My Art Stuff

Cyclamen

2012-01-22T17:31:00.001Z

I was given this pant four years ago. Last year it failed to flower, just produced lots of foliage. This year it flowered profusely and is really beautiful. I don’t know what went wrong last year but I must have upset it badly. Now I am forgiven!

During a sleepless night, I got up and went downstairs to make a cup of tea. My art supplies were on the table (yes, I know…) and so I decided to sketch some of the things on the draining board. I forgot all about the tea and eventually went back to bed. Thinking about the sketch I had left downstairs, I started to laugh as I suddenly realised that I had painted the handle on the little white jug and had then proceeded to add a spout – at right angles to the handle! Next morning I corrected it and added a little paint. I wish I had scanned the sketch before the alteration then you could have laugh too!

Watching a master…..

2011-11-30T16:07:00.001Z

I have previously mentioned my admiration for the American watercolourist, Charles Reid. I seem to have gradually gathered together a nice collection of his books and recently have been delighted to track down a copy of his 1973 book on portrait painting.

Much as I love looking at these books, until very recently I had not seen any of Charles Reid’s DVDs, other than brief previews on YouTube. However, last week I purchased a second-hand DVD, Painting Flowers in Watercolour. The package arrived on Monday and I have been watching the DVD today. I have so enjoyed it! There were moments of mortification and hiding of head in hands when Charles Reid noted and demonstrated particular painting practices that he deplored - I was so glad that he had never watched me painting! I found myself laughing aloud at some of his self-deprecating remarks and smiling at some of his boyishness when he revealed some of his mucky habits – such as wiping his brush on his trousers. He presented as a really nice and genuine person. After watching the DVD, I felt that I could ‘have a go’ myself. Needless to say, my attempt was not a success! Nothing daunted, I shall try again.

I heartily recommend this DVD to anyone interested in Charles Reid’s painterly style. I wonder if anyone has watched other DVDs by Charles Reid and have one that they would recommend for my next buy?

(Given the doom and gloom contained in the Chancellor’s speech yesterday, I don’t think I shall be making many unnecessary purchases next year but I shall make and exception for another DVD!)

Now for something completely different………

It doesn't get further from Charles Reid than this, does it! These are some little holiday doodles. They were good fun to do and not at all taxing.

First Waves

2011-11-11T15:54:00.001Z

My first attempt at painting waves. I was trying to do an exercise from a book but the paint quickly got away from me. I found that the scrap of paper I used had lost it’s sizing and was producing a very strange effect. However, once the initial washes dried, I felt it worth continuing, if only to see how it turned out. And this is how it turned out! I think the odd surface actually helped in the end and I do think it looks a bit like waves. I like that you can’t tell where the waves end and the sky begins – or vice versa. Ahh, happy accidents….

I picked this leaf up several months ago so it is not really an Autumn leaf. However, it was pretty dried out when I found it and has not changed in colour or texture since. It is not an orangey leaf, more mauve. I don’t know what sort of tree it comes from – here is where I found it: http://www.exoticgarden.com/ This is such an interesting place to visit and there are all sorts of surprises including a wonderful tree house. I have another leaf from that garden waiting to be painted.

(That fine curved line is not on the sketch – I think I must have scanned my hair!!)

Twenty minute challenge

2011-10-15T17:14:00.001+01:00

These are sketches that I did in August/September for the ‘Twenty Minute Challenge’.

I was pleased with the colours here – I thought I would find it difficult to match the brown/purple of these figs. I should have noted what is used as I shall want to paint figs again!

Lavender. Sedum and a silver –leaved plant whose name I cannot remember at present. Somebody my recognise it, even from my depiction. It is something pretty common. (And pretty!)

This strange fruit grows on a vigorous vine. It is a sort of cucumber, I think. It is called Achocha. I have never grown these before and so was unp0repared from the rapid growth and the length of the vines! I shall grow them again next year, being more judicious in my choice of positioning! I must confess that, while palatable, they don’t seem to taste of very much.

Only twenty minutes…..

2011-08-23T10:56:00.001+01:00

A couple of sketches done for the Twenty minute Challenge…

This is the first time I have grown onions and the first time I have managed to plait them together! I know that this is only a short plait – some of it dropped away when I picked it up… I shall use the other onions first and keep my plait hanging in the kitchen as long as possible.

(I am a little worried that I may be alarmed by a big bang as the plait falls to the floor in the middle of the night!)

I love to draw seed heads; poppy seed heads have a particularly fascinating appearance. It is such fun to shake the seeds from the little pepper-pot heads, once the holes under the top plate have opened. I save them for use in the kitchen.

August Garden 2011

2011-08-17T09:27:00.001+01:00

Not quite the garden, but something I grew in it! Beetroot waiting to go into the pot.

This is a corner of my garden, showing my tiny garden shed. It is just about big enough to stand in but there can me no moving around! Actually, at the moment there is not even standing room in there. A good clear-out is needed – but not today …

Lunaria

2011-08-14T11:46:00.001+01:00

This plant, also known as ‘Honesty’, is mostly regarded as a weed and pops up all over the place. Except for my garden, that is. I generally beg some of the seed heads each year and scatter the seeds about but with scant success so far.

I think they are attractive things to draw, although I find them a bit of a challenge. Sometimes I manage to make them look just like a currant bun.

I thought it would be interesting to sketch the seed heads in different media so, after the pen and ink version, I did another sketch in watercolour. These really were quite mauve. Another stem might be more transparent so there is room for experimentation. When I have finished with the models, I shall scatter them around outside. Maybe next year I shall be picking and painting my own!

Not what I intended!

2011-07-22T15:34:00.001+01:00

I decided that I would spend some time working on my drawing skills. I hoped that an improvement in my drawing would provided a sounder basis for painting. Thus I intended to practice placing shapes in relation to each other, basic perspective, value patterns and tone. To my surprise, I entered some sort of meditative state and ended up with this drawing of a corner of my garden. It took me ages and was completed over several days. However, I think I did incorporate some of the practice elements that I intended – and one that I had not thought about. I think I may do better with negative shapes now! I am still going to continue with drawing practice but I doubt I shall be spending so much time on each drawing!

(Actually, I think this may have been some sort of displacement activity – I know what I should be practicing but have not yet plucked up courage…!)

Aeonium

2011-07-16T16:32:00.001+01:00

I had been growing this plant for a few years and always wondered why it did not grow side branches but just remained as one rosette on an ever-lengthening stalk. Then I threw caution to the winds and beheaded it! I planted the severed ‘head’ in another pot and to my delight, it grew side branches! In addition, the now headless stalk grew another head and that branched too!

When I painted this sketch, the dark purple leaves of the rosettes were really shiny in the sunlight.

PS: Should you think this a gruesome tale, then perhaps you have not read Keats narrative poem called ‘Isabella Or The Pot of Basil’. My father used to read this to me and my sisters when we were children ……. For some reason, that poem just came into my mind!

Bright!

