Yesterday our Scottish Drawing Expedition for The New Sylva got underway. In search of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) we had travelled to one of the last remaining and best examples of Caledonian Pinewood: the Black Wood of Rannoch, in Central Scotland. High above Loch Rannoch, on an undulating heather-clad ridge,Continue Reading
Earlier this week the authors visited Stourhead (Western) Estate in Wiltshire to study and draw a treescape in one of Britain’s most progressively-managed woodlands.Continue Reading
Sarah Simblet’s concentrated work drawing tree leaves and fruits for The New Sylva was interrupted this week with the invasion of hundreds of young toads (Bufo bufo) hopping past the open door of her Oxfordshire studio. This time of year the young toads leave their watery birthplaces to start a terrestrialContinue Reading
Earlier this week the authors visited a very unusual and special woodland. Lying at the heart of the UK Prime Minister’s official country residence at Chequers is a woodland of box Buxus sempervirens. Box is known to many as a small shrub that is used in finely clipped hedges andContinue Reading
Regular readers to this blog will have noticed that we have not posted for a while. Gabriel Hemery has been immersed in writing, while artist Sarah Simblet has been working flat-out trying to keep pace in drawing the dozens of species coming into leaf and flower during April and May.Continue Reading
The authors of The New Sylva recently travelled to East Sussex on the hunt to find some of England’s last remaining mature elm trees.Continue Reading
The authors visited Devon recently on the search for a number of trees and forestscapes for The New Sylva. Followers of The New Sylva on Twitter (@newsylva) will know that our first stop was the ancient oaks of Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor, followed by a successful search for one ofContinue Reading
In a recent post we wrote about Sarah Simblet’s work in progress, drawing an enlarged alder catkin (see post). Here is a sneak preview of the finished drawing. Far right of the photograph of the drawing (out of focus) is the female flower of Alnus glutinosa.Continue Reading
Spring is fast approaching and our attention is beginning to shift to emerging tree flowers. Among the first to appear are the many wind-pollinated species. Trees such as birches, hazel, oaks and willows have beautiful pendulous male catkins, or inflorescences, containing many scaly bracts (flowers) in place of petals seenContinue Reading
Calling all foresters, woodland owners and tree spotters! A good example of a Wild Cherry Prunus avium tree is wanted by the authors of The New Sylva to be featured as an illustration in the book. The tree must meet the following requirements to qualify as a candidate for a treeContinue Reading
Sarah Simblet has been making the most of the cold weather, retreating indoors to illustrate some of nature’s tiny hidden wonders using a microscope. Exploring the collection of materials at the University of Oxford’s Herbarium, Sarah found a cross-section of a female cone from a Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris. TheContinue Reading
Tree and forestry charity, the Sylva Foundation, has appointed Sarah Simblet as Artist in Residence. The two year appointment for co-author and artist Sarah Simblet will support the production of the majority of drawings for The New Sylva. The Sylva Foundation will be supporting the book launch in 2014 withContinue Reading
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