An abundant array of Flora: Sketching Wildflowers, John Forrest National Park, July 2020

A day in the park - at least a year's worth of material for sketching wildflowers

This post is a bit of a throwback to last July, when we were in Perth, and spent a gorgeous day at John Forrest National Park, walking, taking photos of the abundant array of wildflowers (and the birds and Kangaroos too of course).

I’d been to the national park a few times before too, but this time was different. For one, it was wildflower season, and winter so there was a bit more life and water around.

For another, I was looking at everything with so much more intent because I was hoping to sketch and paint some of these gorgeous native Australian wildflowers that were in bloom, and with Scott around, we both spent so much time slowly walking through the park and taking photos.

From orchids to darwinias, bottle brushes and hakeas, there was such an array there, so here are just a few of the wildflower sketches.

Have I painted all the things I wanted to yet? No, there are so many more flowers I haven’t gotten around to yet, but, here are just a few of the ones I have painted.

The photos are all there, and I find I sometimes like going back to subjects from older little outings or trips to sketch them.

I don’t know what all of them are yet, but I am sure between iNaturalist’s wonderful community and plant identification guides, I will eventually find out.

Also, Google Lens has been surprisingly good at getting me at least close – genus level, if not the actual species, which makes it a lot easier.

2020 before Christmas Island for me was all about the flowers and leaves - which makes sense. Southwest WA, of which Perth is a part, is a global biodiversity hotspot, with 80% of the plant species here found nowhere else in the world. For most of the time I lived in Perth, this is something I just did not know or realise.

Last year, getting back into watercolour through nature journaling and getting into the habit of taking a sketching kit around with me changed this. I started noticing the pretty, interesting and unique native flowers around.

While the main wildflower season is August to October/November, there was still plenty around in June and July, when we did most of our walks.

I've barely scratched the surface of the wonderful floral biodiversity of the southwest so far and am very much looking forward to more when I'm back there next.

In the meanwhile, I've still got an abundance of photos of these gorgeous wildflowers to sketch and paint in the midst of new material, adventures and sketches.