2011-07-06T11:25:00.001+01:00

I like to sketch radishes – an opportunity to use some lovely bright colour, congratulate myself for raising them and then enjoy them for lunch! Brightens the day!

Not my favourite flowers – a bit brash for my liking. They always come as a bit of a surprise after the relatively quite rosettes have been steadily growing over the Spring. Still, they make a good subject for a sketch and a good excuse for some spattering! I enjoyed this session, sitting on the back door step in the sunshine and listening to the radio as I painted.

Irises

2011-06-25T17:50:00.001+01:00

I found these sketches in a little home made sketch book when I went outside to Paint today. They were done earlier in the year but I don’t seem to have posted them. (If I have, please accept my apologies!) I have rather a lot of these blue irises and there is to be a cull later in the year. last time I thinned these out, I offered the thinnings on Freegle and they were rather popular so I shall do the same again this time. It would seem such a shame to cast the unwanted ones onto the compost heap!

I drew these with a brush pen, which I find rather unnerving – the marks are so definite….

This last one was painted on a note to a friend. I tried to blur out the writing but didn’t make too good a job of that. It looks rather as if the rain got at it! I have not got the colour of this flower quite right – it needs to be more browny-orange. I shall have to wait until next year to try again as the irises are all over now…

Salad days!

2011-06-22T09:39:00.001+01:00

At last there are fresh salad ingredients from the garden! The colours are beautiful. And the models don’t move about when I paint them. The paint does, though. I am not used to using watercolour on this smooth paper but as I have discovered two sketch books with the same paper in the back of a drawer, I guess I shall be getting used to it! (Waste not, want not upbringing!)

Last of EDiM! # 29 - 31

2011-06-18T14:01:00.001+01:00

# 29 – People doing something. Another sketching trip to Shallowbrook lakes. As it was the half-term holidays, there were lots of people fishing. A lovely sunny day (though we have been longing for rain.) I painted this from a pencil sketch I did while we were there. I have no experience of painting people so it is as well that these guys were some distance away…

# 30 – School supplies. It is a long time since I went to school but some of the supplies remain the same. At least I suppose they do? Perhaps geometry is not taught these days.

# 31 – A spray bottle. Not a particularly inspiring subject for me and I could not come up with any inspired take on it either! At least I did find a small spray bottle and used that to spray the background. This involved cutting a stencil etc. so I had to make quite an effort to produce this uninspired sketch!

EDiM # 26 - 28

2011-06-13T16:12:00.001+01:00

# 26 – A Sponge. When I looked at all the intricacies of this sponge, it seemed to me to be impossible to draw them all. Then I told myself that nobody would notice if one or two of them were not quite in the right place or not quite the right shape. You wouldn’t have, would you, if I had not told you…? Anyway, once I got started, I enjoyed making this drawing – it seemed a bit like meditation!

# 27 - -A Skyscape. Ah, the skyscape. Yes. Not quite what it seems. This was rescued from the brink of disaster. I had decided what I wanted to do and, having drawn the outline of the trees and houses, was about to wet the paper. Then I realised that because it was such poor paper, there was no way I could wet around my outline – the paper buckled too much. So, clever me, I decided that masking fluid would save the day. I was pleased with the wet in wet sky – not easy on such thin paper. Then I tried to remove the masking fluid. You can guess what happened – the paper came away with it! Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I carefully cut out around the skyline and stuck the sky onto another piece of paper. You can hardly see the join…! (Not many people can claim to have stuck the sky down, I think.)

# 28 – An interior view. I think drawing the view through a doorway is difficult – the perspective is a bit beyond me. Still, here we are. (Looking at this reminds me that I really need to repot that ficus.)

EDiM # 23 - 25

2011-06-08T20:12:00.001+01:00

# 23 – A bell. I was given this bell as a present several years ago. I believe that it is an old school bell. The ‘clapper’ (?) is no refined little sphere, just a misshapen lump of metal. Still, it works well and my guess is that the pupils would hear the sound from a long way away! No excuse for lateness …

# 24 – Something Yellow. A rose from my garden – just an ink and wash sketch. Would you believe that I could find little else that was yellow in my house! ( And what I could find had lots of lettering on it … Norwich is the home of the famous Coleman’s Mustard. It comes in a yellow tin. With lots of lettering.)

# 25 – A bird. A little bit twee, maybe. These little china birds are actually rather nicer than they look here. They are intended for salt and pepper, although I did not realise that until I got them home that one of them has the stopper missing so they will never be used for their original purpose. They just look pretty. They remind me of what my father used to quote when he surveyed his three teenage daughters, dressed up for an evening out: ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these’ (St Matthew Ch.6 v.28) My father had a wonderful sense of humour…

EDiM # 20 - 22

2011-05-31T14:25:00.001+01:00

#20 – A flashlight. Had this for years. There is no battery in it so it is really a flash-non-light…

# 21 - Some coins. To save you from a twisted neck, I shall type the caption: When I was a child, this pile of small change would have seemed a fortune! We had a ‘Saturday sixpence’ to spend on sweets each week. (About 2 1/2p today!) The sweets didn’t last all week. They rarely even lasted for the whole of Saturday…!!

# 22 – Shade. Last week I took a walk to the nearby fishing lakes, Shallowbrook Lakes, to pick elderflowers for making cordial. A fisherman had tucked his tent into the shade of the bushes. It was a lovely bright yellow that exactly matched the yellow irises that grow around the lakes.

EDiM #17 - 19

2011-05-26T21:48:00.001+01:00

#17 Something round. Casting around for something round to paint, I pulled this radish from the garden – round and red. I love to read Vivian Swift’s blog and had just been looking at one of her tutorials, re painting leaves. http://vivianswiftblog.com/?p=4255 So I have Vivian to thank for the radish leaves! (I need some more practice though...)

# 18 Hair. I am getting behind with these daily paintings so, without much thought, I painted what was in front of me. I have not used my squirrel brushes much of late but painting this one may bring them back into use!

# 19 Some rocks. Norfolk, UK, is a flinty place. There are many houses here with flints embedded in the walls. I think that the flint at the bottom of my sketch looks just like the head of an animal. The egg-shaped stone is in fact a fossilized sponge – apparently a very common sort of fossil around here. However, it looks more like an egg to me. Very hard boiled. The stone that looks like a little face was given to my grand-daughter but I am looking after it! The little ‘eye’ on the right is a tiny stone, which rattles around. I think this stone must have spent time in the sea, as it is so smooth. I suppose that, in time, that little stone would have been worn away and then the stone would have a hole right through it – you can see through to the other side if you hold the stone up to the light.

I have added a photograph of the stones, albeit from a slightly different angle, so that you can see I did not make them up!

EDiM #14 - 16

2011-05-22T17:31:00.001+01:00

#14 Something ugly that I keep for sentimental reasons. This pewter teapot belonged to my father’s Aunt. I remember staying with Auntie Maude when I was a child (a good many years ago…!). I remember sleeping in a big bed with brass knobs. It seemed so high that clambering into bed at night was a bit of a challenge.

