Cretan dittany

For the last two days I have been working on my watercolour of Cretan dittany and am pleased at how it is coming along. Work is slow as it is much more complex than anything I have done before and I can only work on it for a few hours at a time. Once it is a little further on I will publish some photos of it. Tomorrow I am out surveying the wetlands and Almyros, but hope to get some more work done on Wednesday before I head off to the south west corner of the island to photograph some rare endemic plants and, hopefully, get some drawings done.

Shopping for art supplies

As usual at this time of the year I am in UK and will be stocking up with art supplies to take back to Crete in February. The wall hanging I made as a Christmas present for my good friend here was very well received and I am going to go fabric shopping too, as I would like to make one for her daughter for next year.

Chronia Polla

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. There are some interesting and enjoyable courses planned for 2012 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete - a ten day botanical art course for beginners and improvers and an exciting Scanner Photography course run by UK artist Jan O'Highway. You can find all the information you need on www.flowersofcrete.info

Course at Kolymbari

I am running a course on Botanical Art at the Orthodox Academy of Crete next September. For full details go to www.flowersofcrete.info and check out the trips pages. If you need more information please contact me directly.

Botanic Art Workshop October 2012

I am delighted to announce that I will be holding a ten day Botanic Art Workshop for beginners and improvers at the Orthodox Academy of Crete at Kolymbari from 15th - 25th October. The programme is now online at www.flowersofcrete.info along with information about Orchid and Endemic Flower Finding trips throughout the spring and a Food Foraging week throughout the summer months. We will be adding further courses and workshops over the next few weeks, so please check back regularly.

Rare and beautiful plants

The second exhibition of artists work for the environment will be held at the Orthodox Academy of Kolymbari in June 2011 in conjunction with the ECOTHEE International Conference. The exhibition will be open to delegates and to members of the public and will help raise awareness of the need for conservation both on the island of Crete and elsewhere.

New website

I have now created a website for my artwork and this can be found at www.jjbotanicart.com - please take a look and sign my guest book.