You Can’t Lockdown Nature!

"I wanted to create something that captured the awe-inspiring power and majesty of Nature. When we were blessed with this stunning sunset on Christmas day, I couldn’t resist taking a plethora of photos, one of which I chose to recreate in coloured pencils.

Nature is divine and omnipotent, for she is inherent in everything from each blade of grass and droplet of water to the planets in the solar system; she breathes within the cells of our bodies and erupts in the weather patterns across the world. Nature is not only beautiful, but the giver of life and a force to be reckoned with. Being ubiquitous, Nature is a deity that can be admired and worshipped anywhere and at any time, but particularly when she ignites the sky."

"When I looked back over my sketches completed during the last year, interestingly, most of them depict aspects of the natural world. As a Nature worshipper and animal lover, I decided to collate a selection of work from my sketchbook, completed since March 2020, to convey how Nature has kept going (and kept me going!) despite the pandemic. The title of this piece plays on the expression ‘one day at a time’ to demonstrate how my connection with the natural world, and my passion for exploring it creatively, has helped to sustain me, nourishing my mind, body, and spirit."

"I love this photo taken of my beloved Harley in January this year. In fact, I was so impressed at my photography that I felt tempted to submit it as a piece of art in its own right. However, my artist voice reminded me, quite firmly, that I shouldn’t betray my creative proclivity and it was my duty to try and render the image on paper using my eye, by my own hand.

Harley is often a willing subject for photos, largely because she is rewarded for sitting and posing. As she’s so photogenic it’s no surprise that some of the photos then inspire my artwork. This photo represents the spark of inspiration derived from observing Nature at her finest. I like to take it all in and pay homage to the natural world by offering my personal interpretation."

Market Bosworth Track through woods to the hunting lodge

"It is the circular walk I have done so regularly from Barton, through Congerstone, and back through Carlton. My house is there, as is the pub we used to go to for quiz night. There is the railway without trains and the canal without boats. There is the barn owl I saw on a signpost. We’re a chapel village, Carlton is church. It makes a difference to community life. Now the weather is picking up I’ll be able to walk the fields. In winter Leicestershire mud is serious stuff. There is space and green and fresh air in the outside world."

"I have always visited the same places in my dreams. Even though they are not exactly as seen when awake I know where I am, and also how to get between the places, which roads, which trains etc. During lockdown my dreams are much more vivid and I remember the places I have visited while asleep, which are forbidden to me when awake. Dreams help you work through your problems.
Here we have Hartlepool where I grew up, Barton where I am now, the Staffordshire Roaches, where there are wonderful sunsets, Wales, London and Paris, amongst other places. There are bits of my history: the pot I bought in France, the hydrangeas that I grew and dried for winter colour inside. There is my favourite cat who has been an excellent companion, and the raven protecting us.
We’ve had lots of false attempts to get out of this mess and I’m now hoping the wait is over, but this may not be true."

"This is where I grew up, Hartlepool. This is where the waves crash on the breakwater and the smell of seaweed intermingles with the best fish and chips in the world. I visit Hartlepool at least once a year to walk along the coast, sketch, eat said fish and chips and visit my roots. I’ve been lucky cos a young friend from up there sends me photos to work from and videos with the sound of waves. Hartlepool is not posh. It’s lost all its industry. It is now poor. It has fallen foul of the north/ south divide. But I love it and can’t wait till i can go back."

"I always carried my camera with me whenever I did my COVID exercise walks in and around Barwell Lane , Hinckley."

"The subjects I photographed were varied but concentrated on the colour, texture and patterns of the flora and fauna."

"The 3 entries are a small portion of the many taken over the last year."

"Nature’s weather forecasters, I've been watching them change daily."

"Dreaming of a far away hot sunny beach holiday"

"Longing to go to a beach and have a paddle, the tide stops for no one."

"Lockdown since Christmas has been far tougher than last year. In 2020, being at home really ignited my passion for being in the garden again. Mini BBQ’s with my family, fence painting and helping the kids grow sunflowers was something to look forward to during the warmer days, to distract from the fact we should have been in Norfolk!"

"However, being able to swing open the back door and appreciate the luxury of that ‘extra outside room’ encouraged me to explore our beautiful (and somewhat unkempt) garden, our ‘escape space’. I felt compelled to create still life images to record our lockdown days at home. The work evolved into an alternative family album, each collection of objects recording a special day or activities that we focused on when restrictions were in place."