#15 A shopping basket. I don’t use a basket for shopping but do have two. One holds knitting supplies and this one holds my sewing notions.

# 16 Something green. Not much green in this sketch but what there is is important as it is a cutting saved from a plant that I have had for a very long time! This is a rather colourful sketch for me – a bit of a surprise!

EDiM - #11-13

2011-05-19T13:42:00.001+01:00

# 11 A bowl. There are two bowls in this sketch – the second is under the glass dome and contains a bird’s net. The bird on the stand really is a bit wonky, although not quite as much as it appears here.

# 12 Something fresh. Gardeners (and farmers, of course) around here are desperate for rain but so far, there has been no more than a sprinkle that barely dampens the ground. l

# 13 A fence. Part of my garden fence, decorated with my neighbour’s clematis.

EDiM #8 - 10

2011-05-17T17:30:00.001+01:00

#8 – A light bulb. I have had these ‘spare’ bulbs for about a year now. Trouble is, they are not spares for anything I have got… I intended to buy lamps, bought some spare bulbs for them then forgot to pick up the lamps!

# 9 – A clock. When my grandchildren come to stay, they have this clock in their room so that they can see if it is time to wake me. However, often they ‘somehow’ wake me early!

#10 – Something with a flame. I am a little nervous of having candles in the house, much as I love the flickering light. I lit a tea-light especially to sketch then blew it out. (I have some electrical flickering tea lights which look pretty but don’t have much effect in an oil-burner!)

More for EDiM

2011-05-13T19:05:00.001+01:00

# 5 - Scissors. I think that these are really called ‘snips’. Excellent for cutting threads – not so good for cutting fabric.

#6 – Something tart or sour. This herb is very sharp! It can be eaten raw or cooked. However, the cooked version is none too attractive in appearance – it tends to turn to a mud colour! I was lucky to find these leaves as I had just cut the plant right back. This is done with a brush pen – not something I have used much. I think I need a lot of practice!

This page does not look quite so pristine now as the stamping on the next page bled through. Never mind…

#7 – How I get my news. I don’t know what I would do without the radio, and more particularly, Radio 4. I think we are so lucky to have the BBC.

I buy The Guardian each Saturday and that contains enough reading to last the week!

I also have a small ‘wind up’ radio that also charges from solar power. That is brilliant for use in the garden. I often listen to the afternoon play on Radio 4 while I am weeding.

EDiM #1–#4

2011-05-06T13:26:00.001+01:00

I have not been doing nearly enough painting and sketching lately so EDiM seemed like a good ting to do to get me back in the swing!

#1 – A bar of soap got me off to a clean start … Duh..

#2 – A power plug. Oh dear, I really am not fond of sketching angular pieces of plastic…

#3 – A piece of exercise equipment. Another piece of angular plastic. And a bit of a fib too, as I don’t exercise very often.

#4 – Salt and pepper shakers. They did part company one day, when my granddaughter took the salt shaker for a picnic on the beach.

PS: For anyone who does not know, Every Day in May is a project on the Everyday Matters group. We have a list of objects to sketch, one for each day.

A corner or my garden

2011-04-16T17:26:00.001+01:00

Oh dear, it is a long time since I posted. Also a long time since painted. Too long. This is such a busy time of year in the garden and most of my time and attention has been focussed there. Painting has taken a bit of a back seat, although I do have something I want to paint – I just can’t seem to get it to look how I want it to. Still, I am persevering and in the meantime, I sat outside and did this little sketch of a small tree in the corner of my garden. (I have a new scanner and this is the first time I have used it and it does not work in the same way as the other one! I don’t suppose I am the only one to have little teething troubles with new technology so I am sure you will forgive the slightly fuzzy scan.)

Sempervivum

2011-03-21T08:44:00.001Z

This pot of Sempervivum suffered damage in the hard frosts this winter. It lost a layer on one side but still seems to be holding together. Can it now be called a ‘shabby chic’ pot’, I wonder?

I love to learn about the meaning and origin of plant names, so here is what I found out about Sempervivum:

The name comes from Latin – semper (always)and vivus (alive). I think that very appropriate since these have survived the winter and are happy to grow in all sorts of inhospitable corners. The ‘arachnoidium’ part of the name refers to the fact that this type of Sempervivum are usually covered with fine hairs, looking like spiders’ webs.

Arachnida is the scientific name for spiders and suchlike creatures. Arachne was a woman in ancient times (so the story goes…) who challenged the goddess Athene to a weaving contest. Arachne hanged herself when the goddess destroyed her work, whereupon Athene changed her into a spider!

Lots to ponder upon while I painted!

Vinca Major

2011-03-17T16:30:00.001Z

I painted these yesterday, bringing a few indoors as it was so cold outside. Although a bit of an invasive thug, the colour is so pretty. They are planted in a rather dark corner of the garden and when the flowers appear, they seem to shine out of the gloom – especially welcome as the weather here is so dismal at the moment. In previous years I have cut the plants right back but maybe I shall let them wander a bit more this year!

A poor little plant …

2011-03-13T11:53:00.001Z

I sowed Broad Beans last November and they are coming along nicely – except for one! When the seedlings first appeared, I noticed that one of them was a very pale yellow while the rest were green. At the beginning, they all kept apace with each other but now the pale plant is lagging well behind. I don’t think it is going to last much longer and have not expectation that it will produce any beans. I never had this happen before – just a rogue seed I guess.

(I painted this sketch in the recycled diary that I made into a little sketch book last year last year.)

Another face – this is Michael Rosen, who is an excellent children’s author and does so much to promote reading and story telling in schools. Wish there were many more like him!

Drawing faces

2011-03-06T12:58:00.001Z

Early in February, I made my first attempt at a Coptic binding. As it was just ‘a practice’, I made this from cardboard that had brought me a book in the post and some copier paper that needed to be recycled. Some of the pages already have some printed text.

Having struggled through the process, I was rather pleased with my effort and thought it a shame that this book would just end up in the recycling bin. So I decided to do some drawing practice – or to be more precise, to draw faces. I have only made half-hearted attempts at drawing faces before, but am now determined to improve.

These are sketches made from newspapers and magazines. The sketches have all be done in the last month and I think I can see some improvement. Before the last sketch, I saw a post on EDM that mentioned the ‘Five pencils’ method, with a link. I downloaded the free lessons and did find them helpful – hence the improvement in the last sketch. (I cannot remember who posted that link, but if you are reading thin, thank you very much!

As I did not expect to post these, I regret that I cannot tell where the originals came from. My apologies for this – I shall be more careful in future. I now intend to fill this book with faces ….

What to do with this WIP…

2011-01-31T17:57:00.001Z

This is a very pale little piece, don’t you think! Remember that I was dipping my toe in landscapes? Well, I got so far with this one and then came to a stop. Couldn’t think what to put in the foreground. I quite like this, as far as it went, and so have left well alone until I can decide what to do. I suppose I should have thought about that first, before I put paint to paper!

