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Rugosa rose –a painting a day
Sold size 6 in x 6 in 15cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
Yesterday I forgot to mention that I got really close to a strange fat dragonfly in the garden, I wanted to know what it was and discovered a really good dragonfly site which made it possible to work out that I had seen a Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) female the site is:
www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/index.html they have a really easy way to report sightings, you can say whether you are sure about the ID or not.
Today I had a go with the electric strimmer and tidied up yet more edges and rough bits. Just cutting down rank weed growth doesn’t cure the problem but it does make it look a whole lot more doable and neater in the meantime.
I also wrote to my MP and asked him to find out why Michael Gove is in such a tearing hurry to get as many schools as possible to convert to academies by this autumn. Does he know how this will work? He’s had recent similar experience? If you rush things they do not work well …and when it’s my children’s education being dismantled I worry. If the schools rush to become acadamies then the local authority will lose funding and all the central shared services will be cut out or at least I imagine that will be the effect.
Things are moving on very fast, next doors peonies are out and mine have fat buds, the first large clematis has opened and the climbing roses although behind their normal slot are opening. The rose hedge has about thirty flowers fully opened out. They smell delicious. The other rose with a fabulous but different smell is Etoile d’Hollande which normally opens earlier in the month for my brothers birthday ( we used to call it his birthday rose when we were children) it has three flowers open and more to come.
Alison
#59 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
The first rose bud begins to open – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday. size 6″x6″, 15cm x15cm, watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
There is something sweet and wild about this rose bud. It is as if it has unruly but beautiful hair. We bought these rosebushes very cheaply about two or three pounds each from a hedging supplier. Although they do not repeat flower in the late summer they are great value as you get thorns to repel school children who want to sit on the wall and smoke, you get scented flowers, rose hips in scarlet and a beautiful yellow autumn colour on the leaves.
I am very short of time again today.
Alison
#55 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
The first rose bud – a painting a day
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday. size 6 inx6in15 cmx15cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
This was a mixed up day it felt warmer which was good, it looked like sun then it looked like rain and then it kind of did neither.
I am still chasing appointments which is very annoying.
I picked the best looking bunch of asparagus so far which was good and only two days after the last lot.
Looking round the garden it is about to hit the early summer stage and pass out of the late spring stage. The first flags or rather Bearded Iris have opened, I won’t paint them as they have a bright white splash on a strong purple base the contrast is a bit absolute for my painting style I think. The first hardy geraniums are opening , Geranium sanguinum or the Bloody Cranesbill one flower, , Geranium clarkei several flowers and the mad , Geranium pyrenium alba is about to burst out like a firework there are enough flowers open to say the fuse is well alight. It’s not really mad but it likes it here so much it grows twice the size it grew in the old garden and I have to treat it like a weed as it self sows everywhere
I got up the ladder to look at the roof garden. There are plenty of plants ready to give it a go and invade up there, mostly they are testament to how much the birds like scuffling around up there…currants, strawberries, hypericums, cotoneaster and rowans all have seeds which make bird food. I discovered an extra Lewisia over the one I thought had survived and found a small bit of Pulsatilla another one I thought had died. There is a very pretty alpine hardy Geranium up there deep magenta as pretty as can be , I will try and remember to read the label and photograph it. There are several Penstemon smallii which is not really an alpine and a hairy Salvia which should come out as it’s too big for the space.
The bed is two years old I think , we got the plants from Ingwersens nursery just before it closed and got fantastic help with choosing alpines to survive on a roof. They only charged£ 2.50 per plant and threw in some gone over alpine bulbs to boot. Most of their recommendations worked we have lost one pulsatilla one libertia and a couple of Lewisias but I think that’s because I put them in too upright. Well thats what Roy says and he’s a retired professional.
The beginning of early summer…a rugosa rose bud, Roserie de l’hay from the rose hedge.
Alison
#53 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
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
Lemon a day 