Archive
Three speckled plums
size 6″ x 6″ 15cm x 15cm approx
Click here to buy http://www.etsy.com/listing/95201997/the-speckled-plums-watercolor-6in-x-6in
There, I finally did another painting, I started it yesterday evening and luckily got straight back onto it after breakfast this morning which would not usually be possible. The rest of the day has been swallowed up in other peoples trips and visits and unexpected double bookings. Then just as I was actually doing something useful getting stuck into a bramble root, the new neighbours walked through to the back of the house and stood there calling me over as though we actually knew each other. I say the new neighbours, they could be the developers who wish to double the next door house in size taking masses of our sunlight. There was rather a lot of emphasis on their neighbourly status which has made me wonder why they feel the need to stress it. They have not moved in and tell me they will not do so until after the summer……he presented a card and tells me he is a builder. As most of the builders I have met since we moved here have lied to me in an accomplished and persistant way I am feeling very nervous indeed.
Spots on a spherical object are a challenge. I feel they are too prominant in this picture but the idea was to get both the spots and the bloom, which dark plums so often have, on the page. Its a bit technicolour, I am having a really bad run of not liking my paintings. I did one in oils and, while I enjoyed the smell, I was outraged by the result- too horrific for the blog.
I do think this is a painting which is flattered by the scan and the screen. Honestly it is worse in real life.
The garden is on a roll, the Daphne bhuloa is nearly finished, the D. odora is opening, the small daffodils are all out and some big ones too. There are hyacinth, the honey smelling Osmanthus blooms , and even the first forget-me-not. The little camellia which I bought is still tiny but this year it is covered in blooms…single small white blooms with a whiff of pink. There are flower buds on a tree paeony which has never managed a flower yet, I can live in hope on some fronts. Dogstooth violet and foxtail lilies are poking through the ground so its possible they will reflower and flower respectively and establish themselves in the shady part of the garden.
The corner of the garden planted up two years ago( I think )is now a tangled mass of self sown Verbena bonariensis, Geum and bronze fennel; but look inbetween and underneath…. there are brambles germinating, twitch grass lacing and ivy creeping. There are also masses of Hypericum seedlings which I pull out on sight but am losing the battle with at the moment.
Talking of lacy effects I was passing a municipal bed on a slightly misty but bright day and there was a bed with wonderful spires of creamy lace erupting everywhere…winter ornamental cabbage going to seed – it looks fantastic.
#197
Narcissus in a Poole vase – a painting a day
Click here to bid size 12in x 7in approx
The winter seems gone; today there was an air of spring about …everything really. Even Clapham Junction felt as though something had lifted. So of course the weather man tonight after the news has to smirk and offer colder weather later in the week and beyond that a possibility of more snow. Hmm I dislike turning into the sort of old person who bewails the snow rather than enjoys it…but I feel we have had quite sufficient for now thank you. It was only yesterday I was congratulating myself on the amount of wood left in the store; there might be as much as a third left to help with next winters supplies if it stays as mild as it has been. It is midnight now and I am sitting up typing wearing just a T-shirt and it’s not unbearably cold.
This painting, strictly speaking, was a two day painting, however as I was out of the house almost all day today collecting lovely aunt from her holiday in Suffolk and calling on mother as a bonus I have justification in calling it a daily painting, well a days painting. I am not at all sure I like it…I like bits of it. It would normally at this point be put away for me to think about but as there is a big gap on the blog where the paintings should be, it is going public.
Using the same sort of warped logic that applies to “Embarrassing Bodies” on TV, here’s a picture I would cheerfully hide from myself -now watch me put it where anybody can see it . DIY Dad, who is having something of a Revival in DIY enthusiasm at the moment, thinks I am a pathetic perfectionist , he can’t see anything wrong with it, No1 son says its “OK really, no really I do like it” No 2 just reminds me that anything I do ( at all ) is crap. Not in so many words or those exact words ( he’d be fined if he tried that-again). Which averages out at “ No Comment” pretty much. As the person who has the casting vote I come round to sticking it on the blog but pretending it’s in a cupboard and ignoring it for a safe period after which, by magic, I will be able to tell if its good or not or at least spot the mendable parts and then reassess. Hopefully.
#196 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Spotted leaf-a painting a day
4″ x 2″ 10cm x 5cm approx
Another in the leaf series. Took a walk today inthe woods , wonderful sunshine cutting across the landscape and reaching right into the woodland. It was warm enough to lift the scent of the Daphne bhuloa allowing it to drift along paths and avenues from where it called me like a siren might a sailor. Silly to plant it next to the wintersweet with its less exotic smell I thought, a mistake I have also made -I realised as I got home.
#191
Maple leaves – a painting a day
This painting has been framed and is for sale at Burgess Hill Open Houses see blog for June 4th
size 5 in x 4.5 in, 13cm x 12cm
These are leaves which I picked up the day the car went for repair last week. They are starting to curl and dry out indoors.
No1 son came home looking cheerful and well although the journey home had taken three hours longer than it was supposed to because the sea was too rough for the ferry to take them off Arran. His clothes washing requirements were remarkably light as it seemed he had spent most of the week in the one outfit. In fairness he had changed his socks more than twice! He had obviously enjoyed the chocolate brownies as there were chocolate cake crumbs scattered throughout his day bag.
The decorator arrived this morning as arranged and DIY Dad has been in a frenzy of activity involving his latest tool the mighty mitre saw. The decorator would obviously prefer it if the skirting boards are in place before he gets to them.