I have been continuing with my ‘Charles Reid practice’ and have done these little sketches, the flowers being very small. (6cm x 7cm) They were done on odd scraps of paper – I was bought up in the ‘waste not, want not’ school of thought! The little holes in the corner are so that I can thread them together.

Now, I am just wondering if these little flowers might be a clue as to what I could do in the foreground of that unfinished landscape …?

And, just one more sketch – my second attempt at a bird. (The first attempt is on the back and there is no way you are seeing that!)

Getting brighter…!

2011-01-23T12:24:00.001Z

Charles Reid remains one of my favourite painters and I have been revisiting his books and watching some of the video previews that I find online. I thought I would try out one or two of the exercises from his ‘Painting Flowers in Watercolour’. This is my attempt:

I was a bit taken aback by the brightness – but then I have been trying to make my painting a little snappier, so I guess this is a start!

This second painting is one of my own, trying to use the techniques I had read about.

I must confess that this is not what I envisaged when I started but I am quite pleased with my effort.

The main think I learned, and that I must try to remember, is to use less brush strokes and make each one count.

Happy Birthday Ruby …..

2011-01-13T20:19:00.001Z

Some years ago, I made a birthday card for for my grand-daughter, rather than buy a commercial one. Then of course, I had to make one for her brother’s birthday…. Anyway, this is Ruby’s card for this year. It is small, measuring just 4cm square. I had great fun making it, although it took me a while to finish. Now I have to start thinking about what I shall do for Ned’s birthday in July!

Winter ….

2010-11-24T17:28:00.001Z

I finished painting this picture just as the first snow of the year started to fall. Mind you, it was just the wet sort of snow that starts as rain and doesn’t settle. But I think we are expecting a little more over the next day or two...

I do not usually give titles to my pictures but, after reading a recent post on the subject, I thought I might try! So this is called ‘Bleak’.

Berries

2010-11-17T17:47:00.001Z

I have been lazy with my posting lately. I have also been lazy with my painting. However, I did make this little picture earlier in the month. I prepared a background first, without any notion of what I would sketch upon it. Then I picked a few berries and leaves and found the colours to be a lovely match for the background.

I have also make an attempt at painting landscapes. I have never been drawn to paint the landscape, preferring to sketch ‘little things’ around me. Anyway, I thought I must give it a try. These paintings cannot be claimed as ‘all my own work’ because I used examples and exercises from books. (‘Wet in Wet Watercolour Technique by Bryan A. Thatcher and ‘Laying a Watercolour Wash by Frank Halliday). However, I found that I did enjoy making the pictures and I shall persevere until I can produce something all my own!

Leaf painting

2010-10-23T13:20:00.001+01:00

There is something so soothing about painting leaves. Cyclamen leaves make lovely subjects and, as each Cyclamen plant has a different pattern on its leaves, there is an extra element to choosing a subject! After I had painted this one, I visited one of my favourite blogs, that of Vivian Swift. Vivian wrote that wonderful book ‘When Travellers Cease to Roam’. Her blog is very witty and entertaining – she does not suffer fools gladly and she always speaks her mind! Anyway, I discovered that Vivien has posted a terrific tutorial about how she paints leaves – well worth a look. You can find her tutorial at http://vivianswiftblog.com/?p=2495

Oak leaves

2010-10-10T17:10:00.001+01:00

Another sign of Autumn. I’m not sure if this is a sketch or a messy jumble but have decided not to make a distinction - I know it is oak leaves because I painted the sketch from the real thing!

The little project I had in mind…..

2010-09-18T13:43:00.001+01:00

… is now completed and posted to my daughter, Lauraine. I am pretty sure that it will reach her before she reads this post so it will still be a surprise.

The covers of this little concertina book are made from mat board, covered with wall paper. I liked the colours in this paper sample as they seemed to go with an ‘Autumn’ theme.

The pages are some of my autumnal sketches – you may recognise them from previous posts. (There is a clue here as to how long it has taken me to finally put this book together!)

I am happy with my first attempt at a concertina book and while it is far from perfect, it is good enough to encourage me to try another.

On the same theme….

2010-08-31T10:30:00.001+01:00

Teresa came to paint with me yesterday morning and bought with her some hedgerow fruits that she had picked on the way. They made delightful subjects and, after painting very little over the summer, I made these three little paintings in one day!

The colours are not quite true in this scan, but not too far out. I think there is a slightly oriental feel to this small picture of a sloe.

Blackberries – easily recognisable (I hope!).

Little berries from a hawthorn tree.

I had such a lovely day painting these! And they are intended for a little project which I have had in mind for a while now….

End of Summer….

2010-08-29T13:51:00.001+01:00

The days seem a little melancholy – too much rain at the moment, making things seem damp and grey rather than crisp and golden! Funny how, a few weeks ago, we were begging for rain! There is still time for the grey days to give way to a balmy September, when the tomatoes will ripen as the chrysanthemums bloom...

I have a small fig tree and last year I got the pruning wrong - as a result, the harvest was one lone fig! I did better this year and have more figs which are beginning to ripen, one at a time. Such a luscious fruit, something to enjoy as the summer draws to a close.

Below is a first attempt – I liked the way the wet-in-wet came together but the painting did not look like a fig – too smooth looking. Perhaps more like a fig-shaped aubergine? This sketch was to test the colours I had chosen and, with some slight adjustment, I was happy with the final hues. I experimented to get the purple and finally used W&N Indian Red and Winsor Blue (Red shade). That was a bit of a surprise as Indian Red is not a colour I feel drawn towards. I must experiment more!

At last, some rain…!

2010-07-31T15:56:00.001+01:00

It has been such a long time since we have had enough rain to do more that dampen the surface of the soil. However, the last couple of days have been wet and things are looking lush! I wonder how long it will be before I am complaining about the lack of sunshine?

This hosta has struggled to grow in the heat but did managed to flower. The flowers are now over and I have cut the stems away so the plant can concentrate its efforts on its foliage. I think that is what hostas should be doing anyway! I don’t know the name for this one – there are so many and often the differences are so slight that I can’t tell them apart when I try to identify them. This one is pretty – a nice bright green with white margins around the leaves.

A change from plants – this next sketch is of a ‘fairing’ that came to me from my mother. My friend, Sue, knows about these things and helped me to date it. (In case you are not familiar with these little ceramic figures, they used to be given away as prizes at fairs. Some of them were a bit naughty …) I understand that they are quite collectable. I am lucky in that this one, although not rare, is is good condition with no cracks or chips.

I am sorry that this sketch is rather difficult to see. The colours in the figurine are delicate and I have tried to be as accurate as I can. To tell the truth, I don’t think that these are very nice children – they seem to have a rather spiteful look about them, with pinched little mouths! Still, I might be feeling a bit spiteful too, had I been standing around since the late 1800s…

Doing better …

2010-07-17T18:38:00.001+01:00

…with the courgettes this year.

I harvested only one courgette from my two plants last year – I have already quadrupled that number this year, again from just two plants. Mind you, it is early days yet so I best not let hubris take hold!

