Happy Birthday, Beatrix Potter
This month: Celebrate Miss Potter's serious scientist side, draw a gorgeous flower with a fascinating history, win a beautiful book, join our live draw-along and more
Dear Friends,
Before there was Peter Rabbit, there was Beatrix Potter the keen mycologist. As a young woman, she spent most of her time studying natural history - her deep knowledge of botany and animal anatomy would eventually result in richly detailed storybook illustrations. But Miss Potter’s early watercolors were careful renderings of mushrooms, masterful little paintings to rival the top science illustrators of her time. In summer, she took to the countryside in her pony cart to collect specimens for examination under her microscope.
There is much more to the story of Beatrix Potter’s early scientific work (and why she left it behind to write about Jemima Puddleduck and Mrs. Tiggywinkle). We’ll talk about that while we paint watercolor mushrooms in remembrance of Beatrix on her birthday, July 28. A multipart video tutorial with illustrated printables will post on that date.
Coming up: Magnolia liliiflora
We’re winding up our heirloom+pollinator sessions with one of the planet’s ancient surviving (and most beautiful, in my opinion) flowering plants. The magnolia survived the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, and is probably much older than that. Since they were growing on earth long before the first bees appeared, magnolias are pollinated by beetles. We’ll draw the velvety pink blossoms of Magnolia liliiflora, sometimes called tulip magnolia or Japanese magnolia, along with a beautiful beetle or two, during one of our video tutorials this month.
I’m editing our current heirloom+pollinator session, and the first two videos + printables will post this evening. I hope you enjoy them! I’ll post an additional video every evening; there will be two or three more, depending on how the edits go. We’re drawing a simple view of old-fashioned “cut and come again” zinnias with a pollinator butterfly, the common buckeye.
July Book Giveaway
Our book giveaway is Night Magic, a book that reads like a conversation with a very well-informed friend. It offer a peek into the natural world at night: glow worms, fireflies, moon gardens, salamanders and screech owls… One paid subscriber will be randomly selected on Saturday, July 12. Good luck, everybody!
Help me plan the July live draw-along!
Our next draw-long session will be Saturday, July 19. I’m hoping you will help me choose the subject matter, art medium, and the most convenient time. Watch for a survey coming to you next week. And thanks for your input.
Also…
Browse my 30+ lifetime access online courses HERE. Right now, for every course you purchase, you can choose a second course free for yourself or someone else. Birds, butterflies, children, dogs and cats, horses, we draw them all.