"The garden was my sanctuary - the overflow of our home. Both offering freedom and yet being confined at the same time."
www.clairrobins.com

"During lockdown I have enjoyed being creative and experimental through my art. Lockdown for me has meant observing and appreciating nature even more. My artistic style is impressionism, verging on abstract. I like to take photographs and then interpret into a unique modern style. I love using bold and vibrant colours and these three submissions hopefully represent a brighter, more cheerier and hopeful world than of late"

"I have been experimenting with weighting down real leaves onto watercolour paper which when removed displays a lovely reveal, as shown in between the 3 main leaves."

"I had such a job to get Christmas cards last year so I decided to paint a snow scene and aiming to paint 3 more designs to have printed and be prepared this Christmas! This watercolour is based on a photograph I took of Saint Wistan’s church,Wistow in the spring but with an imagined background. I wanted this to represent a cold and snowy Christmas Eve with a welcoming church showing off an enormous Christmas tree that is covered in lots of white lights."

"This is another painting using my leaf printing technique with the use of lovely bright, bold watercolours."

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"In the comparative stillness of life on pause in lockdown, the grace, busy activity and cycle of renewal continues as ever in the garden pond."

"During the first lockdown, weekends were stay-at-home ones. I have been working through the pandemic as I work for the George Eliot Hospital, so at least I was able to drive a few miles a bit further than the local supermarket.

I have always been an arty type - as in drawing and painting. In the past I have had a stall at one or two craft fairs mostly as a hobby however it was nice when people bought my work. I would do bookmarks, greeting cards and small framed paintings. They were mainly watercolour flowers.

I had not done any paintings for some time, but sitting in the warm weather last Spring, a rather unusual temperature for the time of year - I was inspired to sketch a tulip in the garden. I moved into the shade because the sun was getting a little too warm, and there it was. The markings on it were interesting and I thought it would be a nice study."

"I have chosen to submit photos, as photography is a medium I have always appreciated and enjoyed using especially to capture ‘a moment’ that I find interesting and inspiring.
I often enjoy observing the finer details of nature, such as the contrasting textures, colours, and how it is effected by the elements and lighting.
For these particular photos I used my iPhone (without filters).
I found this sunrise quite dramatic whilst in a morning dog walk. To be able to capture a moment that can change so quickly and is never exactly the same."

"With this I wanted to capture the contrast in texture between the pine needles and the snow, with the sunlight backlighting the image."

"These were collected on my daily lunchtime lockdown walks and my first attempt at negative painting. It’s amazing what you can learn from Youtube!"

"I’ve spent all of my life living in Leicester/Leicestershire but have found so many lovely places for walks that I’d never previously visited. I was previously a fair weather walker but lockdown encouraged me purchase appropriate clothing/footwear to be able to get outside into nature no matter what the weather is. This scene is in Great Glen and I’m lucky that my friend that I walked with here is a photographer (Paul Reno) who kindly let me use his photo as the basis for my painting."

"The lockdown has enabled me to spend much more time gardening and the cheerful spring daffodils show that there are brighter days ahead."

“Lockdown has been hard especially as a landscape painter needing to be out there, to experience it and be inspired. I am lucky enough to have a garden, where the plants and flowers have brought plenty of colour, but lacked the distant moodiness of skies and mountains.”

“I resorted to creating myself a challenge to bring the skies and mountains to me using my memories from holidays. Using an A5 Khadi paper sketchbook, I painted 38 double page spreads. Quink, bistre and a couple of watercolour crayons plus candlewax and pen were my main tools with which I made myself work with my left hand (I'm right handed) and 10-15mins each piece.”

“This made my paintings much more spontaneous and definitely more atmospheric. I will now try similar things with limited colour too and maybe some larger frame able pieces. Hopefully this will keep me going until I can get back into the wild again.”

“I am a photography student and I initially created these images for a project called “Lockdown Diary” which was themed around photographing our journey through lockdown."

"On reflection, these images became significant to me as they metaphorically represented restrictions from the beginning of lockdown and now heading towards the end.”

"These images portray how beautiful the world is, the silhouetted trees create a lonely atmosphere but the colours in the sky contrast that by highlighting that even those who feel lonely have people who care for them".

"This painting for the Welsh coast is one of a series I have made of the sand dunes at Barmouth and other locations."

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"Denford is a village on the River Nene near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. The river often floods at this location and I was interested in capturing the changes wrought to the landscape by the flood."

"This is my favourite view from my home village across the valley to Hollowell reservoir. The autumn colours the year this painting was completed were the main focus."