Nothing to be proud about with this scan – are there ways to prevent the shadow in the gutter or do I just have to accept that this is what happens when scanning a double page spread?

I was rather pleased with the way the large leaf turned out. I didn’t think I would manage to capture that silver-grey marking but there it is!

‘Phyllis Smith’

2010-07-14T20:37:00.001+01:00

It is a long time since I did a pencil drawing – this is my attempt to depict a couple of blossoms from my garden. It was really nice to get back to pencil sketching – perhaps I shall do more. I miss the paint though’!

These flowers are closely related – both are Chrysanthemum x superbum. (I think …!) They amuse me because the one on the left has relatively sleek petals whilst the one on the right has petals that are really shaggy and unkempt. That one is called ‘Phyllis Smith’. I think that they are sisters and that only one of them bothers to comb her hair!

I am sorry this is not a very good reproduction. The sketch pad has a spiral binding and would not give a good scan so I took a photo.

Sitting on the back door step …

2010-07-10T16:14:00.001+01:00

….feeling the heat!

We are having a real heat wave here in East Anglia – the temperature in my garden was over 30 C yesterday and it is almost as hot today. Yesterday, once the sun had moved around, I sat on my back door step and sketched some of the flowers that are in nearby pots then added just a tint of watercolour to the page.

The lilies will soon be over. When the flowers arrived, I moved the pots close to the door so that the scent wafts in when the door is open. Some people find the scent of lilies rather overpowering but I love it! I know they will only be around for a short while so I make the most of them.

We are desperate for rain here – I do try to conserve water so am only watering my vegetables and anything that really looks as if it cannot hang on any longer. There has been a hint of some rain late Sunday night or in the early hours of Monday morning but I am not going to hold my breath. Any showers seem to skirt around here!

Here today and………

2010-06-26T20:01:00.001+01:00

….. gone today too!

I noticed these bright poppies and went into the garden to paint them. I took a cup of tea with me and listened to the play on Radio 4 as I painted.

Then, while I was studying the blossom on the right, the petals fell in a shower onto the ground! One moment there was a bright and blowsy poppy, the next moment a pile of petals! Glad I had just about finished my sketch. I can’t help thinking about the message in this – and being glad that there are more red poppies to come.

Aquilegias

2010-06-09T10:18:00.001+01:00

I am afraid that these flowers have not scanned too well. I did my best with photo-editing but my best at that is not good!

My sister gave me some seeds almost three years ago. I forgot to sow them the first year and although I sowed them last year, there was no sign of any flowers. This year, they showed up – beautiful dainty flowers with long spurs. Well worth waiting for! The foliage is slightly more grey in colour than the scan shows.

Another garden sketch

2010-05-11T17:37:00.002+01:00

Not too good a scan I fear but enough to show what I have done! It has becomes very cold again and there have been frosts for the past couple of mornings. Not what I want just when I am itching to start planting!

I sat outside and painted this after a morning working hard in the garden. It was so relaxing to loose myself in sketching……

I painted this in the little sketch book I made from the cover of my daughter’s old diary – I am keeping the book for garden sketches.

Poor little sketch…..

2010-04-29T19:40:00.001+01:00

… so weak and watery!

EDM # 266 Something to Cherish

2010-03-24T17:28:00.001Z

Everything in this life is ephemeral – we can hold on to nothing. Yet we, and everything around us, remain part of a cycle that is as old as life. I cherish the moments when this becomes apparent, when I am reminded that we are all connected to what has gone before and to what is to come. How to sketch this? Well, there are many such moments, generally connected to the natural world. Most poignant perhaps is the arrival of Spring after the winter, when has seemed that the cold and gloom will never end. Spring never fails us. I find this comforting.

My sketch is of Forsythia, one of the first blossoms to appear. This plant is named after a Scottish gardener , William Forsyth (1737 – 1804) who became superintendent of the Royal Garden of Kensington Palace. A branch of Forsythia brought into the house before the buds break will soon burst into flower. I wanted this sketch to be quiet and gentle and I was quite pleased with it when I had done. However, I had difficulty in getting a good image to post. The scanned image was rather harsh and failed to show the pale mauve behind part of the sketch so I took a photograph, which is more like the sketch. However, it is not so clear and the paper looks very grey.

Euphorbia 18 Mar 10

2010-03-18T12:01:00.001Z

I noticed some odd little shots emerging from the soil last week – I did not know what they could be but they were too flamboyant to be weeds. Also, they were growing around the base of some dead stems, suggesting that this was a plant that was in the garden last year. After a day or two of wondering, I realised that they must be a Euphorbia that I was given last year. It has clearly settled well and once it is grown I may be able to identify which of the many Euphorbia this is. (Then a label may be in order…!)

These signs of spring are so cheering and once started, they just keep coming!

This is the first sketch in the little book I made from my daughter’s old diary. I intend to use it for garden sketches and shall try to fill it before the end of the year.

EDM # 262 My favourite cleaning product

2010-03-08T16:28:00.001Z

I think I have to choose Bicarbonate of Soda as my favourite cleaning product – not really intended for cleaning but it does a wonderful job. It is one of the best things for cleaning pencil marks off walls, such as the marks made to help align shelves or mark the level for a picture frame.

The spray bottle has no label – that is because it is recycled to hold a mix of vinegar and water, for general cleaning of surfaces, mirrors, basins etc.

Both vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda have been around for a good many years. The micro fibre cloth is a newer invention but an excellent one!

I find that, with these three things, there are not many household cleaning jobs that can’t be tackled!

My daughter gave me the cover of her last year’s diary and I made this little sketch book. The marbled paper was made by my sister.

EDM # 262 My shower

2010-02-28T17:07:00.001Z

Well, I am not sure what I can say about a shower – not a lot really! I notice that I no longer feel quite so daunted by prospect of sketching shiny things. The difficulty with this subject was all the empty space and how to make that part of the sketch. It is odd how, once scanned and posted, it is easy to see things which don’t seem quite right or that I would like to change a little. Still, if I don’t tell you, you may not even notice - or will you now look with eagle eyes!

EDM # 260 Packing for a trip

2010-02-13T17:17:00.001Z

Tomorrow I am off to visit my daughter and grandchildren – it is half term so the children and I can keep each other entertained! If you are wondering about the jar, it is marmalade. This time of year there is a brief period of time when Seville Oranges are available and this year I decided to take advantage. I have not made marmalade for many years but it went well and I now have a supply of ‘Old English’, that bitter sweet and chunky version, to keep me happy!

After sketching, I thought it sensible to take the jar out of my suitcase to transport separately. Don’t want any mishaps…..

EDM # 259 A Pet’s Point of View

2010-02-03T18:59:00.001Z

I am afraid that I don’t have a pet – at least not a conventional pet – which I thought might make this challenge particularly tricky for me. However I do have my very special special pet, who was willing to take part. You may not remember him so I shall post his picture again, rather than send you off to look for him!

