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A small sprig of Apple Blossom – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday 6inx6in 15cmx15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
This is a fast and furious very wet on very wet watercolour, I hesitate to use the word technique as I think that would be over selling what I just did here.
The colours are quite sharp which is right.
Today was busy with visitors. I made the remains of the venison casserole into a pie with some additional mushrooms and very good it was again. I always feel that I have scored if there is a meal to be made from what is already prepared in the fridge. We opened a bottle of red that had been in the cupboard under the stairs for a couple of years, and it turned out to be terrific, South African Brede River Origin. It was 15% alcohol so everyone became very boisterous and inclined to insult each other. I think it was a bottle that came mail order in a mystery bargain mixed case, I am a sucker for that sort of deal, the unpacking and consideration of each bottle is great .
In the afternoon I went to see Cheek by Jowl do Macbeth at the Theatre Royal Brighton. It was completely packed in the centre of Brighton but the theatre was only half full. It was one of those pared down productions and parts were brilliant but at times it was hard to pick out all the words and that made it less vivid. The porter is utterly fabulous and Macduff magnificent. It felt like one of my less even paintings, there was a need to get the levels consistent.
Alison
#50 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Apple blossom –a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday size 9 in x 6 in 23cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
This is not giving me everything that is good about apple blossom. I love it for its’ sturdily curled petals and its subtle blushes. The blossom is soft and opulent and the supporting twigs are knobbly and grey.
I saw my first cabbage white butterfly of the season this morning, they used to be so common in London when I was growing up, the caterpillars were a familiar sight destroying my father’s cabbages. In the bush in Botswana, and come to think of it in town, clouds of white butterflies would drift past on the breeze. Here I look up if I see one.
I picked some asparagus today in honour of my brother in laws visit; it looks rather weedy still but was crisp and delicate stir fried. The strawberries have 30% blackeye from the frost which will prevent fruit forming. Some of the plants have set fruit already so it’s to be hoped that they at least grow into edible strawberries.
Alison
#49 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Limes -a painting a day
size 7.5 in x 6 in 19cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
There is only one real use for limes…they go very well with gin and tonic. In fact it’s good to leave out the tonic and just squeeze the lime juice into the gin and sip it contemplatively – narrowed eyes compulsory. I think it has come to the time when gin is required.
Well OK I use limes in Thai food too but that’s recent, I found out how good they were in gin during 1976, in a bar overlooking Hamilton harbour, Bermuda.
I have had another frustrating day trying to progress a diagnosis for my son, preferably before his exams start. It’s possible to spend so much time slopping around between the people who can say you can have a test and the other people who can fill in the forms to say you can have a test and then the next lot of people who can do the test but cannot make the decision to have it done. As he would say “RANDOM”.
Yesterday I saw the first fledged and out of the nest baby blackbirds, on a path near the river Ouse.
Tonight needing a bit of cheering up I raided the freezer for goodies. I found stewing venison and kidney, which together with some red pepper, celery, shallots, bacon pieces, left over red wine and some herbs made a casserole to be proud of. I also braised a red cabbage that has been skulling around the fridge draw for too long with the last of the stored cooking apples and some red onion that was hiding under the spuds on its own, in a net bag, the last of its race. We had it with some jersey royals and some broccoli for the fussy ones who won’t eat red cabbage. It felt a lot like making something good from nothing. The venison had been a present from my mother in law. For completeness sake I added a clove and three juniper berries, oh yes and a slug of Worcester Sauce.
While it cooked I painted the limes. I added the other bits the coriander and garlic clove for compositional effect. They are sharper and linear to the bulk of the limes.
Alison
#48 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
The tulip face on – a painting a day
size 4.5 in x 4.5 in 11cm x 11cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
I had a very aggravating day with appointments flying around being delayed and changed. I had another look at the Esperanto tulip and did a quick sketch looking into it head on.
I also went to the allotment looking for asparagus but as it has been both cold and dry there was little to pick. Everyone whose potatoes were through was bemoaning the frost damage. The leaves had turned dark and wet looking. I do not know if these frosts will do for the apple crop most of the apple blossom is fully out only one tree has finished.
It is going to be cold again tonight they say although we have had a little rain.
#47 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
“Esperanto” a tulip – a painting a day
size 9inx6in 23cmx15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
I tried this tulip in the bed I took photographs of a week or so ago. It requires a pink tulip with a striped leaf. This is all of that but it does not work as the pink is just a little too far into strawberry mivvi territory. The only one I have found so far that works is New Design. There is a candy striped one which is too harsh.
Anyway I have painted it ,on its own it is a very pretty tulip and perhaps I should buy more and use them where they are not arguing with the pulmonaria. It’s a type of tulip called viridiflora most of them are interesting because of the colour breaks which streak the petals.
And then there was the political situation, a result for the LibDems? Yes, a result for the country….I have my doubts.
Alison
#46 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Solomon’s seal 2 -a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday size 12inx4.5in 30cmx12cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
I decided to go back to the Solomon’s seal and change the background by moving the flowers to a different place. This is a bit lighter and fresher and I think that the stem has got a little bit longer in the two days.
Politics can be fascinating. I have realised that the whole thing is really quite miraculous, because I do believe that the majority of people in this country were appalled by the scandal of MP’s expenses and the arrogance and greed exposed by it. It cannot have been planned but the electorate have managed, without any mechanism at their disposal, election results that have not pleased anyone but the Greens. A bloody nose for all parties pretty much.
