Drawn to Nature with Ali Edwards

Friday 16 October 2026 | 10.30am - 3.30pm | Hepple Estate

This full-day workshop invites you to immerse yourself in Hepple's extraordinary rewilded landscape through the practice of nature sketching: drawing not as a test of artistic skill, but as a way of truly seeing the world around you.

Led by Northumberland illustrator and certified Green Sketching Ambassador Ali Edwards, the day combines indoor technique sessions with extended time outdoors, exploring the estate's habitats, flora, and seasonal details at a pace that lets you notice what you might otherwise walk straight past. Whether you've never picked up a pencil or you sketch regularly, this workshop will give you a fresh way of engaging with the natural world, and the confidence to keep doing it long after the day is done.

At a glance

Arrive for a 10:30 start, finishing around 3:30pm with lunch included
All sketching materials provided. Just bring yourself and a sense of curiosity
Suitable for complete beginners through to more experienced artists
Maximum 12–15 participants for a relaxed, personal experience
Outdoor sessions on potentially uneven and boggy ground — sturdy footwear and layers essential

The Day

Research increasingly shows that active, attentive engagement with nature - really looking at it, rather than just moving through it - has measurable benefits for our mental and physical wellbeing. Sketching is one of the most powerful tools for this kind of attention. It asks you to slow down, look (at least) twice, and stay with something long enough to understand its shape.

The morning begins indoors, where Ali will introduce the core techniques and materials you'll use throughout the day, alongside the mindset that underpins her teaching: how to quiet the internal voice that says I can't draw and replace it with the simple, satisfying act of observation. From there, the day moves outside.

On a guided sketching walk through the estate, you'll focus on the small and intricate, such as a lichen-covered stone, a grass seedhead, a beetle making its way across a leaf, before widening out to take in the broader character of the landscape. After lunch, there's time for a longer, more personal session in which you'll develop your own response to what the estate’s habitats offer in October: be it alien looking fungi emerging from the ground, autumn colours clinging to the trees or beautiful flower heads through the meadows.

The day closes indoors with a relaxed sharing of sketchbooks and a conversation about how to carry the practice forward.

T: 07980 625508
E: [email protected]
W: https://events.hepplewilds.com