Here he is:

I am rather ashamed to say that he still does not have a name but I shall talk to Ned about that very soon and see what he thinks might be suitable. My pet sits next to some other things that I am fond of, and which have also appeared in earlier sketches. This is the view that my pet stone is considering this week:

As you see, I am still working on the ‘loosening up’!

EDM # 258 Closet

2010-01-31T16:19:00.002Z

I wanted to try a different style this time.. I have been looking at a book by Judi Whitton, who paints in a very loose way. I believe that she spent some time training with Charles Reid, although her painting seems to me to be even looser than his. (Charles Reid is one of my favourite painters.)

I did not achieve quite what I wanted but I am OK with that, as this way of putting the paint on the paper is new to me. I am pleased to have stepped out of my comfort zone!

A wonderful surprise!

2010-01-28T16:08:00.001Z

On 07 Jan 10, I received an email to say that I had won a ‘give-away’ gift from TJBookarts. I was so thrilled – especially when I learned that Jackie was intending to make something especially for me! I have been so excited, waiting to see what it would be. Well, my parcel from the USA arrived today – and just look at this! This wonderful folder arrived, with its own little bag to make sure I can keep it in pristine condition.

Inside there is space for a diary or address book, a pocket on the left that contains some watercolour paper cards for me to paint with envelopes in another pocket which you can just see underneath the diary. There is a loop to keep a pen and then a transparent and zippered pocket to keep stamps etc.

I am over the moon! What a happy and fortunate woman I am!

Jackie writes a really interesting and informative blog as well as making some beautiful books. Do take a look – you will find her at http://www.tjbookarts.com/

EDM # 257 A Houseplant

2010-01-26T13:16:00.002Z

This Hyacinth a temporary houseplant, grown in a dark cupboard until the green shoot appears then brought out into the light to grow on and bloom. Once the flowering is over, I shall plant the bulb outside.

It seemed to take forever for the buds to appear but once started, there was no stopping them! Each day the flower head got bigger and bigger. I made this sketch last weekend and now the flower head is so big and heavy that it is on the brink of toppling over. I have heard that a barbeque stick thrust down the stem can prevent this but I just don’t have the heart – or the nerve- to do that.

I was more successful with my Hyacinth this year – I remembered to turn it around each day so that it grew (almost) straight up instead of all over to one side…!

I wish I could paint the scent for you – it fills the room!

EDM # 254 Something that brings joy…

2010-01-16T15:00:00.001Z

Longest period of cold, snow and ice that we have seen for decades. Very pretty but not conducive to spending too much time outside. A good excuse to keep warm, drink tea and read. I have been given a surprise present that has made reading even more pleasurable ….

EDM # 256 S0mething bubbly

2010-01-12T17:50:00.001Z

I have not done any painting for a couple of weeks and it seemed really hard to get started again. Couldn’t think of anything ‘bubbly’ that inspired me to so I took a walk to my local library – thought a little fresh (very!) air and some exercise might help. It did, but what helped more was a book I borrowed. I have read this book before and find it really excellent. ‘The Watercolourist’s Essential Notebook – Landscapes’ by Gordon Mackenzie. When I checked the title, I thought it must be a UK publication because of the ‘u’ in ‘Watercolourist’s’ but looking inside, the title page omits the ‘u’ and I see it is published by North Light Books. (No wonder it is a good art book…) Anyway, I found suggestions in the book for painting the foam on waves. I tried this and came up with what you see on the right. I have never really attempted ‘doodling’ sort of painting, but really enjoyed this – it was quite meditative and got me using my brush again. In fact it got me painting for the whole afternoon!

I decided to use this technique to make book marks and produced three. The first was very much like this one, then I tried a different colour scheme and then something a little more abstract. (I had to scan them all together as I don’t know how to put the separate scans side by side!)

EDM # 247 Something Creepy

2010-01-03T16:22:00.001Z

When I was a child, I used to like reading ghost stories. I remember being really scared by a story about a hand that tried to kill the protagonist. I remember that he and a friend captured the hand as it scrabbled about behind the books on the bookshelf.

Now, it was a good many years ago that I read that story but the effect has lingered and I still find disembodied hands a bit creepy. As you can see, this is one of the articulated wooden hands that are useful for drawing practice. I have portrayed it in green as that seemed a bit creepier. Then I felt the need to box it in with books. As you can see, it is trying to get out from behind the books and has even managed to get a finger or two out of the picture frame....

I can't remember the title, or who wrote the story but maybe someone else has read that same story? Is there a society for people who were traumatised by that story ? It can't just be me, can it?

EDM # 253 Socks

2009-12-30T17:41:00.001Z

Way back in April, I sketched my knitting; the first time I had attempted to knit a pair of socks. Well, here they are, the finished article. Don’t think that I only just completed them – it is just that I had forgotten to post a photo of them. Anyway, they have come in very handy for this challenge!

I have knitted several pairs of socks since making this pair and the ones in thicker yarn have been a blessing around the house in the cold weather that we are having. Now I am knitting fingerless gloves/wrist warmers.

I found painting the texture and the colours of the knitting a bit tricky. Pity there isn’t paint that is randomly coloured, like the knitting yarn that I used….

EDM # 252 Pine

2009-12-17T08:53:00.001Z

No pine trees around here so here is a pine cone, one of those I picked up on the coast at Wells on Sea when walking with my daughter. They are a couple of years old now and have proved very useful. Last winter I melted fat, mixed it with seed, chopped peanuts and chopped dried fruit then packed the mixture into the spaces in some of the cones to make bird feeders. Luckily, I didn’t use them all and so had one to use as a model for this sketch!

We are now waiting for the first snow of winter – I think we are promised several inches by tomorrow. Oh – here it comes! The sky has darkened and the rain has turned white….!! I don’t suppose it will stay for long - and it is nice to see snow just once each year.

EDM # 151 Perfume

2009-12-12T11:35:00.001Z

Lavender – one of my favourite perfumes because it is soothing and restful. A little bottle of lavender oil is so useful. I had never noticed that the common spelling differs from that of the Latin name.

I wanted the sketch of the plant to look like a watermark on the paper but I am not sure how far I succeeded….

EDM # 250 Something Free

2009-12-03T19:49:00.001Z

I saw a little moss garden on the internet and was quite taken with the idea, which I then promptly forgot about! However, a week or two ago, I found this lovely little glass pot in Habitat and the moss garden came back to me. I think it will be easy to keep going – supposed to rarely need watering as the lid keeps the moisture inside. We shall see…

The pot was not free, but the moss and the stones were, so I think that can count. (I got them out of my garden.)

The little pot is actually a sugar bowl, part of a glass tea set. I wonder what the designer would think of this alternative use?

EDM '# 249 A coffee pot

2009-11-21T13:56:00.001Z

Another hard and shiny item! Again, I really wanted to add some colour – so I did! I find these metallic objects rather difficult – there are so many different reflections that I have to edit a lot of them out or I just get lost in all the shapes.

A nice surprise…..

