We are always delighted to hear just how much your visits to Gosforth Nature Reserve mean to you. While some visitors are inspired to pick up a camera and photograph nature in all its glory, others are inspired to sketch and paint.
This week, you can enjoy three lovely artworks created by NHSN member, Margaret Mound, who inspired by her first visit to the reserve in June, perfectly captured the beauty and nature of the reserve during the height of summer.
Please click on each image below to view a larger version.
About the artist
I joined NHSH in June 2020 and I am such a new member that I don’t yet have a membership card.
I can’t say that I am a naturalist in the sense that I have never studied plants and animals and insects but I do have a huge appreciation of them. I feel strongly about the current dangers to the whole ecosystem due to manmade climate change and the Government’s complete failure to tackle this urgently. I am a keen walker and enjoy being outdoors in the garden and growing fruit and veg on our allotment. I also love sketching and painting (but more so since retiring) especially outdoors when the weather is kind.
On my first visit to Gosforth Nature Reserve in June just after I joined, I took my mini sketch pad and paints and painted an opening in the woods with the foxgloves. I loved the way the light played on them and the lush greens. It is very hard to capture! The next time it was wet and grey but I spent the time in the Ridley hide and tried to convey the calm atmosphere across the water. The ducks were settled down for most of the time which made it easier to sketch them. I am still very much a beginner in terms of identifying even common species e.g. moorhens and coot.
The third time I did a sketch of the stream in the woods. I managed to find a sheltered spot on a very windy day. I was very lucky to see a young deer with a beautiful chestnut coat crossing the footpath near the exit as I was leaving.
I hope others will enjoy creating artworks from the reserve – it is such a source of inspiration.