The weather is getting a bit warmer over here and the birds in the garden haven’t failed to notice. The dawn chorus is starting to wake me up in the morning (in the most delightful way). The various birds currently inhabiting our back garden have also taken to extensive bathing all of a sudden. The pigeons and collared doves prefer a classic, taking their ablutions in the proper bird bath, an ornamented affair on top of a pedestal. The female blackbird has appropriated an abandoned dish and made it her personal spa. Yesterday a robin was caught in there and was promptly chased away. He perched in the adjacent Hydrangea and puffed up as much as he could, but even at his biggest he wasn’t half her size and not a match for her outrage. All the while the blue tits are hiding from the kerfuffle, favouring a little rusty bucket in an overgrown bush, which was once used to hide chocolate eggs during garden Easter hunts.
The flowers also are becoming more active. The snowdrops had a good year and are just starting to fade. The daffodils are in full swing and the tulips are appearing, unashamedly counting on the other two to test the weather before fully emerging. We have already tackled the snowdrops and the daffodils in our online sessions, so now is the time for tulips.
I have a lot of tips on how to draw tulips so rather than asking you to come to the session with a drawing ready, I will run two tulip sessions: one for drawing and one for painting. You can join one class or you can join both. As usual my Patreon subscribers had priority booking, so the classes are already half-full. If you subscribe to the Lavender Tier of my Patreon site before you book, you will get the discount (£5 off all my online classes) straight away, plus all the other contents on there.
Tuesday 23 March – How to draw tulips – 6 to 7 pm – £10 (£5 for Lavender patrons)
Tuesday 30 March – Painting a tulip – 2 to 4 pm – £20 (£15 for Lavender patrons)
By separating the drawing and the painting, I am also aiming to cover a leaf as well as a flower head.
Please email me via the contact page here if you would like to join the group for one or two live online tulip tutorials.
I hope to see you soon and happy painting!
Sandrine Maugy 