2009-11-16T17:22:00.001Z

Last week I was given this lovely present – looks too good to eat so I shall keep it a while so that I can admire the gold, black and red packaging!

A first attempt…

2009-11-14T17:38:00.001Z

I have recently bought a book called ‘Re-bound’, about creating handmade books from recycled and repurposed materials. It is written by Jeannine Stein and published in the USA by Quarry Books. I bought it here from Amazon UK. It is such an interesting book and gave me the idea to make this notebook from the foil-backed packs of some lovely coffee sweets that are a particular favourite of a friend. I have made the notebook to give her next time I see her. I hope she will be amused!

As it is a first attempt at working with sweet packets and I had to substitute some materials and tools, the notebook is a bit ‘rough around the edges’. It was interesting to make, with two signatures that are sewn into the cover together, with a sort of pleat in the centre of the book. (Not the proper terms, I feel but I don’t know what this style is called!)

It was fun to do and I shall try my hand at more of the projects in the book.

EDM # 248 A Lock

2009-11-14T17:26:00.001Z

I do find it difficult to sketch such mechanical items – I could not find a lock of my own so borrowed this one! Locks used to be so much more ornate, with brass and curly bits! I suppose the plastic is functional and easy to clean but not, I think, so good a model! However, these things do make me think about perspective as there is nowhere to hide or to disguise any mistakes!

I know that I have skipped the previous challenge but shall have to go back to that one, when I think of something creepy. In another mood, I suppose I could have decided that this bike lock looked a bit like a snake and was therefore a ‘creepy’ object!

EDM # 246 A Glove

2009-11-08T16:53:00.001Z

I tend to loose gloves, usually left in a shop or falling from my pocket.

This is one of my gardening gloves, which I wear when I am doing things with rose bushes. When I go outside to do anything in the garden, I usually start with very good intentions and make sure I am wearing a pair of gloves. Somehow, they seem to get discarded very quickly and unnoticed. It is very difficult to tie string or open seed packets if I am wearing gloves. Later, as I struggle to scrub the dirt from my hands, I promise myself that, next time, I really shall retain the gloves….

I seem to have gone astray with the numbering, again. Perhaps I should not have numbered the ‘free choice’ the other week. Never mind, I shall just go along with the numbering on the posted list.

Having been away for one week and then unwell for a week, little has been done in the way of sketching and I am getting behind on the challenges again. I am better now and shall catch up this week, or next week…

EDM # 246 ‘October’

2009-10-21T17:12:00.001+01:00

I have lots of these in my garden. After my faux pax with the ‘Ash’ keys, I thought I better look these up – they are Physalis. I have always known them as ‘Chinese lanterns’, which I think it a lovely name for them and suits them perfectly. They are quite an insignificant plant most of the year and the flowers are small and white. Then they suddenly seem to burst into colour at this time of year, a welcome bright spot when most of the garden is dying away for the winter. (Reminds me of Andy Warhol's concept of 15 minutes of fame for each of us….) Later still, the orange cases will become skeletal and the orange fruit in the centres will be revealed.

EDM # 245 Free Choice

2009-10-21T16:59:00.001+01:00

I must confess I was a bit thrown by being given a free choice! I guess I like the discipline of having a nominated subject! fortunately, Teresa turned up with some beautiful conkers so I painted this one. They were rather unusual as they did not have the prickly green shells that I have been used to seeing. These shells were almost smooth and a greeny grey colour. The conkers looked the same, however!

While I am here confessing, here is another one ….. It seems that the ‘Ash keys’ I posted a week or two ago are actually Sycamore keys! Apparently Ash keys are similar but hang in bunches on the tree. Did anyone notice?

EDM # 244 The Oldest Thing in My Fridge

2009-10-10T17:50:00.001+01:00

Not one but three old things from my fridge. The oldest would not have made much of a picture on its own – it is the green Tupperware box in the background. I think I must have had that box (and it’s twin) for about thirty years! I has seen the inside of several fridges in that time. I have no affiliation to Tupperware but those boxes have certainly passed the test of time!

The other two items are vying for second place. I don’t know how long I have had either but the gel eye-mask seems to have been there a very long time and the bottle of Tabasco has been tucked, unused, in the fridge so long that the labels have dropped off! (You can tell I am not a great user of Tabasco…) I suppose that I should throw it away but you never know when a Tabasco emergency may arise and it will be nicely matured by now!

Autumn cometh…!

2009-10-05T15:36:00.001+01:00

I can hardly believe that a year has passed since I was last sketching the fruits of Autumn! My friend Teresa came to paint with me today and brought these Ash keys with her. Teresa does beautiful bold paintings so we produced very different versions of the same subject. Had a lovely morning.

EDM # 243 A Pillow

2009-10-05T15:20:00.001+01:00

I left my bed unmade for a while today, so that I could paint my pillow. (I think that in America, a ‘pillow’ is what we call a ‘cushion’? )

I found this quite hard to do – I am not really happy with the result but it was good practice. I clearly need more of that where fabric is concerned!

I see from the news that Tracy Emin is threatening to leave the UK for France. However, it is the taxes that are driving her away, not the threat of me painting my bed…….

EDM # 242 A Figurine

2009-09-29T09:24:00.001+01:00

Maybe not quite what is recognised as a ‘figurine’ but it does sit around looking warm and friendly. And was given to me by my wonderful grandson so I think it fulfils the criteria! I am increasingly drawn to believe that ‘it’ is really a ‘he’ so I shall have to think of a good name. Ned will have to approve the name as well.

DM # 241 View From My Kitchen Window

2009-09-20T17:33:00.001+01:00

I am in good time this week – spent a pleasant time painting the view from my kitchen window while perched on the kitchen table! Autumn is setting in now so things are beginning to ‘go over’. To be honest, there are not quite this many flowers on the beans at the moment but I liked putting them in. Nothing like a little red to cheer up a sketch!

EDM # 240 A pencil

2009-09-15T17:33:00.001+01:00

Not a particularly special pencil – I seem to have quite a lot of these red and black ones. I used to use 2B, mostly, but now tend to favour the harder pencils – B or H. I thought the pencil might like the company of some other long narrow objects. But none of them was so brightly coloured …..

EDM # 239 Something that has scared me

2009-09-09T19:03:00.001+01:00

I am not afraid of frogs per se, but this one (or one very much like this) did give me a real fright. There I was, barefoot in the flowerbed, weeding, when there was a sudden rustle in the undergrowth and I felt something heavy, wet and cold land on my foot! I think I must have disturbed the frog with my weeding. And I must have given it a real fright when I yelled and leapt out of the flowerbed!

EDM # 238 Something From My First Aid Kit

2009-09-04T19:14:00.001+01:00

I am afraid that my first aid kit is sadly lacking – one of those things that I keep meaning to upgrade. However, the odd bits and pieces seem to keep me going. The Ibuprofen Gel at the front is an old friend – soothes the odd ache and pain when necessary. The other two items were added this summer. The Allercalm tablets were purchased to help sooth hay fever (never had it before this year!) and the tube of Anthisan cream was bought in case of insect stings. Worked very well when my friend and I were both bitten by the same mosquito. The mosquito did not live to tell the tale…

I used a book to hold the sketch down on the scanner and I can see that the front of the book is slightly visible through the sketch paper. I shall watch out next time but shall not rescan this sketch.

