Well, beautiful ones …

It is done!

Last week the final designs for the Ventnor Botanic Gardens Colouring Book were finished, edited, scanned and put together into a pdf that is “printer ready”.

It is a nice, woozy, Zen feeling to know it’s all done.

And also, funny to look back into January and remember coming up with the idea of doing this book.

Do you remember?

I’d decided to make Well Being a central goal around which to sculpt my year and had this big, fluffy vision of chilling in the Botanic Gardens on warm, sultry days, gazing at the view and capturing it on some easy to carry, lightweight easel that I’d managed to cycle to the gardens with.

The reality was *slightly* different.

I needed to have the printer version finished by late spring.

This meant starting work in February and working solidly until all the designs were finished.

As those of you who reside in the British landscape know, February and March AREN’T the most sultry of months.

What the creation of the book actually looked like was this:

misty days

taking photographs

drinking green tea in the Plantation Room

referring to deep sources of imagination and setting up my drawing board in a variety of places to complete the imagery.

And after all that, it is done and I am happy with what has emerged.

During this adventure I most loved learning the history of the Botanic Gardens during the hospital days.

One thing that sticks out is the idea of rich people in that age sponsoring beds for those in need.

It made me think about how I would love to ask businesses to sponsor some of these books to be taken into rehabilitation clinics and so the healing powers of the plants and art therapy can help those who are currently stuck in hospitals, divorced from the natural world.

Does that sound like a good idea?

If you are a business person who feels called to that idea

or would simply like to sponsor some books to spread their seeds across the world,

please email me here and we can co-create this together.

The biggest change for me during this time has been a paradigm shift around nature.
Nature has changed my nature.

It’s sealed my commitment to spending time in – and connecting with – the natural world.

I feel much more Zen and alive and grounded and in touch with the Real World that has no self serving agenda.

It has prepared my mind, body and soul for my next project – transforming the Gorgeousness Programme into an online workshop for girls and women to grow their gorgeousness, globally.

It has, in essence, changed who I am growing into.

Now, I am infusing the Ventnor Botanic Gardens Colouring Book with an intention of gorgeousness … that it will trigger in you the same process that it has triggered in me … even for those who simply flick through the pages.

And that’s IT!

The final page.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this journey and that all is gorgeous in your nook of the woods.

Love Bethan xxx