There has been comment that yesterdays garden pictures should have had a sunglasses warning …here are some more restful shots. Apple Newton Wonder, Rhododendron no idea.
We’re getting frost and the tomatoes, banana and dahlias are all out there. I don’t remember frost this late in Sussex ever before .
Alison
#45 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Solomon’s seal – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday size 12inx4.5in 30cmx12cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Or a message in a bottle, someone has to make a wise decision from a difficult set of options. I am very glad I am not Nick Clegg trying to decide who to risk upsetting; should it be the party, the voters who came from Labour or the voters who came from the Conservatives, the voters who cursed both as corrupt? Who does he need to encourage, the voters who are yet to take a risk and vote Liberal or those who always have done? The wisdom to get this right is something that has to be found. Look to Solomon who thought things out, looking behind what people say to what they are really about.
The garden is damp and strangely cold, after we had that warm weather this seems wrong. Outside this window the original planting that came with the house is doing its worst, the clashes are stupendous.
It was mostly planted with shrubs; around the edge of the grass are dwarf azaleas in everything from brick red through scarlet to shocking pink. In and among them are some surviving red and yellow tulips. I should have remembered to pick all the tulips but I forgot this manoeuvre. In case one begins to feel sleepy there are also some bright bright yellow and green euonymus bushes and crowning the whole firework display Berberis davidii with its rusty orange sprays loaded with flowers, not forgetting a small Pieris which has faded to peach. There used to be a purple Magnolia in an island bed but we moved that. The difficulty is to work out what gets the chop.
It’s all very well having a cheerful display but the side garden at this time of year is a headache. I think the problem is that the azaleas and the Berberis are so thick with flower there is no relief to be found from the green of the leaves. The leaves that there are are dark and the contrast adds yet more drama to the crisis.
Round in the front garden I have tried to add colour to a bed of mixed shrubs by underplanting with hardly geraniums and lacing the evergreen clematis Early Sensation through the juniper. Its not been very pleased with this arrangement and has only really flowered this year after four years of sulking. It does look sweet now but it’s not been very early and is not yet a sensation. It will be in full sun the higher it scrambles so I have hopes for it still.
Something took the baby birds from the low down nest , it was a robin not a chaffinch, but the blackbirds and bluetit nests seem fine.
Alison
#43 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Three pears in search of a pairing -a painting a day
NFS size 4.5inx 6in 11cmx15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Ah, that sense of dejavu was not for 1979 it was for 1974, there is everything to play for and it hinges entirely on how you define national interest. One thing is certain they will all act in the national interest and they will all be after a different outcome to each other.
The pears are really very funny they are so rude in their shape that they reduced two teenage boys to apoplexy.
Perhaps the elderly salt and pepper set are the Queen and Prince Phillip; oh I can just imagine them sat over breakfast this morning, reading the papers and Phillip saying, “Rum do old girl, rum do. The worst of it is you’ll have to talk to them all”, “ I know that Phillip, dear, pass the cornflakes”.
I have bought a new bottle of masking fluid as I keep turning away from pictures of white flowers and it does make them easier. Tomorrow I think I will do the Solomon’s seal; I just found out that it has a scent.
Alison
#42 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Unelected pears – a painting a day
SOLD Size 6inx4.5in 15cmx11cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Bright ,bright ,sunshiny day…..unnerving to think that such a beautiful happy child of a day is when things could really change for the worse, voting in the true blue shires only works for one set of people.
I think I will tackle the golden russet pears , something nice and solid after that froufrou lilac blossom. I have never had these pears before they really are the Jennifer Lopez of the pear world, look at those curves! Pears are somehow sexier than apples…in Brighton Pavilion there are some very smutty cartoons from the Regency period where the pear tree is full of scrotum shaped pears which some women are after, they did not mince their metaphors in those days.
Tomorrow will be one of the newest new days one way or the other, can’t say I’m looking forward to it.
On a more cheerful note one of my Tiarella plants, which were thumbnail sized when I pricked them out at the end of winter, is flowering or rather in bud.
Alison
#41 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Purple Lilac – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday Size 6inx4.5in 15cmx11cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Sorry missed a day, couldn’t be helped, I needed to sort a print order and other things… like washing.
I will attempt a study of a horse chestnut or lilac flower. Both are lovely but it is difficult not to make them look over frilly.
Discovered some golden foliage plant which has survived the winter in a pot a creeping jenny I think. Now have a pretty decent collection of plants for planters over summer. At the weekend we bought two plants of Omphaloides for the shady area…what a brilliant name I think there should have been a Womble called great grandfather Omphaloides. One is supposed to have mauve and white striped flowers and the other is a brilliant blue. It’s yet another relative of the forget-me-not. The two colours look good interplanted but the first thing to do is to find out if it can cope with the heavy soil. It saves money on bulk buys if they curl up and die and I’ve only bought two from garden sales.
I made a cracking soup from the tough and damaged asparagus, just chopped it up into slices and boiled it in ham stock , strained off the liquid added milk and lots of chopped chives and the very few good bits of asparagus cut up, thickened it with a little cornflour. No2 son ate some and then asked what went into the soup I make at Christmas….” mmm, I like that”…. as it involves cream, brandy, woodpigeons and ceps he’s not about to get it anytime soon.
I tried both but the lilac worked best, I was short on time due to visit to A&E with No1 son.
Alison
#40 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon a day 