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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
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
Red camellia – a painting a day
6″x6″ 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
I cut the camellia flowers at my mum’s house, things are further out there, here we are on the edge of a frost pocket. It’s drawn life size; these really are big and in your face red. She sat and did the cross word while I painted and told me that I was going to regret launching a painting a day as it would be too demanding. I got out a tube of red to help me get closer to the red here, the reds in the pans fall one either side of this red.
Geography course work came back finally, son who has no ability with tact said “Why did it take so long to mark?” He was told that there was a reason and that the reason would be given to his mother….she is waiting.
Alison
#7 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Red and green chillis in a yellow bowl – a painting a day
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
Two heads of garlic – a painting a day
4.5″x6″ 11cm x 15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
I’ll try garlic, I like garlic both to eat and paint. It has a magic shape quite prim and organised and then you break it open to cook with it and the tight skin unravels in a chaotic flaky mess and the colours emerge on the side of each clove.
When I did a pottery class I wanted to make a vase in the shape of a head of garlic, it would have been white porcelain had I ever got to grips with the porcelain clay which can slump and fold up in the kiln.
That’s an example of an idea which was perfect until I tried to actually realise it in 3d.
The garlic is only so so, I will come back to it again or rather a different piece as no.1 son wants to make curry and chips and banana fritters in his final cooking practical. “Not very balanced “we said, his eyes began to bulge “So? We can do what we want today and I like the idea”.
Incidentally a few days back he was taken off curriculum in order to work on his geography course work, he rang up after an hour saying his teacher still had his work and was on sick leave, could I find the drafts and e-mail them to the school, I did , At 2.45 the subject head rang me (finally) to say that they had been unable to open the email due to them working on an older Windows package than the one we use, I offered to get the IT sorted out but as they said there was no point as the school day was nearly over……
Alison
#5 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Alder catkins – a painting a day
To puchase see the link to Etsy below:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/87750378/alder-catkins
7″x6″, 18cm x15cm, watercolour on heavyweight rag paper.
These are alder catkins and the painting did not really flow very well at all, for a while I thought it looked like something I would have done for a weekend’s homework at school, however it does show the mad colour that I found in the catkins which are hard and unopened…purple! I had never noticed this before; the alder trees grow on the edge of the school playing field close to the bed of the underground spring that makes our allotment a sodden mess in the winter. I actually think we should get some sort of rebate as when marshland rushes start self sowing and growing strongly on your plot it is telling you that it’s not ideal for fruit and veg.
This whole area is heavy clay and I mean heavy, when we first came here I couldn’t believe what was six inches under the surface …it looked like pure clay to me , to find out I dried some and then fired it in the barbeque in a tin can….it turned into little black bricks… so very pure clay indeed. One day I intend to build a pizza oven with it.
Alison
#4 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemons on clear glass – a painting a day
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
Lemon a day 