Working a Wildflower Meadow

The wild flowers in the meadow I planted last spring have all produced seed heads which are now attracting a lot of birds. I've had a charm of goldfinches feeding here along with linnets and yellowhammers. My resident colony of tree sparrows are also really enjoying it.

I'm hoping this new 'larder' outside my living room window will feed this population over the winter and provide me with plenty of new painting models at the same time.

Some of my best compositions, like the goldfinch feeding on a thistle head, above, are of birds feeding on seed heads. 

In the summer the meadow was full of insects and butterflies, including marbled whites, which again became excellent models for sketches, like the one above.

On one occasion I counted 40 marble whites in just 20 minutes!

Most people's living rooms look out onto a nice neat lawn, but I look on to a meadow of wild flowers. I like to think it is not just a beautiful backdrop but also a working environment.

It took a bit of work to get it established and looking back it now seems a long time since the cold spring day I first sowed this mixture of seeds and even longer since I gathered the seeds from the banks in my gallery car park!

I also spent a lot of time preparing the ground. The seeds were sown in what is actually a very thin layer of soil covering 400 tons of solid chalk which had been dug out when my new studio was built.

Among the many species that have taken are wild carrot, red clover, ox-eye daisies, horse shoe vetch, self heal, yarrow and greater knapweed.

These flowers have also been useful as studies for my backdrops. I am still working on a picture of two hares in a wildflower meadow. What do you think of it so far?

Wildflower meadow for National Gardening Week

This week is National Gardening Week and I'm planting a wild flower meadow in recognition. Of course I also want to attract lots of birds, insects and butterflies to the garden so that I can watch -and paint - them from the house. I'll be planting plenty of teasel in the mix for goldfinch, like the ones I painted below feeding on teasel heads.

Whilst preparing the ground for my new studio last year, I got the builders to dump the soil from the works onto this patch at the front of the garden.
It's almost solid chalk with barely any top soil, which will be ideal for wild flowers.



 I began sowing the seeds today. They include oxeye daisy, scabious, yellow rattle, birdsfoot trefoil, knapweed, kidney vetch and plenty of others. In fact I've got more wild flowers in my mix than grass.

 I collected many of the seeds from wild flowers already growing in the gallery car park, which makes the project a bit cheaper!

After this I'll cover the meadow with a thin layer of top soil and keep it watered. I'll keep posting as it progresses to show you how I get on.