East Cleveland Woodland Diaries

The Tees Valley Wildlife Trust has secured the services of the multiple Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medallist and internationally-recognised botanical artist Martin Allen to give three one-day workshops in botanical field-sketching for beginners.

The workshops will focus on the wildflowers and trees of local woodlands. “We are really fortunate that Martin can give his time to encourage people to develop new skills and an interest in plants through drawing” said Kate Bartram of the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust. People who attend the workshops will be encouraged to join Martin through the year and practice their skills in capturing seasonal changes in East Cleveland woodlands as part of a Heritage Lottery Funded project to create a collective digital diary of three different ancient woods.

A resident of Middlesbrough, Martin began painting in the 1990s when recovering from illness. In early 1995 his first Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) exhibit was awarded a Gold medal. The second in 1997 also gained Gold. Awards at The Society of Botanical Artists’ exhibitions followed in 1996 and 1998. He is an emeritus fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and regularly writes articles on botanical art for their newsletter. He is currently working on paintings that may be selected for a Transylvanian Florilegium, being created under the umbrella of the Prince of Wales’s Foundation Romania, following a visit last year with 8 other botanical artists. Martin is in demand internationally as a teacher for his masterclasses, and will be teaching at the American Society of Botanical Artists Conference in Pittsburgh this Autumn.

“As a teacher I give lots of encouragement; I tend to find most people draw a lot better when they stop being so hard on themselves and relax” said Martin.

These one day workshops are structured around the first half of the day learning and the rest spent outside practicing. You must book a place to attend the workshops and come suitably dressed for spending time outside in woodlands. Bring paper, pencils and an eraser and a packed lunch.

The programme of workshops is:

• Saturday 5th June 2016 — Margrove Heritage Centre, Margrove Park
• Saturday 11th June 2016 — Valley Gardens Woodland Centre, Saltburn
• Tuesday 21st June 2016 — Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum, Skinningrove.

All workshops begin at 10.00am and finish at 3.30pm.

For more information about the project and the workshops visit Woodland Diary Events

To book a place call 01287 636382 or email [email protected]