Flower studies: Sketching in the walled garden at Attingham Park

Last week I spent the day at Attingham Park (National Trust property, gardens and parkland) near Shrewsbury. Mainly in the Walled Garden which is looking amazing. 

I've been planning on doing this for ages - visiting to draw the species in bloom at different times of year. Finally, I did it.

There were quite a few showers during my sketching time and so it worked well to mainly draw in my A6 sketchbook, easy to fold away or to shade by leaning over it when the rain came. 

Originally I'd hoped to do lots of larger drawings, so opening the sketchbook out gave me a bigger drawing surface, while using the tiny book.

These poppies were amazing, huge and with such delicate petals that look almost as if they are made from a mix of crepe paper and tissue paper.

Alliums have been a long time favourite of mine but I'm  not sure if I've drawn them before. I find it so useful to really look at the structure of plants and flowers. Drawing helps me to do this as I really look hard at how it is made up.

The scent of the mock orange blossom has been a long time favourite of mine, and it is at it's best at the moment. So I enjoyed standing right next to it for a moment to inhale it while sketching.

I made use of the open spread of the sketchbook again to do a study of the Irises. The petals of these are an incredible colour. 

There were so many other species in bloom, many of which I photographed for reference but didn't get around to drawing at the time. Hopefully I'll return again soon and draw some more, or visit some of my other local National Trust properties and do the same.