Graduation Day for SBA DLDC 8 Students

Today, the SBA DLDC 8 Students graduate at a ceremony in London. I'm raising a glass to them as I write. I'm struck by how much work each student has put in to this course in the last 27 months. There are no holidays, work on assignments must continue regardless of the calendar. Whether it's Christmas, or the long summer school holidays, the assignments must be done. 

Of course, this is just as it should be. It's good preparation for working on commissions, since there are always deadlines, whether you're working on a private commission, for a publisher, or working towards an exhibition. 

Nevertheless, it's a huge achievement, and I'm sure that the Students are celebrating their success tonight. 

Only another year and it will be graduation day for Course 9 ! - I'd better get moving, there's loads to do, and I'm still deciding on the subject and composition for this assignment! Not that it has been easy, there are some beautiful bulbs flowering at the moment, but no matter how much I love Hyacinths, there is no way I am going to even attempt to draw dissections of their tiny parts. Something larger would seem more sensible, but the Lilies I bought, thinking they would be easy to dissect and draw, have turned out to have flowers the size of dinner plates! Utterly gorgeous, but it's patently obvious that they would leave little room for the necessary dissections of a Botanical Illustration, so it's back to the drawing board. I'm still making sketches and detailed section paintings of them though, since I will want to paint them in the future, nothing wasted here. 

Living half-way up a mountain, our seasons seem to be about 6 weeks later than the rest of the south west, and there's little sign of anything growing here so yesterday, we took a trip out to a garden centre. It was cold and wet - despite the weatherman promising warmer weather.   So many lovely flowers and plants to see and choose from, but being in a much warmer area that is to be expected.  And there they were, the most lovely little Fritillaries with their chequered flowers and so elegant and delicate, all sitting in pots waiting for me to choose one. So I chose a pot with mostly buds, since I work slowly, and they will need to last a while. Here's hoping they won't suddenly wake up and 'go over' faster than I can get them down on paper.  Now all I need is the time to sit down and do the work!