Foxgloves galore

For a long time now, I’ve an idea of a picture I’ve wanted to paint…

… I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to draw foxgloves - as you might find them in a glade - lots of them, all together, some crossing stems, and, most importantly, to scale.

The scale element had been the bit that excited me the most - and the one that delayed me the most! Some of the foxgloves this year have been truly enormous. I don’t know if they are always that huge or if it is because I knew I wanted to draw one that I started to really observe them.

I work best when I can really study the topic or species I’m drawing - ideally with an example right next to me. I didn’t go for one of the epically big ones, but all the same, many were taller than an A1 sheet of paper.

Originally I was thinking of drawing outside, but when I thought about the logistics of this, the plan was getting more complicated - the foxgloves are taller than my drawing board, and any board I could easily transport.

Inspired by seeing David Hockney’s ‘Four Part Splinge’ print in a magazine, it gave me the idea to work on four separate sheets of A2 paper to create the canvas size I desired. When put together forming an A0 size piece - which was tall enough for the foxgloves!

I wanted to work quickly and freely and, at this scale I wanted to ensure that the line I created on the first part of the painting would be the same as the last. I was concerned about ink flow and so decided to work directly in ink with a paintbrush. This enabled me to work with a black flowing line throughout. I played with the pressure I put on the brush as I worked so the line thickness varies -creating extra interest and movement in the piece.

I abandoned my idea for working outside, and instead bought a foxglove in - wrapped its stem in wet kitchen towel and zipped it into a food bag to try and preserve it while I worked. Having it alongside helped enormously - I just love working like this, where I can take information in and instantly put my interpretation of that onto the page. What I ended up doing was putting a plastic tablecloth on the floor to protect it from any ink spills (there weren’t any!) and the four pieces of paper on top, all touching as if they were one big sheet. In hindsight, my table might have been big enough to work on, but I think I was giddy with enthusiasm that I’d found a way ahead with this idea that I didn’t consider that at the time. As a result it felt like a combination of painting and yoga - crawling around, over and on the piece as I worked!

After drawing with the ink, I added watercolour. Working up to and straight off the edge of one page and onto the next to ensure it worked as a complete piece.

And voila! A video of the completed piece, with my feet for scale! These are now being scanned as I would love to try them as a wall decal and so need them as a digital file.

Update - here they are on the wall of The Artists’ Gallery near Ludlow.