus on it.
Cornwall Get Away:
I have been spending quite a bit of time in Cornwall, mostly on the south coast side. It’s given me a great opportunity over the last year to get together an art travel kit and start a sketchbook practice. I have visited some great locations over the last year, where I have been able to experience painting plein air. I have filled my sketchbook with landscapes and seascapes. New things to sketch, paint and explore, using a variety of new mediums that I hadn’t used before.
It’s been just over a year now that I started writing on Substack and nearly a year since I started recording my artist vlog over on YouTube. I love creating art in my sketchbook and it’s been a great pleasure to share my experiences with you.
My YouTube videos focus on lots of things that inspire my art, whether it’s walking out in nature, the places I visit, spending time on the coast, or the new materials that I have collected overtime, I love sharing it with you and hopefully spread some joy in the process.
Anyway, I digress, back to Cornwall, last week we spent a few days there, where I did indeed get to explore some new places and paint outside as the weather was fine.
We visited Port Eliot, sitting on the Rame peninsular, in a once forgotten part of Cornwall. There is a beautiful stately home, a local church connected to the parish of St Germans and acres of stunning grounds and countryside. There is a lovely cafe, that is featured on Beyond Paradise, located in an old stable.
The stable is located at the entrance to the Port Eliot Estate. The Stables is an evolving exploration and celebration of connection with the living world and each other. We enjoyed a coffee and vegan cake at the cafe, before exploring the gift shop and antiques shop.
We then moved on and ended up doing a walk along the estuary at Antony, Torpoint, where I managed to find a perfect spot on a bench to do some painting.
Getting to Grips with Gouache:
In preparation for this holiday I put together a ‘stay wet’ gouache palette. There is a video available to watch on my channel. My palette consisted of 16 wells which I filled with gouache tube paints by Daler & Rowney Designers gouache, Holbein gouache and Schminke Horadam. See below the gouache tubes that I have collected over time, doing my best to choose colours that will match the environment that I want to capture in my sketchbook.
The handy little palette keeps my paints moist and workable for longer periods, allowing me to capture the beauty of nature with ease, or at least that was the plan, having never painted outside using gouache before.
There is nothing like finding an idyllic spot to settle down and paint. In this instance it was on the Tamar estuary. First of all I like to observe the area, asking myself a couple of questions:
What features and points of interest are there that draws the eye in?
Trees, buildings, animals, posts, gates & fences, cliff edges etc.
Am I going to sketch and paint the view as a whole or just part of it?
As humans, we have panoramic vision. I use a view catcher, which does two things for me. The first thing is that it has a smaller square you can look through to narrow down the area you want to paint and it has a small hole so you can hold it up close to a subject to get a better idea of the colour. One example I can give is when I painted a yellow rose last year, I needed to painted the shaded part of the rose petals and I naturally looked at using a grey, however, when I isolated the shaded part of the rose petals, using the hole on the view catcher, the shaded area was actually not grey at all, but a shade of burnt sienna. Sadly, for my gouache plein air experience I had forgotten to take it with me.
What colours can I see that will add tonal interest?
For example, when I look at a landscape, especially at this time of the year, there are so many shades of green. Whether it’s the distant hills, close up grassy areas or the trees.
I found a bench where I could unpack my things and set up, mostly balancing the sketchbook on my lap. I have a clip on water container and balanced the palette on the outside cover of my sketchbook. Audrey was attached securely to the bench whilst my long suffering husband agreed to film the process.
I made a rough sketch first using an HB pencil and then started to block in the colour. I was painting the view I could see straight ahead which consisted of distant hills, mud flats, no water and distant trees on the banks.
When it comes to painting outside, artists often face common challenges like paint drying too quickly or having limited time to work with. These obstacles can hinder the creative process and impact the final artwork of which I experienced all of this. I guess with more practice I will master using gouache for painting plein air. One small change I will make for next time is the type of brush I use. I used my travel brush, which is a number 10 round brush, my favourite brush for painting with watercolour, although for painting with wet gouache I feel I may need to use a flat square brush.
Painting outside with wet gouache was all good fun and overall an enjoyable experience, which I hope to continue to pursue over the coming summer months. I encourage you to try painting en plein air with a "stay wet" gouache palette and experience the magic for yourself. Share your own outdoor painting adventures or thoughts in the comments below. Don't forget to like and subscribe.
There is a video to accompany this post over on my YouTube channel, where you will see for yourself the stunning Cornish countryside, the stable cafe at Port Eliot and how I got on painting in my sketchbook on the Tamar Estuary.
Happy Substack and YouTube art channel birthday to me. Thank you to all of my subscribers, whether it’s here, there or both! To all of those that have sent me words of encouragement, and to those that have sent me words of criticism and a thumbs down - yes really. You have all helped me to grow and learn. Until next time dear reader, stay naturally curious and happy exploring!
Clare 🙏💜
Thanks for sharing what you have been up to, Clare. What a busy and productive time you have had exploring all that nature has to offer. Your summer studio looks so well set up.
I had never heard of plug plants, view catchers or anyone who would actually admit to watching Bridgerton!
I love the look of your summer studio. It sounds like a wonderful space to be creative. I too love the nesting birds in the garden but hate the sound of the magpies terrorising the nests.