Archive
Pear leaves in autumn, or the galling bit – a painting a day
size 6 in x 6 in 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
I appear to have a Likedin account that I am unaware of as people are asking to be professionally associated on it. This is worrying as I don’t wish to be rude to them but I don’t want another site to look after either, neither does it seem that I can check what’s going on without making an account which is what I don’t want to do. Oh frets and worries of the electronic age.
I forgot to mention a memorable bonfire last week. It was the day that things became horrible at No1 sons new school. I was very annoyed so consoled myself by lighting a fire to get rid of all the diseased stuff I have been extracting from the garden, and a little of my own bile perhaps. I was really enjoying myself when I noticed that I had set the fence on fire. The fire had travelled under the cover of some dead leaves two metres along to where there were piles of holly leaves against the bottom of the fence. Once there they had ignited a soft rotting log and the bottom of the fence. My panic was that the fire would leapfrog along the base of the hedge and kill it or the rotting boards on the fence. Luckily I got to the water butt and back in time. Holly leaves do burn well live or dead; I always looked from them when we were doing the” light a fire with two matches and no newspaper” test in Guides, I forget which badge that was for. I think it must have been the Arsonists Badge; there was definitely a badge that featured flames.
The rain finally got here as I was heating up some spaghetti puttanesca for my lunch, well it was the easier than the original version as no cooking is required: put a little virgin olive oil in the bottom of a heatproof dish add thinly sliced garlic, olives stuffed with anchovy chopped, a teaspoonful of drained capers, any fresh herb in reach +/-, tomatoes tinned or fresh Place a blob of left over spaghetti on top and microwave until the pasta is hot, stir, eat. It beats a cheese sandwich. I’m not sure I’d serve to anyone but really close friends, i.e. those who know better than to complain.
Apologies to those blog readers who like beautiful things, today I have painted dying leaves it’s a bit of a thing with me at this time of the year. I think they are lovely but they are also decaying. They are decaying after a job well done. Think Whistlers mother.
The bright red patches on the pear leaves occur every year, they are some sort of gall, on the back of the leaf there are lots of little spikes behind the red patch.
#132 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Weirwood – a painting a day
NFS as too pale A4 watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Today’s painting is the sketch I started on Bank Holiday Monday. It was a very fast picture of a changing sky and the landscape beneath it. Hats off to Turner and Constable, because they really made this sort of view look easy to do. It is not easy to do. It was very pale and gappy , I have worked on it to improve that but still find its got some good parts and some weak bits.
It is not for sale as it is such an imperfect piece. From a long way off the sunbeams look OK but close to they look lumpy.
I spent today driving , No1 son to school, husband to station, Mother from London,No2 son to the uniform shop (exchange for larger size required) and the post office.
DIY Dad has installed a red flashing loo seat downstairs….have warned mother in case she gets a visual shock….let’s not think about the possibility real electric shocks to the undercarriage.
Alison
#123 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Victoria plums – a painting a day
this painting is framed and for sale in the burgess hill open house event see blog June 4th
size 6 in x 6 in 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Just so you are not worried by the numbering; I made a mistake on the numbering of paintings while I was away , therefore the picture of the monastery in Croatia has been renumbered as# 117, it was previously #108.
Rain, it just isn’t stopping, it is slowing for a while and then starting up again. There seems to be a chance that there will be some almost dry weather over the weekend…please let that happen as I want to have some time to enjoy the garden again. At the moment I am going out and getting wet and muddy even to pick a handful of tomatoes. I picked six today and we ate the four from yesterday…we are self sufficient in tomatoes!
There are some late flowering treats, the cyclamen are getting started, the relocated ginger lily or Hedychium is in bud, the Canna lily is shredded by the wind and rain, and some late sown morning glory are growing like they mean it and the first beautiful purple trumpet opened today. It is scrambling up with a very vigorous Cobaea Scadens which hasn’t flowered at all yet. Having looked it up to see how to spell it, I see that it is in fact perennial but only half hardy….will it like being cut down and put on a window sill overwinter?
Today’s painting is of the last three Victoria plums which came from A & R’s garden at the weekend. They do actually look Victorian in their colouring all those heady purple and red dyes that they discovered and loved to use). I decided to put them on a little Staffordshire saucer.
