Painter's diary

This is a small branch of developing cones from a Blue Atlas Cedar found on a walk through the arboretum at Exeter University.

By mid July the Milk thistle flower has transformed into an impressive seed head.

This plant is a herb related to the daisy family. An extract from the milk thistle seeds can be used to treat diseases relating to the liver.

These thistles grow several feet tall and the spikes on the sepals surrounding the flower and on the leaves are razor sharp.

These poppies were growing on a grassy bank alongside the estuary at Bosham in Sussex providing a beautiful splash of colour. They are common poppies which grow in rough grassland, roadsides and farmland.

These tulips were in a pot in my garden. The colour is stunning and I just had to paint them.

Common Vetch is a member of the pea family which has 13000 species. It is found on grassland, farmland and waste ground. Bitter vetch was one of the first domesticated crops grown by Neolithic people and Common Vetch is still used as livestock fodder today.
This is a painting I started a year ago but never quite finished. I have now tidied it up and added a little bee to fill the gap in the left hand corner.

Hundreds of these amazing flowers were growing at West Dean gardens at the end of March. They are part of the lily family. The flower heads are complex to paint but worth the effort.

I have been painting some small illustrations of spring flowers to be mounted onto cards to be sold as original paintings which were very popular last years at craft fairs.