Purple Vegetables

Hyacinth

Botanical illustration of the lovely Delft Blue hyacinth. I used colour on some of the dissections and left others in graphite. The enlarged flowers to the bottom left corner take the blue colour through the composition.

Freesias and Iris

Freesia; funnel shaped flowers and beautiful fragrance. Yellow freesias, with their sunny yellow blooms, atop leafless arching stems. Dutch Iris with its slender upright stem and gorgeous purple blue flowers with their contrasting splash of yellow.

Sand Dunes

Sea Rocket, Sea Spurge and Lyme grass are all able to survive periods of drought and the salty spray from a high spring tide. These were found on the sand dunes at Ainsdale, one of the largest areas of wild dunes left in Britain. Restharrow and Bird's-foot trefoil survive in the dry slacks between the dunes.

Crabapples

I saw these beautiful 'Evereste' crab apples growing in my neighbour's garden and I couldn't resist drawing them.

West Pennine Moors

Vignette in graphite of Peel Tower on Holcombe Hill, part of the beautiful West Pennine Moors. The foxglove, gorse and whinberries (bilberries) are very much part of this landscape and the curlew adds movement. The moorland above the ruined farm provides peat bog, the habitat of the cotton grass. The pasture below is where the gorse, harebells, blackberries and sycamore were growing.
The National Trust are restoring these valuable upland peat environments.

Late Summer

Late Summer reds and oranges, echoing the sizzling temperatures. Dahlia HS Date in the centre with Crocosmia and Rosa Rugosa rose hips.

Hydrangea

I discovered these magnificent blue hydrangeas in a neighbour's garden. The sloe berries, Prunus Spinosa, are from the edge of West Pennine Moors.

Holly

Prunus Serrula

Tibetan cherry, Prunus serrula, a commission for the RHS The Plant Review magazine March edition. I sketched this in the Yorkshire Arboretum and also took lots of photos to complete the image back in the studio.

Crabapple Blossom

Malus vernalis, a commission for the RHS The Plant Review magazine June edition. This specimen is from a tree at Ness Botanical Gardens in Cheshire.