Painting blue flowers in watercolour

In this two-day workshop, you will explore the beauty of blue and purple flowers in bloom at the Botanic Garden in late spring. We will begin with drawing exercises and tonal studies before moving on to colour mixing, learning how to create a wide range of blues, purples, and fresh leaf greens in watercolour. With guidance, you will then illustrate one or more flowers, choosing from irises, lupins, flax, brunnera, bugle, catmint, forget-me-nots, cranesbill, and more. The course includes both classroom study and time outdoors in the Garden. This is an inspiring introduction to capturing the subtleties of botanical colour and form in watercolour.

Suitable for all abilities

Lizzie Harper is a free-lance natural history and botanical illustrator who has been teaching botanical illustration at the Garden for the past decade.  She specialises in pencil techniques, composition, fruits, composite flowers, pen and ink techniques and leaf painting masterclasses. She’s the illustrator of “The Hedgerow Handbook” and “Foraging with Kids, and her work is in “The Bumper Book of Nature” and “HarperCollins Flower Guide”.  Lizzie worked on flower identification charts for Field Studies Council, and illustrations for the Welsh Botanic Gardens. She works in her garden studio in Hay on Wye where she lives happily with a long-suffering husband and two lively children.