The garden is looking very dismal, things are collapsing in dark rotting heaps; looking for some flowers the other day was very depressing the roses that have been visible through the back door look tatty close up, I found one stem in a more sheltered area, a single decent stem of snowberry and one of Shizostylis which has left it rather too late to flower.
#154 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Berries, Feather, Maple leaf – a painting a day
size 6 in x 9 in, 15cm x 24cm
I found the most extraordinary picture on the web it is by an artist from Myanmar or Burma, Win Pe Myint, he is both a painter and a Botanist as I am. It has, I am sure, a wealth of story in the objects chosen. The postcard in the foreground is Picasso’s ‘ Acrobat with Ball’, it has the most concentrated air of still contemplation I have seen in a picture, and it has a very quiet lemon in there too.
Here is the link:
Yesterdays picture is another in the series of things picked up in this autumn, here are some berries, the feather of a green woodpecker and a distorted maple leaf. I am putting all of these for sale on my Lemonaday-shop as it forms a permanent Gallery. Or rather it should do, having checked the links they all seem to have broken.
No1 son should return today, I dread to think what state he will be in the weather has been foul for the last two days. Still no news could be good news…
153 a painting a day or three a month if you are lucky
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
Yellow tulips – a painting a day
Size 9.5inx7in 25cmx18cm watercolour on fabriano paper
Well I nearly did not get this anywhere near to finished …in fact it might not be finished yet.
This is a go at doing the challenge on Rookie Artist where anyone can do a picture based on a photograph put on the web once every three weeks. The photograph was of yellow tulips growing in a pot which I cropped heavily.
Next I will have to work out how to send the photo over to them, here’s hoping that it’s not too technically challenging. The tulips are quite new so there is only one challenge posted so far. The site can be found at http://rookiepainter.blogspot.com/
I found it a bit strange as I almost never work from photographs as I do not like the results , I think I can tell if I have worked from a photograph and I do not like the look. With this I have played god and moved bits of leaf around to improve the composition. I also added rather more stamens than were in the photo as I felt it gave the picture more focus.
Here is the photograph uncropped:
I missed a trick the shadow of the tulips low down is really striking.
It rained most of today so apart from scragging a few weeds I did very little apart from discussing household renovation with himself (I am trying not to call it DIY anymore ).
#38 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Scarlet and yellow tulips on the bedroom window sill – a painting a day
11 inches by 6 inches, 27cmx15cm, watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
This is one of those, let’s get a fast impression of what the colours and the light are doing, paintings.
I always like to get these flame coloured tulips and sit them against a turquoise painted wall. The colours really start to zing. They are not quite opposites but close to the opposite. Then when the evening sun shines on them….
The jug came from my aunt’s house, it may have come from her mother’s it’s a little eccentric- like all of us who have not been cloned for average features and personalities.
I got called into the school and told that the GCSE course work was being worked on all the time my son and I thought it had disappeared; apologies were proffered for the distress and the delay that was admitted to…mmm I’m thinking.
The ground in the garden is already hard and baked in the worst beds, in fact one has already cracked. I am half way down the water butt and there seems to be no possibility of rain until the weekend.
However there are bits of the garden which are taking off the red leaves on the pieris have suddenly eclipsed its flowers.
Alison
#27 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon Surprise – a painting a day
for sale on Etsy 3.5″x3.5″ 8.5cm x 8.5cm watercolour on heavyweight rag paper
Not at all sure at this point what I will paint, the sky is a milky blue with the balance favouring the milk. I think that it would be the perfect weather for some digging up and replanting as it will rain on Tuesday (I think they said). As things warm up I try not to disturb plants unless there is rain forecast.
I want to do some more culinary pictures. I noticed that the garlic was not the most popular image I have done so far, but I still think that there is much more to see in a head of garlic than in a rose. It certainly has hidden strengths!
There are some bits of the garden coming on that I am pleased with, the new bed has been given a cheeky line with mowing stones ,or rather recycled concrete slabs that were in the garden already, they have the advantage of looking weathered. The bit by the front door which was drab and pinched a very short time ago has started to work again, there are primulas and primroses all the same shade, Pulmonaria and coming through from underneath are the striped leaves of Tulip’ New Design’.
Thus there are spots and stripes on the leaves and a limited colour range, I love it, when the tulips flower it reaches its peak, they have a pink cream and yellow colour mix which is so subtle you don’t really register what is there.
The whole shed business rolls on, we took the shed apart yesterday afternoon, the area it sits in is actually flat and it will be great to see it liberated and tidied up. It will form the pathway into the woody part of the garden. The path will lead past two hazels coppiced and my favourite holly. The holly tree was growing in the gloom made by the leylandii plantation, it has a trunk which has formed from two melded in several places leaving holes which go right through. One of the first things we did when we moved here was to start cutting down the thickets of 30’ high leylandii cypress trees which the previous owner had hidden behind. It’s a suburban garden and I swear we have taken out 50 of the dull green monsters, I know they are cheap to buy but 50 was insane. We have left one which is golden higher up and a landmark tree for the surrounding houses. There is one other straggly one but its days are numbered. We are still burning the wood from this mammoth tidy up and have enough for another winter.
It’s a lemon part zested, I am making rice pudding with sultanas and lemon zest, its cold enough for that I think.
Alison
#18 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon a day 