Astronomy Art: A Beginners Workshop - 2nd April 2026

The latest in the series of Flamsteed’s astronomy art-related workshops was held in the main hall at Mycenae House on Thursday 2nd April and attended by a total of nineteen Flamsteed, Royal Museums Greenwich members and guests. Lee Nightingale was our art tutor for the evening and she was ably assisted by our chairman Bobby Manoo.

The Orion Nebula was the subject chosen by members for the evening and Lee guided us through drawing the nebula using oil pastels on black paper she provided. As she drew, we followed along with her work, stage by stage, projected onto the hall’s main screen. The technique she demonstrated involved layering and blending the pastel colours to slowly build up an interpretation of the subject. As it turned out, a nebula is not easy to draw, but Lee encouraged us to “draw what we saw” and the result was 19 very different “interpretations”, some more accurate than others, but all colourful.

Picture by Asra Jilani

Throughout the evening, Bobby circulated, confirming choice of pastel colour and sharing interesting facts about the Orion Nebula and nebulae in general.

So intent in drawing, the evening flashed by and after an hour and a half we had to reluctantly put down pastels and allow our drawings to be photographed. Finally, Bobby gathered us all together for a group photograph, proudly holding our drawings.

Many thanks to Lee for a very enjoyable evening sharing her skills with oil pastels and for introducing a group of mostly newcomers to astronomy art. Thanks to Bobby, Georgie, Alec and other Flamsteed members who were there to help set up and pack up at the end of the evening.

The subject of next year’s workshop: Planets?

Images from the evening (by Bobby Manoo):