Drawing illustrations for my new book

I’ve had a very reflective few months and been distracted by various things, but back on track with creating some beautiful colour illustrations for the book I’m working on about my orchard. I’ve always loved and been fascinated by apple trees – so many varieties and types, and so useful; but its more than that. Get a few apple trees together and you have the makings of an orchard, and an orchard is a magical thing. Suddenly biodiversity increases and flora and fauna establish themselves, sometimes to the wonderment of the owner.

In my own orchard here in France, which is only three years old now, I’ve already seen primroses creeping in from the hedgerow and wild orchids appearing ‘just like that’ in the grass. My mission is to capture all this, the evolvement and change of the orchard over time in my words and hopefully beautifully illustrated in my drawings.

Today, I’m drawing some flowers and insects, but have a look at this portrait of the Barn Owl who haunts our orchard and fields. We know this is a female from her darker colouring, and there is a male who is much paler who lives about a kilometre away, but we’ve never seen them together, so think they are not a pair.