Kate Batchelor Artist

Someone asked me what I was going to sketch today and I said Parsley harvesting. I saw a look of surprise and then they admitted they had never considered it had to be harvested. Certainly over the past few years I have noticed more and more fields of parsley. So very fortunate to catch The Halls harvesting parsley in what were once fields that belonged to my parents farm. I was fortunate to grow up in the farm at the back of the picture Brick Kiln Farm which my grandfather purchased from the writer Adrian Bell. Some specialised machinery in use here. Parsley sauce anyone?

Typical of East Anglia a cartpath with an ancient Oak tree covered in ivy overhanging casting midday shadows. So pleasing to see in this day and age that these trees are so treasured. This cartpath has fields on the other side of the hedge while meadowland full of grasses and flowers adjoins to the right.

Once again you can see how large all these drawings are with a 60cm ruler on my drawing board.

This drawing brings me a quarter way through. 75 to go any suggestions?

I mentioned the other day when I drew the Galloway Belties at Carr Farm that I had also sketched their Norfolk geese. Sadly as the title suggests these are destined for our plates this Christmas. I was impressed at how well they are kept by Nicola and David. Absolutely free range and as we stood in the field they all waddled over and round us.

The church at Covehithe was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. Much of that church is now present as ruined while inside sits the smaller church built in the 1670’s. Throughout this time it has been surrounded by farmland although increasingly the sea is stealing the land away.

A poignant sketch today of the farmer alone and deep in thought. Here I am trying to show the isolation of farmers as they work in the countryside often with no one to take to.