Botanical Illustration and close-up nature photography - children and adults

What will you learn? In our busy lives, in can be easy to look past a tree, a bit of lichen on some bark, or even a weed, but this workshop asks us to bring in the nature we find around our urban environments, and LOOK CLOSER. Using a simple clip-on macro lens on a smartphone camera, we’re going to zoom in to the nature we bring along, and discover other worlds!

By photographing our magnified bits of nature, we’re sure to see abstract shapes and spaces we never considered before: the inside of a Foxglove flower can look like an alien monster; a close-up of a flower stem can look like a creature from the sea; magnifying a poppy can look like a giant cake; and even a little bit of moss magnified can look like its own little city!

Once we photograph our magnified samples, we’ll paint and draw what we see. By the end, we'll have gallery of painted abstract shapes and forms that we’d normally overlook in our busy lives. Not only do we get to look at nature closer in this workshop, but appreciate how even the smallest pieces of nature have their importance, if we look close enough.

What’s needed? You will need to bring a smartphone camera, and a simple clip-on macro lens available for £7.92 on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2cvm78u4. All other materials are provided.

As well as learning how to use a macro-lens, pupils will come away with a new-found appreciation for even the simplest kinds of nature around them. By falling in love with nature, even within our cities, we realise how important these things are as habitats for other animals. By looking into a flower, we see how it’s a temporary home for a bee, or shelter for an ant, and inspire us to hold even the most scarce nature, sacred.

This course also provides an appreciation for abstract forms, and looking at everyday things a little differently, as well as learning the art of botanical illustration through observation and from photography.

How do tickets work? Your ticket is for either 1 adult or 1 child accompanied by an adult. When filling in your booking form, please enter the adult's details and then, in the appropriate section, please give the name of your accompanying child.

Workshop leader information: Betty Adamou has been a macro-lens botanical photographer (non-commercially) for over 5 years, and spends her spare time understanding the plant world around us, and persuing botanical painting and illustration.She is fascinated by how nature looks under a microscope, and hopes to inspire others in her love for nature, plants, art, and a bit of science!