Lemon a day

4″ x 2″ 10cm x 5cm approx

Another in the leaf series. Took a walk today inthe woods , wonderful sunshine cutting across the landscape and reaching right into the woodland. It was warm enough to lift the scent of the Daphne bhuloa allowing it to drift along paths and avenues from where it called me like  a siren might a sailor. Silly to plant it next to the wintersweet with its less exotic smell I thought,  a mistake I have also made -I realised as I got home.

#191

size 4″ x 2.5″  10cm x 6cm approx.

#190

 Click here to purchase   size 5 in x 4.5 in, 13cm x 12cm

These are leaves which I picked up the day the car went for repair last week. They are starting to curl and dry out indoors.

No1 son came home looking cheerful and well although the journey home had taken three hours longer than it was supposed to because the sea was too rough for the ferry to take them off Arran. His clothes washing requirements were remarkably light as it seemed he had spent most of the week in the one outfit. In fairness he had changed his socks more than twice! He had obviously enjoyed the chocolate brownies as there were chocolate cake crumbs scattered throughout his day bag.

The decorator arrived this morning as arranged and DIY Dad has been in a frenzy of activity involving his latest tool the mighty mitre saw. The decorator would obviously prefer it if the skirting boards are in place before he gets to them.

The garden is looking very dismal, things are collapsing in dark rotting heaps; looking for some flowers the other day was very depressing  the roses that have been visible through the back door look tatty close up, I found one stem in a more sheltered area, a single decent stem of snowberry and one of Shizostylis which has left it rather too late to flower.

#154 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog

 Click here to purchase   size 6 in x 9 in, 15cm x 24cm

I found the most extraordinary picture on the web it is by an artist from Myanmar or Burma, Win Pe Myint,  he is both a painter and a Botanist as I am. It has, I am sure, a wealth of story in the objects chosen. The postcard in the foreground is Picasso’s ‘ Acrobat with Ball’, it has the most concentrated air of still contemplation I have seen in a picture, and it has a very quiet lemon in there too.

Here is the link:

http://www.asia-fineart.com//painting_details.php?painting_id=1163&order_by=`painting`.`title`&page_from=artists&item=0&num_paintings=10&artist_id=87&status=1

Yesterdays picture is another in the series of things picked up in this autumn, here are some berries, the feather of a green woodpecker and a distorted maple leaf. I am putting all of these for sale on my Lemonaday-shop as it forms a permanent Gallery. Or rather it should do, having checked the links they all seem to have broken.

No1 son should return today, I dread to think what state he will be in the weather has been foul for the last two days. Still no news could be good news…

153 a painting a day or three a month if you are lucky

   size 6 in x 6 in 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper

 I appear to have a Likedin account that I am unaware of as people are asking to be professionally associated on it. This is worrying as I don’t wish to be rude to them but I don’t want another site to look after either, neither does it seem that I can check what’s going on without making an account which is what I don’t want to do. Oh frets and worries of the electronic age.

I forgot to mention a memorable bonfire last week. It was the day that things became horrible at No1 sons new school. I was very annoyed so consoled myself by lighting a fire to get rid of all the diseased stuff I have been extracting from the garden, and a little of my own bile perhaps. I was really enjoying myself when I noticed that I had set the fence on fire. The fire had travelled under the cover of some dead leaves two metres along to where there were piles of holly leaves against the bottom of the fence. Once there they had ignited a soft rotting log and the bottom of the fence. My panic was that the fire would leapfrog along the base of the hedge and kill it or the rotting boards on the fence. Luckily I got to the water butt and back in time. Holly leaves do burn well live or dead; I always looked from them when we were doing the” light a fire with two matches and no newspaper” test in Guides, I forget which badge that was for. I think it must have been the Arsonists Badge; there was definitely a badge that featured flames.

The rain finally got here as I was heating up some spaghetti puttanesca for my lunch, well it was the easier than the original version as no cooking is required: put a little virgin olive oil in the bottom of a heatproof dish add thinly sliced garlic, olives stuffed with anchovy chopped, a teaspoonful of drained capers, any fresh herb in reach +/-, tomatoes tinned or fresh Place a blob of left over spaghetti on top and microwave until the pasta is hot, stir, eat. It beats a cheese sandwich. I’m not sure I’d serve to anyone but really close friends, i.e. those who know better than to complain.

Apologies to those blog readers who like beautiful things, today I have painted dying leaves it’s a bit of a thing with me at this time of the year. I think they are lovely but they are also decaying. They are decaying after a job well done. Think Whistlers mother.

The bright red patches on the pear leaves occur every year, they are some sort of gall, on the back of the leaf there are lots of little spikes behind the red patch.

#132 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog

Size 9.5inx7in 25cmx18cm watercolour on fabriano paper

Well I nearly did not get this anywhere near to finished …in fact it might not be finished yet.

This is a go at doing the challenge on Rookie Artist where anyone can do a picture based on a photograph put on the web once every three weeks. The photograph was of yellow tulips growing in a pot which I cropped heavily.

