Archive
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
Sea holly – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday size 4.5inx4.5in 12cmx12cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Well this is how I am feeling …kind of thratchy. It’s very unsettling not knowing what is going to happen, if nothing else it would be nice to know what if anything the pound will be worth against the euro as I might want to take a holiday.
I like the way the concern of the city is being portrayed about the hung Parliament…the city, we are told, is sensitive to the lack of decision and is anxious to know when the dreadful deficits are going to be sorted out. EXCUSE ME they haven’t forgotten their role in forming those deficits have they? Are we now to be lumbered with a jittery market because as well as being amoral the city has selective amnesia and thinks the deficits are a purely political problem?
The sea holly is in pen and wash. The colour is actually quite tricky to get as there is a vibrancy to the blue but it’s not a strong colour.
Yesterday I was complaining about the view out of this window and the awful colour clashes, here is a photo of one of the bits I detest.
I went to the allotment today and found a blobby red fungal disease on the redcurrant leaves. Oh I just looked it up and it’s an aphid that causes it. The odd thing is I had removed some leaves earlier from a young plant which I had been thinking was a peach; these leaves were also swollen and red and distorted but I knew that disease from my training and it is fungal, Taphrina infestans or peach leaf curl. Well at least I know it’s a peach now and it must be quite hardy as it coped with last winter. No knowing if it will produce fruit but the flowers are very pretty (when /if it has some).
Alison
#44 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
The muscari setting seed – a painting a day
Size 9.5inx7in 25cmx18cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
This is rather botanical in that there is just the plant in the image, I really liked the way it had got all stiff and awkward as seed pods grew, the blue flowers at the top of the stem are sterile so form no seeds.
Almost forty days , that does feel like a bit of a milestone, I know looking at the web some people do not make it beyond ten days. However there people who have been going for three years or more and that is truly impressive.
Today we went to see a garden in Surrey not too far away. It was lovely but for us lacked that inspirational buzz. I mean it made me think, “Oh yes I will need to get some lily of the valley for the shady area”, but I already knew about lily of the valley since childhood. Also sadly the cakes were minimal, no mad gestures just neat chocolate cake which looked the part but did not taste it and spray cream on the scones, ah well, efficient but soulless.
It is extraordinarily cold and windy; in fact as we walked through woodland to the entrance we heard and saw a tree crack and fall in the wind. A large piece of hawthorn literally crashed to the ground; if we had been underneath we would have had a second to get clear.
I found some new survivors of the winter a pretty dahlia that survived in the shelter of the porch with the fuchsias. There are loads of shoots coming up so I may propagate it to have more for the summer. It is a deep rich red with dark leaves and about twelve inches high. Last year it was in a pot with deep violet petunias and the scarlet fuchsia Thalia, the pot was lovely for almost all the summer.
Visited the allotment this afternoon where we found weed mayhem in most of it apart from the fruit cage the broad bean bed and the carrot enclosure; I still managed to come back with a bag crammed with leaf beet, rhubarb, and distorted asparagus fit only for soup. Too many slugs and himself too soft hearted to kill them.
Alison
#39 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon a day 