Archive
A Sussex Cep – a painting a day
size 6 in x 6 in 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Ceps ready for slicing and drying
The end of the summer holidays –
The what? It can’t be , that means uniform and packed lunches, No2 son is in a decline just thinking about it.
However before he went into his decline (i.e. lying in bed- hard to see the difference on normal existence over the summer really),the clever little sprat found a way to sell paintings over the internet in a site of one’s own using Paypal. It’s a BT government initiative so I got a call from a pleasant young Scotsman asking if I was planning to sell bulk quantities of paintings..”.ah, um, I could try, but honestly not very likely”. He was very nice about this in fact I think he used the word groovy which always makes me laugh (fresh young thing using jaded old hippy words).
Anyway, No2 and I have set it up as the Lemonaday Shop http://www.lemonaday-shop.co.uk/gallery-shop . On this you will find some of my older blog pieces and some other paintings that make an attractive addition to the site. The prices reflect that there is no chance of competitive bidding and include postage for simplicity at the moment. The prices also reflect my own attachment to the painting, some pictures fit into groups that could be exhibited together so may not appear.
There were a few more outings to the woods in the last week. (understatement, we went nearly every day) In the last two days we have picked over ten pounds of ceps, this is one of my favourite edible fungi, one which I didn’t find when I was a teenager and started collecting fungi to eat. Some years we find two or three in a season, even when you know where it grows, you have to get there on the day it produces its fruit or toadstool, before someone else takes it or kicks it over. This year is phenomenal and we have found a quiet wood where, it seems, no-one else collects. They will be sliced and dried and stored for winter soups and rissottos for years possibly. We are going to have a lot at the end of this year, the season could go on to November.
In the garden the red apples are finishing and the Ellison’s Orange is ripening. Ellisons orange is a fantastic apple when you get it just ripe and before it goes grainy. The official line is that it has a spicy taste: to me it tastes just like the ice lollies that ice cream vans used to sell called cyder ices. The tomatoes are showing some sign of blight but not much, they are ripening up fast now.
I am very pleased to see the creamy flowers of the Hedychium opening out in its new position and in its original site.
#122 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Trio of early apples – a painting a day
this painting is framed and for sale in the burgess hill open house event see blog June 4th
Day One Hundred and ten – a painting a day
size 6 in x 11 in 15cm x 28cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Oh fantastic, we all get back from holiday and THEN we all go down like in sequence with something akin to the winter vomiting- starting before the holiday wash is complete but after DIY Dad has partially demolished the downstairs loo. He has removed the door giving an uninterrupted view of the hall and front door.
I think I have the less serious version I feel dreadful but not as if I am going to die (unlike the people I have been mopping up for).
There have been some very kind comments on my holiday pictures, for which thank you. I can whole heartedly recommend the beautiful landscape between Dubrovnik and Split, that is the order to do it in as the ferries can be booked in advance going north but NOT going south, unless you are as persuasive as I am….
The garden looked like an autumn scene this morning, the dew was so thick a shining drop hung on every blade of grass, red apples lay on the ground and branches hung low with fruit. How can this have happened?
#110 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
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
The espalier apple tree, Old Farmhouse, Sussex – a painting a day
9″x11″ 22cm x 27cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
Today we all went out in the sunshine to visit a new garden in the National Garden Scheme, it was a good move, the garden itself is mostly new so has plenty of room to grow, in the oak timbered barn members of the family and friends played short concerts, there were very good cakes with tea or squash. All in all it was a really different day, the music was delightful, the garden interesting and the whole thing so friendly.
Caspian who has made the garden what it is, and is expanding it, kindly gave me permission to do a drawing there. I got a little bit over ambitious for the time I had ….i.e. the length of my sons’ patience + the time taken to eat cake and then a biscuit. However they found a dog and a cat having a stand-off on the new terrace so that helped give me the time to get this far.
If you want a taste of the garden look at www.musicmindspirit.org
I will post this tonight but I reserve the right to go back to it and rework it, this is my normal working practice but there has not been the time to do it today. I will repost it reworked if that works out.
Update: I’ve reposted a reworked version now, adding more detail to the tree
Alison
#17 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
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
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
Lemon a day 