Next I will have to work out how to send the photo over to them, here’s hoping that it’s not too technically challenging. The tulips are quite new so there is only one challenge posted so far. The site can be found at http://rookiepainter.blogspot.com/

I found it a bit strange as I almost never work from photographs as I do not like the results , I think I can tell if I have worked from a photograph and I do not like the look. With this I have played god and moved bits of leaf around to improve the composition. I also added rather more stamens than were in the photo as I felt it gave the picture more focus.

Here is the photograph uncropped:

I missed a trick the shadow of the tulips low down is really striking.

It rained most of today so apart from scragging a few weeds I did very little apart from discussing household renovation with himself (I am trying not to call it DIY anymore ).

#38 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog

  11 inches by 6 inches, 27cmx15cm, watercolour on heavy weight rag paper

This is one of those, let’s get a fast impression of what the colours and the light are doing, paintings.

I always like to get these flame coloured tulips and sit them against a turquoise painted wall. The colours really start to zing. They are not quite opposites but close to the opposite. Then when the evening sun shines on them….

The jug came from my aunt’s house, it may have come from her mother’s it’s a little eccentric- like all of us who have not been cloned for average features and personalities.

I got called into the school and told that the GCSE course work was being worked on all the time my son and I thought it had disappeared; apologies were proffered for the distress and the delay that was admitted to…mmm I’m thinking.

The ground in the garden is already hard and baked in the worst beds, in fact one has already cracked. I am half way down the water butt and there seems to be no possibility of rain until the weekend.

However there are bits of the garden which are taking off the red leaves on the pieris have suddenly eclipsed its flowers.

Alison

#27 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog

   3.5″x3.5″ 8.5cm x 8.5cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper

Not at all sure at this point what I will paint, the sky is a milky blue with the balance favouring the milk. I think that it would be the perfect weather for some digging up and replanting as it will rain on Tuesday (I think they said). As things warm up I try not to disturb plants unless there is rain forecast.

I want to do some more culinary pictures. I noticed that the garlic was not the most popular image I have done so far, but I still think that there is much more to see in a head of garlic than in a rose. It certainly has hidden strengths!

There are some bits of the garden coming on that I am pleased with, the new bed has been given a cheeky line with mowing stones ,or rather recycled concrete slabs that were in the garden already, they have the advantage of looking weathered. The bit by the front door which was drab and pinched a very short time ago has started to work again, there are primulas and primroses all the same shade, Pulmonaria and coming through from underneath are the striped leaves of Tulip’ New Design’.

Thus there are spots and stripes on the leaves and a limited colour range, I love it, when the tulips flower it reaches its peak, they have a pink cream and yellow colour mix which is so subtle you don’t really register what is there.

The whole shed business rolls on, we took the shed apart yesterday afternoon, the area it sits in is actually flat and it will be great to see it liberated and tidied up. It will form the pathway into the woody part of the garden. The path will lead past two hazels coppiced and my favourite holly. The holly tree was growing in the gloom made by the leylandii plantation, it has a trunk which has formed from two melded in several places leaving holes which go right through. One of the first things we did when we moved here was to start cutting down the thickets of 30’ high leylandii cypress trees which the previous owner had hidden behind. It’s a suburban garden and I swear we have taken out 50 of the dull green monsters, I know they are cheap to buy but 50 was insane. We have left one which is golden higher up and a landmark tree for the surrounding houses. There is one other straggly one but its days are numbered. We are still burning the wood from this mammoth tidy up and have enough for another winter.

It’s a lemon part zested, I am making rice pudding with sultanas and lemon zest, its cold enough for that I think.

Alison

#18 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday  5″x6″ 12.5cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper

No1 son came home smelling of fritters or doughnuts yesterday, how did it go? He had made everything he set out to do, he said, and eaten the lot for lunch, so had eaten an onion, garlic and ginger, chilli some prawns, a green pepper, two tomatoes, four potatoes, and a banana, all fried, then he had been offered surplus doughnuts made by someone else, he ate three, and still managed some cake from one of the girls……the wonder is he’s as thin as a rake still. Oh yes and then we took mother out to a pub for a late Mother’s day treat in the evening and he ate a big two course meal with ease.

I had ham hock in a spring broth which was a kind of transition meal somewhere between a wintery dish and a lighter summery thing. It had beautiful white beans in it, fennel and tiny kale leaves.

In honour of the curry, the remaining chilli peppers today in a yellow bowl, I seem to be slightly better today but I like one of the chilli peppers better than the rest, it would work better if they were all as good as each other.

Alison

#6 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog

SOLD  6″x6″  15cm x 15cm watercolour on rag paper,  for sale on Etsy search for lemonaday

I moved the lemons and did them in extreme wet on wet, I like the random way the paint flows sometimes, ok not entirely random, if it goes in completely the wrong direction I just blot it up with bog roll and try again or tip the pad so it flows off somewhere better.

These lemons are sat on the plate glass I use for rolling printing ink; I really like the watery blue that you get in thick glass.

I forgot to mention yesterday I found quite a lot of ear fungus growing on some sickly looking elder trees half way up the downs. As I think they taste like crunching on a real ear they are not my favourite so I dropped them off at my favourite gastro-pub on the way home.

Alison

#3 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog