Isle of Man Nature Journal

  • Growing up in Cornwall, sea campion is one of those plants that’s like an old friend. I’m happy every time I see the white petals and puffy, delicately pink-veined calyx. I used to sit next to clumps of these as…

  • July saw the start of an exciting new phase of the Isle of Man Nature Journal as the IOMNJ map was introduced to school children and used as a stimulus to discuss our differences and a prompt for them to…

  • Back in my Swatching for Spring blog post, I swatched every colour from my watercolour paints. It gave me a clear idea of how my paints behave and a quick reference to the colours I own. It also set the…

  • Spring is a perfect time to sort out and organise art supplies. The brighter days and spring flowers create colour that inspires creativity and makes me want to reacquaint myself with some of the art supplies that I’ve left languishing…

  • It’s the Spring Open Studios at Grenaby tomorrow and as the base of the Isle of Man Nature Journal and the workplace for me as an artist, you can imagine there’s a bit of tidying and organisation to do! I’m…

  • I’ve been drawing for a while, so it’s pretty instinctive to move my pen in different ways to create the illusion of texture. Drawing in the same way each time isn’t necessarily best for our development as artists, though. It’s…

  • The Nunnery, just outside of Douglas, is a place I’ve often heard of and used as a landmark but never visited. Having recently attended a course there, I was impressed by the beautiful features of the building and the very…

  • While I was drawing a daffodil as part of a ‘One Thing’ walk the other day, I started thinking about past walks in which I chose just one thing to draw. As a blogger, not only do I have my…

  • As we emerge from winter, it can be hard to remember the wonderful colours and forms of the summer garden. I felt like adding some colour to the blog this week, and so decided to focus on the flowers of…

  • New artwork on the map is always exciting, but especially so when it helps to show the very different ways we can represent a place through art. Recently, Jan Kinrade sent in two of her ink sketches of Derbyhaven. I’m…