6/10/24

Take a stroll into Fay Ford’s delightful garden Studio.

Take a walk down the garden path with artist Fay Ford, and see how she takes inspiration from nature in her lovely studio in Oxforshire, England.

Fay writes: My day always starts with a morning walk with my two labradoodles, Ewok and Yogi, across the fields and down to the River Thames.

We never get bored of this walk, with its ever changing view throughout the seasons. There’s new plants unfurling daily, and always a chance of spotting swans flying overhead, a blur of a kingfisher along the bank, or if I’m very lucky seeing an otter darting into the river!

After our walk it’s off to the studio, a leisurely stroll down the garden path, tea in one hand, secateurs in the other!

My studio space is a large wooden shed nestled at the bottom of our sloping garden in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. When we moved here, the garden was little more than a small field with grass edge-to-edge.

After building the studio eleven years ago, the garden has naturally evolved around my obsession with plants and flowers! I’m inspired by the natural world, and love nothing better than to paint what’s around me!

The closer you get to the studio the more wild the garden gets! It’s not a tidy garden, it’s a painterly garden, where flowers are chosen for their colour and shape. Basically what I’d like to paint next!

I’ll often cut a few stems as I wander down the windy path, noticing what’s new and opening that day, ready to put in a jam jar to draw. Or if the weather’s good, I’ll pull up a seat and grab my watercolour set and paint right there amongst the flowers. My favourite work is always painting from life, I just lose myself in the process, listening to the birds and the buzzing of the insects.

It’s magical.

I mostly paint with gouache or watercolour, often without any pencil outlines so it’s a bit freer.

I use a Schmincke watercolour set and Winsor and Newton or Schmincke gouache, and mix the colours on old china dinner plates. I often use coloured pencils for details and textures.

My favourites are the Caran d’Ache Prismalo ones, or Faber-Castell Polychromos.