#118 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Rookie cherries – a painting a day
size 6 in x 4.5 in 15cm x 12cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
The wind continues and slowly weakens. There was enough rain in the night to refill the waterbutt, things do at least look damp again for the first time in a month. Lots of apples have blown off the trees so I made an apple sauce by quartering them and coring them…it was edible but tart, not fluffy as it will be when the cookers are ripe.
I have sold a number of pictures in the last fortnight, this has led me to revise the prices on some in order to slow down the sale of the paintings that fit well into a particular niche. I may hold some back altogether in order to make coherent sets for framing and exhibition later.
On the subject of sales I am going away for a while to do some painting. If I can master the technology I will post as often as possible. However I will not be able to post i.e. mail any sold items so will lengthen all the e-bay auctions and put Etsy on vacation mode.
Today I painted some more cherries but from a photographic reference posted on Rookie Painter challenge. Is it possible to tell that these are from a photo and the previous cherries were from life? I can’t tell until my eye is detuned from the new painting and sees it fresh.
#102 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Fresh peas – a painting a day
size 6 in x 8 in 15cm x 19cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper Fabriano
I really am quite surprised with myself, one hundred little paintings today, I should be celebrating but as I haven’t finished my picture yet and it’s really late I doubt I will. To put the icing on it a picture sold today, the tiny red poppy one. I do like it so I will send it on its way a little sadly. At least with modern technology everything is photographed and I have a record; in the distant past I once walked into a person’s house, admired a picture only to be told it was one of mine! I had forgotten all about once it left my care (Yes it was deeply embarrassing, in fact my stomach is curdling now thinking about it).
I picked the last of the currants today with help from No2 son, just over twelve ounces. While I was on the allotment I begged these lovely fresh peas from a neighbours plot. The tendrils are perfect. I put some plants in, late of course, but then theres a chance of rain so they might hack it.
It seems like there has been some rain today- until the rain gauge is checked and that shows we have been lightly sprinkled with water droplets- not rained on at all. The soil tells the same story, it’s rock hard.
I think my wash will be dry now, so I will finish there for the night.
#100 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
The Orchid in Pen and Wash – a painting a day
SOLD size 12in x 6 in , 29cm x 15cm pen & watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
The rain was rubbish, not nearly enough, the garden is still wilting. There’s always tomorrow however.
Have had a second go at the orchid today, I’m trying to get some better lines with the pen. More work needed on a sloped surface I think.
Took mother back to London where the grass is entirely brown even though they have had more rain than we have had.
Returned home to find the kitchen devastated by no1 son making 3 gallons of pancake mixture…”I’ve run out of milk!” Worked out as we had visitors who got more than just a cup of tea.
#98 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Orchid – a painting a day
this is now for sale on ETSY:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/88811093/the-orchid-flowers-again-pen-and-wash
size 12in x 6 in , 29cm x 15cm pen & watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
It has not rained today but it has been hot. Everything in the garden is liable to wilt and look miserable and that includes me.
The boys have had a great time in the giant paddling pool with a friend, I have been in myself long enough to get dizzy going round and round in a circle.
My mother is visiting so I bought fresh peas as she likes podding them. I should have grown some but germination of everything has been dismal this year. Very glad indeed that we do not attempt anything more than adding to the bought food with what we grow.
The double poppies stop me every time I walk past but they are dauntingly complex so I have taken a picture rather than tried to paint them.
I really like the string of buds on this little orchid. I say little, it is about twelve inches high; visiting a friend who really is into orchids once, as I looked at a tiny orchid he handed a jewellers glass over my shoulder and pointed out that the orchid had flowers if you looked closely enough. Yes the flowers were barely visible to the naked eye. Needless to say it was a valuable and collectable item.
I should paint some fresh peas though, if only to make a companion piece to the carrots.
#97 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Dianthus for the Rainbow Nation – a painting a day
this painting is framed and for sale £50
. size 5 in x 8 in 13cm x 20cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
It rained and then it rained some more, but it will be dry for the weekend and it was dry for birthday boy’s barbeque. I am certainly not complaining as the watering was showing up as water on my knee.
It was wonderful to see the winter sunshine in Cape Town and spot how they shifted Gary Linnaker around all the time to get the shots. When No1 son was a baby we went to Cape Town for a long weekend one September (Presidents Day Holiday in Botswana) the queues to get up the mountain on the cable car were huge so we decided to take a stroll up a path, found it went to the top and walked up with the baby in a carrier frame. Amazing place, there’s a different climate on the top even though it’s so close to the town, and the plants…..
