Archive
Jazz apples and the turquoise mug – a painting a day
SOLD 7.5″x6″ 19cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
This is not yet finished as I start writing , better not mess it up then, the apples are really tasty and it seemed sensible to buy some more so that I did not get greedy and eat the still life. Actually that did once happen, I was letting a room in the house I’d rented in Nicosia and this English girl came round to look at the room, sat down at the kitchen table where I painted and ate a clementine from the still life!!!!Even though I was desperate to split the rent I wasn’t that desperate….I think I was painting in the kitchen as it was huge and also it was one of the few warm rooms in a very cold house. Stone floors and uninsulated flat roofs mean you can be colder there than in freezy England. Naturally there was no heating as most of the year you did not need any.
The garden is growing at a terrifying rate the time to move plants and root out weeds is so short.
Today I moved a day lily to somewhere it will get a little more sun and flower for once. I also moved the species clematis which were in pots.
Alison
#16 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Double Hellebore – a painting a day
4.5″x6″ 11cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
This picture is quite botanical; the double hellebore flowers are absolutely exquisite.
Today I made the soup with the remains of the goose and the some ham plus stock, also in it were four leeks , a potato, a carrot, pasta, herbs and a reduction of white wine and sherry… really good.
In the garden it was hot and sunny the most beautiful day of the year so far, so what did we do? Yes we, I banned all forms of entertainment involving electricity until dusk and set to on two projects with the boys, yeh, they did grumble- almost nonstop. However we did spring clean the small shed and I found cooking apples still good from the Newton Wonder tree and shallots still good. I also found one of my favourite paint brushes and any number of spider webs. We also cut back the hedge and cleared it up. It makes a huge difference doing stuff in a gang. No2 son also got out the new tent and put it up, its really very good for £25.00 it’s got an inner tent and ventilation.
The postman stopped for a chat and thought I was being uncommonly mean as we cut the hedge…he did not think they looked happy…am I supposed to make them happy I could have asked.
Alison
#15 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
One and a half Jazz apples – a painting a day
Sold 4.5″x6″ 11cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
I like these apples they are really really tasty and there are 50% extra free in the bag I bought. It’s a new variety and it will grow in the UK.
Today I was a total sucker for offers and chocolate as granny sent money for forgotten eggs .Almost all the eggs had gone with the exception of some lovely Barbie eggs which nearly made teenage sons sick on the spot. They happily substituted various exotic bars: chocolate with ginger, cherries, pieces of raspberry and Belgian truffles in a bar. Did we get this sort of delight when we were young? A bar of Bournville was the height of sophistication, in Easter eggs if we were lucky we got Black Magic the chocolate was really nice on those then, I think they may have downgraded it since. The egg snapped when you hit it in a very satisfying way.
The best bit was one boy went over budget so had to give up a bar…I thoughtfully relieved him of the plain chocolate and raspberry ( Fairtrade no less), the boys got taste… in chocolate at least.
The painting is a really fast impression.
Alison
#14 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Another deep red rose – a painting a day
FOR SALE ON ETSY LEMONADAY 6″x6″ 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
The rose means so much but is so simple, a centre which you cannot see wrapped in spiralling petals. A stem a leaf or two, all you need.
Such a busy day, all the stuff from the space that made the studio was stored in a shed, but for complicated reasons the shed was in the wrong place, it got us through the build on the house but this week it must move so first we had to face up to the contents. Some things it is good to see again some are a little embarrassing; the back of my ancient drawing board has mould on it, an old friend showing signs of infirmity. There is a mountain of stuff piled next to the bin waiting for the next run to the tip.
Here too is a photograph of the hellebore bed; I am trying to get a decent picture of one of the double flowers they are each bouquets in their own right.
Alison
#13 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
A deep red rose – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday 4.5″x6″ 11cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
Ho hum I could stuff my face with chocolate or do my painting for the day; finish the Killer Sudoku or do a painting for the day; have a cup of tea or do my painting for the day; plant out the species clematis that are eking out a living in pots and reproaching me daily with their slender new growth or do my painting for today; go and encourage concreting maestro on final stretch of the shed base or do my painting for the day…. What about make a cup of tea and eat a small piece of chocolate…all the second batch of hot cross buns have gone …and THINK about the subject of the painting for the day….
Tonight’s meal is sorted, cold meat left from yesterday….I was persuaded to a small goose going cheap by the gamekeepers wife as an alternative to turkey for Easter, only once I got it defrosted did I realise it was a wild goose, it had been obviously been shot. It took a long time to cook but was very tasty and had a lot less fat than a farm goose.
First rhubarb of the year came from my brother in-law in Essex, he is not a fan of the stuff but will grow it; he is near the sea so it’s spring there a little sooner. I think I might paint the rhubarb.
