The Bee Keeper’s Daughter
A curious eye
As the daughter of bee keepers, I have long had an insightful adoration of these wonderful little creatures. When my parents first started with a few hives dotted around their potager in France they told me once you start to have an interest in Bees you will notice them everywhere. Could this be true I wondered? Well yes as it turned out that is exactly how it is! On my last trip to France I was fortunate enough to encounter so many different types, but I think my personal favourite has to be the rather striking Carpenter Bee. A gentle giant by comparison to the frantic chaos of the dizzying honey bees, but all wonderful to observe in their own unique ways.
A very secure fixing of my bee suit
The harmonious hum of these little bees working their magic
A Garden of Inspiration
As a keen gardener myself, I do try and be thoughtful of bee friendly plants and keeping a garden in flower all seasons helps. Beyond the need to have something pretty to look out to all year around, as a Botanical and Scientific Illustrator it certainly helps to never feel short of inspiration. I also enjoy many of my plants as their flowers begin to fade, and perhaps the fruit or seeds begin to form and they take on a new appearance. For some they take on a more woody delicate emergence as their energy slowly seeps back into the roots. This is the time when the bees will be seeking a new source of pollen and important in your planting scheme to consider early Spring and late Summer flowers that will attract them.
Fleurs sauvages
My parents very much favour wild flowers or fleurs sauvages, and let the ivy run wild over their potager stone walls which are autumnal source of pollen and nectar for flower visiting insects. To encourage the bees to your potager try planting flowers as either companion plants to your vegetables or simply close by. Whilst gathering nectar and pollen from the flowers they will also pollinate your crops. Lavender, comfrey, geranium, sunflowers, lupin’s, borage to name a few are all very bee friendly plants
Close Observations
Besides from having a curious eye, encouraging bee and indeed insect friendly plants help in turn a myriad of ecosystems continue to evolve. I have studied a very small number of these unique life cycles and find it a fascinating part to Botanical and Scientific Illustration to get close to your subject when the matter presents itself. From observing closely, how not just the bees, but in fact any life forms behave naturally will always enhance your Illustrations. Developing a clearer understanding of movements and the relationship between pollenating insects and plants has given me a real sense of enthusiasm to introduce them more frequently to my Botanical Illustrations. Which I think adds a real point of interest and informative aspect to my artwork.
The luxury of getting up close to these busy bees
Putting the research of field studies into artistic practice