The most spectacular things in this garden at the moment are Allium schubertii and the climbing rose William Morris which is heartbreakingly beautiful. It flowers on the corner of the house on the path leading to the front door. I will make an etching from one of the Allium flowers to go with an older steel plate which used an impress of an Allium flower in soft ground (that’s an etching soft ground not boggy flower bed).
I hesitate to mention it but I have not seen a lily beetle here yet this year. The Mina lobata did have a flower which was lily beetle scarlet but something attacked it and it will need to grow back from the base. I have looked for culprits but can find no clear evidence.
One other extraordinary thing, the Nicotianum sylvestris which I neglected to pull up last autumn is sprouting from the base!! I thought it was an annual. The leaves are very strong smelling-tobacco bitter-and no snail has so much as nibbled it. An amazing survivor, it is definitely listed as an annual. It is growing in a bit of a rain shadow so would have been dry for much of the winter and not quite as cold as elsewhere in the garden but I lost things only three foot further out into the same border. N.sylvestris is one of my favourite plants growing about four feet high with hanging flowers of white which perfume the evening air. It is strategically planted near the covered sitting area which can be used for breakfast or a meal on a cooler or even damp evening. Once when some friends were over we sat there drinking coffee in a thunder storm and it was brilliant.
Today we picked three pounds of strawberries. Oh and I slipped and fell over crashing right through the bird netting….damn suffered complete loss of good humour.
Alison
#73 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
One early peach – a painting a day
Sold. size 6 in x 6 in 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
This was another day of shed mania, the shed needed putting back up and because it was taken down in lumps rather than all its components it needed carrying across flower beds and under the apple tree in ungainly, liable to break, bits. It needed all four of us and not all of us enjoyed the experience so attentions wandered and bits started wobbling off in the wrong direction.
It has been so busy I did not even attempt a Sunday joint.
Anyway the painting is a very wet picture of one of the little peaches, by tomorrow they will all be gone, the smell is just too tempting. In fact its still wet and may well have altered as it dries by tomorrow!!I actually did two painting but the one of the chive flowers went pear shaped so here instead is a photo.
I went to the allotment briefly today and discovered that there was good news and bad news: the first strawberry had ripened but a slug had eaten right through it in the night. I really hate slugs with a slow evil abiding passion.
On the topic of slugs and snails, it was damp last night so they were out in force (crunch crunch), however on the allotment it was as though the rain had never been, the surface was dry and cracked. The rain gauge showed only 0.2 inches of rain, not enough to make the water butt overflow. I want more, a lot more
Alison
#63 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Three early peaches –a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday. size 4.5 in x 7.5 in 11cm x 18cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
It has actually rained I forgot to check how much rain but it looked like a good bit over several hours. Dock seedlings now lift out of the wet soil with just a tug.
I was being a complete degenerate and was slumped over the kitchen table doing the Suduko before I had read the news…..then a tall Swede turned up on the doorstep with a large bamboo in a pot. He says it is very invasive but what it is is now unknown. We will put it behind the rhizome barrier and let it romp with the golden bamboo and the Geneva( unknown species) bamboo and the Clerodendron bungii which I bought from Fergus Garrett when he visited the Horticultural Society to give a talk about Great Dixter. It even stopped raining long enough to go round the garden with a cup of coffee with him. Lovely unexpected visit and present, husband was very keen to show off his rhizome barrier and associated bee colony.
Incidentally none of the bamboo seed bought from Germany germinated despite a heated propagator and plenty of humidity. This means that we will need to find some other things to fill the back of the rhizome barrier area. We do still have a voucher for Architectural Plants so perhaps a trip over there is the way to go. It’s one of my favourite nurseries as they grow the plants and know what will work…for instance when I asked for a Strawberry tree(Arbutus) they said” Where do you live?” When I told them they replied “It will die in your clay! Let’s find something that will survive.” We bought a large specimen of Osmanthus yunnanensis instead, which is making a neat lollypop shaped tree at the far end of the side garden. Eventually it will give a little evergreen screening from the houses on the main road. This tree was probably the single biggest investment in the garden apart from fences and hedges but it has a quiet classic charm all of its own and scented flowers in February.
There are three little peaches in today’s painting, just a simple still life.
Alison
#62 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon a day 