We say it every year and I’m going to say it again – I cannot believe that 2022 is coming to an end in just about two weeks!
A lot of wonderful stuff has happened to me this year and one of those things is the wildflower project that I began in January 2022. I wrote a piece about it earlier this year and while I meant to write more about it as the year passed, it just didn’t happen. Nevertheless, as an entire year of the project comes to an end, I wanted to look back and reflect and share with you what I have learned through this Wildflower Sketchbook Project.
When I began this project, I wasn’t sure I would find enough wildflowers to fill up an entire sketchbook. But as it turns out, I was so wrong! Throughout the year, I have not been short of wildflowers to add to my sketchbook; I have actually not managed to record many species simply because I did not have the time.
This project has helped deepen my appreciation of nature as I have learned how plants adapt to difficult conditions to thrive; it has helped expand my knowledge as I dive deeper into botany and most of all, it has helped me to learn about the local flora of where I live, a topic on which there are few resources for laypersons.
The project has given my days direction; it has given my art more meaning and I feel intensely satisfied with my work. That is no small blessing.
So what are my future plans with this project? A few months back I had thought I would start a completely new sketchbook on a new topic but now, I feel like there is still a lot left for me to study and record when it comes to wildflowers. So, in 2023, I hope to continue to study wildflowers and keep recording them in my sketchbook. I also have plans to turn some of these studies into paintings for an exhibit - it's just a germ of an idea at the moment and let's see how things pan out. More on that later.
If you would like to see all the sketchbook pages so far for this project, check them out here or follow #wildflowersketchbookprojectindia on Instagram.
I also wrote an article on wildflowers for Round Glass Sustain and illustrated it too. You can check out the latter here (there’s a link to the story there as well).
As always, thank you for reading and for being here.
See you in the new year!