Influences and Inspiration: Keeping a Nature Journal

Textile artist and Guild member Louise Watson shares the inspiration behind her perpetual nature journal.

'I started to keep a perpetual nature journal in 2019, inspired by the American botanical artist Lara Gastinger. Her idea was to mark a spread with all the weeks of the year in a watercolour sketchbook and draw something that has attracted your attention each week.

Slowly year by year as you return to the pages, they fill with interesting plants and what’s in flower for that time of year. I have now 5 years entries with birds, plants, flowers, fungi and insects all included on the pages. I make notes in it too, for example the first frost and the first butterfly spotted.

It becomes a wonderful space of memories and observations. I notice when migrant birds are passing through the garden and unfortunately how wildlife in general is declining.

This journal influences and inspires my embroidery work.'