Carrie Rogers Art: incredible watercolour artist, super-mum, and altogether an awesome woman (in no particular order).
Khannah’s Honey Hues and Carrie have been collaborating since 2020 – she was the first artist to release a palette (Midnight Forest) with the brand, and we regularly work together on the Beehive subscription colours. Let it be known that I adore her art – the attention to detail is incredible, and the vast variety of subjects she can cover is a constant inspiration to me. From seashells to dragons, Carrie truly is a wizard.
Notes on Nature is the newest collaboration with Carrie. Before we unleash the colours upon you all (next week! Eep! So soon!), I sat down with Carrie (metaphorically, y’know, over whatsapp), and put to her some questions from the Beehive members, and a few that I had myself!
Get your cup of tea and enjoy <3
Hi Carrie! I’m so excited to release this palette upon the world – but tell us a bit more about it! What was the inspiration behind the ‘Notes on Nature’ palette?
Nature journaling, creating a palette that could be used to paint a variety of subjects throughout nature that could easily be used at home or out and about.
A lot of us know you for the posts you made during lockdown, documenting the nature in your local woods. When did you begin nature journaling? What inspired you to start?
I guess I began nature journaling in the loosest term around 2018, I started painting little bits of things I’d found on walks in the woods behind my house, leaves, seeds, flowers, feathers etc I’ve always felt a big connection to nature and documenting my finds so it was a natural progression for me to start painting what I found. But I started a proper weekly nature journal back in 2020.
See here for an article that she wrote during 2020 on her journaling.
Nature Journaling
Did you find yourself packing the same items each trip? What are your essential supplies for going out to paint?
A selection of paints, a smaller size sketchbook preferably with HP paper no bigger than A5. A couple of brushes in different sizes, a pencil, eraser, mixing palette, brush towels, and collapsible water pot.
Do you have any tips for others going out to paint in nature?
You don’t have to do something huge, I love just finding a few things to take with me or photograph to paint later, I love to paint small things I find, shells, mushrooms, feathers etc don’t put too much pressure on yourself to create a huge or detailed peace just do it to enjoy doing it.
Now the lockdowns are over, if you could go one place to paint, where would it be?
Any coastal area in the UK, the more rugged the better
Have you ever gone nature journaling with Isaac? Any tips for going out into nature with your family and still getting time to make art?
Yeah I have, I don’t get as much done and it’s only now he’s 4 that he has become a bit more interested in drawing and painting. But he really likes to match colours of things and then paint those. I find that even if he doesn’t paint anything, for him the whole activity of finding stuff is really educational and keeps him interested enough to enjoy it.
And do you have a favourite field snack?
I don’t snack very often because I am diabetic but I do usually take a pack of boostballs out with me in case I get low blood sugar. Oh! And my thermos travel coffee cup!
Do you have any instagram accounts that you would recommend – either for aesthetics or tips/tricks – for our followers?
Alex Boon art is a great nature journaling account, as are Sue Field and raspberrytheif (Angela Hennessy).
Notes on Nature
Now, onto the palette, Notes on Nature. How did you pick the colours you wanted?
I honestly could of easily chosen 20 colours for the palette but for practical reasons we limited it to 8 colours. When choosing the colours I went back through my previous nature journals and noted down the colours that came up a lot and then tried to narrow it down to the 8 but still covering the ranges of colours.
I then posted them to Katie, who took those images and made them into painty goodness.
What is your favourite colour/s from the palette?
Probably dog rose and dioxine yellow.
Why are these your favourites?
Aesthetically I like them but I also like the mix you get from them. Dog Rose is a really delicate pink and Dioxine Yellow really bright and cheerful
What makes this bundle perfect for nature painting? And her favourite nature thing to paint with it?
The colours really match well with a lot of things in nature and the combinations you can make from them, the additional supplies with the bundle are great for taking out and about with your or on weekends away and day trips as there’s pretty much all you need.
Any final thoughts?
I’m actually excited about these colours being so different to the midnight forest palette but I think the two palettes will compliment each other beautifully and I’m hoping that I will have time to do a big mixing chart of them all together
Notes on Nature, and the accompanying Nature Journaling Bundle, are available at khannahshoneyhues.com from the 15th July 2022 for a limited preorder period.