The recent warm weather and surplus rain has been great for the garden plants. It’s amazing how quick lavender grows given the right conditions, we have them in a raised bed with other herbs and alliums. I particularly like the combination with so many contrasting shapes. The delicate lime green colour of the young allium seed heads leap out from amongst the lavender  with its intricate flowers and its bushy, convoluted silvery foliage.
Another reason I adore these plants is the bees they attract and of course the lovely aroma lavender has. Taking this as inspiration, I have produced a new collagraph.
I began by making a few thumbnail sketches to work out a suitable composition. Then I used this to make a drawing focusing in on an allium head before surrounding it with lavender and drawing a bee hovering over to add to the essence of the piece. I kept the sizes to scale.
After making this drawing I wanted to experiement with colours as well as tone so it was at this point that I decided to create a collagraph. I used texture gel to build up the allium and dried oregano for the lavender flowers. I carved into the card to create some of the lavender foliage in the background before using more texture gel to bring out the foliage in the foreground. Finally I used drypoint to depict the bee and applied carborundum grit for the darkest areas of tone.