Tried the rhubarb did not work so here is a rose for today, sometimes it is easy to paint the familiar, the rhubarb was rumpled and difficult to define.
Alison
#12 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
A leaf which fell from the camellia – a painting a day
6″x5.8″ 15cm x 14.5cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
I have a fascination with the leaves which are on their way out or attacked by grubs; they protest in colour. Plants release pigment into their leaves as a reaction to stress or as a precursor to dying. I love the patterns made and the junction between functioning leaf and the part already gone.
I also tried to do some daffodils but they were rubbish, perhaps the composition was a step too far for this small fast painting a day business.
Alison
#11 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Hot Cross Bun and book – a painting a day
6″x5.8″ 15cm x 14.5cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
Oh the aromatic joy of a freshly baked bun, the thought of sitting with a book, the bun and a tea in a quiet room with no teenagers….I asked would they like to help make the buns yesterday,” I just need to finish this battle” from one and with the other “uh…hot cross buns …Awesome!….” In fairness his eyes almost left the screen for a second. Once it came to eating them- then I had their attention.
I got to this bun late last night and captured the last of a nearly extinct race in charcoal and watercolour, like mayflies they lasted only a day. They were so good I might set to and make another 30 for Easter Sunday.
Enjoyed the drawing in charcoal it felt more dynamic than the watercolours, a change.
Oh yes and did get the course work back for Easter holidays but in the mean-time I had complained and actually got to hear from the head who claims the good news is the work is fine …so how come its fine when they were writing to us saying it wasn’t and he’s had only two chances to add a little to it since then. I am convinced that teachers tell parents that the work is marvellous just to see the parents go away with a smile …emphasis on the go away of course. Actually it’s a C grade No1 son says which means the school will have less interest in improvement than if it were a borderline D, however personally he needs a better grade as he wants to do the subject for A level.
Alison
#10 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Orange chilli peppers with bay leaves, painting a day
SOLD 6.5″x6″ 16.5cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
Painting a day is not always easy, I am finding that not all the pictures are how I expect them, there is a difference between painting when you feel like it and painting everyday…and the difference shows in the picture, it’s very strange. Other people seem to like them so it’s a question of keeping on until a work hardened style emerges from the struggle. The peppers have ripened, here they are with bay leaves ready for a beef curry.
I have picked out about thirty hellebore seedlings, they are all in a little divided tray of compost with slow release fertilizer granules, they seem to be growing away, producing their first true leaves (true leaves being the typical leaves of the plant, the first leaves out of the seed are usually quite different). Looking at how many I had and how many more I could pot up it occurred to me that I could do a really big planting of these magic plants underneath the oak tree, then there would be two years to wait to find out if they had come true from their parent or whether they had crossed with the others. I am not sure if hellebores cross pollinate, not all plants do. I could mix in some Brunnera Jack Frost by dividing the plant or going back to the lady I bought it from to see if she has anymore. The effect could be white hellebores with divided dark leaves, delicate sprays of blue flowered Brunnera with simple leaves netted with silver. Lush….snowdrops underneath maybe for the earliest colour; gardening is like painting, first picture what you might like slap it down and then wait two years for the paint to dry, dig it all up in frustration then wait two years for the second coat to dry. I have a brilliant cheat for working up perennial bedding schemes though. Get a really big plant pot and do a test run in there, it will be transferable if it all works and if it doesn’t you can drag it round the back somewhere out of sight and rework the elements. It’s good for getting the timing as well as the colours all lined up, you also see the relative heights of things.
There is a big empty patch where the spoil heap from the house extension was flattened last week by mini-digger. It needs to be filled with shade loving plants. I am going to photograph it and mark the lines of a path. Most of what goes in there will be grown from seed or divided. I collected seedlings of my hardy geraniums up last year and I have a tray of seedling of some sort of Tiarella (I think that would make a good first name for a girl when Kaylee gets past its sell by date, in fact I am surprised Katie Price hasn’t used it yet). I can only say they are some sort of Tiarella as the seeds were fished out of my pocket after a visit to a huge garden.
Alison
#9 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Hellebore -a painting a day
FOR SALE ON:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/45822346/hellebore-775inx6in-19cmx15cm
7.75″x6″ 19cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
This is the middle plant of three hellebores which came as a free offer with a plant order, it is a lovely pink with a hint of peach. Actually I nearly did not get them, the company tried to fob me off with a substitute ….begonias corms…..excuse me but where do begonias come equal to hybrid hellebores? I complained and they said that if I reminded them the following year I would get my hellebores….I don’t know quite how but I did remember and have a glorious row of three which have now self sown for the first time. One is tall and white, one is green and double and this one is as you see. It flops in water a bit. Another theme to try again. There is also the big job of teasing the seedlings out of the ground and potting them up so that they all get a chance.
Alison
#8 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon a day 