Janie Pirie

Janie Pirie SBA

I have just spent the last three days at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens attending a course taught by Janie Pirie. The course was Illustrating fruit and vegetables in coloured pencil and was held over three days this week. The first day was spent watching Janie demonstrate technique and tips and doing practice exercises before starting our finished pieces on the second day, although only few managed to finish by the end of the third day. My unfinished effort is below.



I'm sorry about the quality of the photo, it was taken under artificial light - there will be another pepper to the right of the spring onion when it is finished.



The classroom at the Botanic Gardens

I had a wonderful time and learnt a great deal doing this class. I have attended several courses here but this was the first one in coloured pencil. I would wholeheartedly recommend doing classes like this to anyone as in my opinion it is the best way to improve. You can only learn so much from books and iternet forums (valuable and useful though they are). Janie offered a high level of one to one tuition as well as group demonstrations which I found very valuable.

Janie Pirie is a member of the Society of Botanical Artists and the United Kingdom Pencil Society, you can read more about her on the UKCPS blog.