EDM # 237 Under my Bed …

2009-08-31T18:44:00.001+01:00

…. and a couple of other little sketches.

Well, not really my bed but, as mine is too low to store anything beneath, this is a peek at what is under my spare bed. Mostly spare bedding. I did struggle a bit with this one and had to make myself stop before it all went horribly muddy.

The next two sketches are from my jaunt with Teresa this morning. We went down to a nearby river (well, I am not sure if it is a small river or a big stream but is is big enough to need little bridges for those who wish to cross.)

The colours are not quite true to the original but near enough. This is the first time I have tried to sketch water and I found it very difficult. The first sketch was done at the place where the river is very shallow. The water is beautifully clean and clear, revealing all the stones etc on the river bed.

I have avoided sketching water so am pleased that I have now made an attempt!

Sketches – Dereham Road Cemetery

2009-08-24T14:17:00.001+01:00

Teresa and I spent a while paint-sketching in the cemetery today. We went into the part of the cemetery that is older and has been deliberately allowed to become rather overgrown with the intention of attracting wildlife. It was really beautiful. Very quiet and because of the tree canopy, nice and cool. Some of the trees are much bigger that you would expect to see in the city and some of the branches sweep the ground.

Although the area is ‘lightly’ managed, it does not have an air of neglect but rather the sense of being left in peace.

a wonderful place and we shall go there again before too long.

I did these sketches with a water-brush and added the few strokes of ink when I got home.

My Birthday Mug

2009-08-21T13:36:00.001+01:00

I was given this pretty mug for my birthday – I could not resist painting it! This is the first sketch I have done in the little book that I recycled to make a sketch book. But it is not on the first page. That remains blank!

EDM # 236 The Palm of my Left Hand

2009-08-19T14:36:00.001+01:00

The palm of my left hand – not too interesting on its own but very useful for holding stuff. These are some little mussel shells that we found on the sand at Sea Palling last week. I loved the spots of blue against the dark.

Am feeling a wee bit smug as I managed to edit this sketch in Photoshop to make the colours more true to the original. I think I have made them a little dark but still an improvement.

Isn’t instinct interesting? I found myself using a square format without really thinking about it – only pondered on this after the sketch was finished. I guess it is a bit of a no-brainer – palm of hand is roughly square after all. However, I rarely sketch in that format so something must have gone on in the grey matter…

I am watching the ‘Desperate Romantics’ series on TV. For those who don’t know the programme, it is a ‘sexed up’ (I use the word advisedly, so be warned!) version of the lives of the Pre-Raphaelites. The programme is good fun, though probably bears little resemblance to the reality of their lives. In an email from Amazon today, I saw a book by the patron of the Pre-Raphaelites, John Ruskin. It is called ‘The Elements of Drawing’ and seems to have some good reviews. From the ‘look inside this book’ feature, his advice is very similar to that given today. I especially appreciated his homily on the need for practice and his belief that anyone can draw to some degree. It was well worth checking it out on Amazon just for those few pages. I am going to request the book from my local library. (I dare not buy anymore art instruction books unless they are ‘essential’!)

EDM # 234 and # 235

2009-08-08T10:39:00.001+01:00

This mug is the one I drink out of when I have a ‘cuppa’ with Sarah – it is tall and thin, as you can see. Somehow, the tea always tastes especially nice when I drink out of this mug.

The butterfly is a brooch that belonged to my mother. It is silver filigree; the pin has been broken at one time and has a rather clumsy repair. I think I shall see if I can get it fixed properly. I don’t wear brooches but this would make a lovely necklace/pendant.

I have been a bit lazy with my sketching lately – lots to do in the garden and I am expecting my grandchildren for a visit so have been making preparations! However, my granddaughter (Ruby is six and a half) likes to paint and draw so perhaps we shall get some sketching in while she is here. Her brother (Ned is five) may like to join in as well.

The weather is lovely now – lots of things to sketch and paint in the garden.

EDM # 232 The last thing I bought

2009-07-27T16:31:00.001+01:00

Strictly speaking, the incense sticks are the last thing I bought but I bought the necklace on the same day and as it seemed a little colour was needed, I used my artistic licence and cheated!

A friend told me about an art shop in the street that I have not visited for ages so last week, I took a wander down St Benedict’s. (In fact, I did buy a bottle of ink there and some ‘sun-print’ paper that will amused my grandchildren when they visit next month. However, the ink bottle and packet of paper did not look so interesting to paint.)

I saw this necklace in a little jewellery shop called Raphael’s and thought it may have found its home. The person in the shop told me that she had made the necklace herself and that it was made from ‘dyed mother-of-pearl’. It cost very little – taking her time and the cost of the beads etc into consideration, I don’t think she could have made much profit from the sale. At least she has gained a new customer as I shall certainly visit her shop again.

EDM # 233 Favourite Drink

2009-07-23T20:01:00.001+01:00

Oh dear – another ‘favourites’ question! Well, it all depends….. For years I drank little other than coffee. Then I decided that i was drinking too much coffee and started drinking tea as well. Now I drink as much tea as I do coffee – probably more. Tea is for first thing, to wake me up, then the next cup of the day has to be coffee. That comes when I am awake enough to concentrate!

I prefer my tea rather weak (some might say very weak) and so my current brand from Ceylon suits me nicely.

The sketch did not scan too well so I fiddled with it a little and this looks better – perhaps a little too better… I seem to have used rather darker colours than usual – I think my paintings often seem a bit insipid so I am pleased to have done something different.

I have not forgotten about challenge # 232 and hope to get to work on that at the weekend – I just have not felt inspired to draw anything that I have bought lately. (Sounds like an excuse to shop?)

A little sketch …

2009-07-20T17:20:00.001+01:00

I am somewhat behind with my EDM challenge sketches – it has been a busy time!

Last week, I spent a few days with my daughter and grandchildren. There was not really time for painting but I did sit in her garden and sketch this fern. It is done with my fountain pen and ordinary ‘Quink’ ink, so I don’t expect it to last long.

Yesterday I went to Salthouse, a village on the North Norfolk coast, and thoroughly enjoyed a day-long workshop with book binder Susan Kasper. We learned to do Japanese stab binding and made some pamphlets. (I am hoping that Susan will do another workshop soon!)

At lunch time we were able to visit a superb art exhibition in the village church. The theme of the exhibition was ‘Salt of the Earth’. One of the exhibits, set on the lectern, was a beautiful book that Susan had made. She had asked that people write in the book in praise of someone they knew who was a ‘salt of the earth’ person. There was also a wonderful oil painting by Maggi Hambling, who is one of the most celebrated artists in Britain, particularly well known for her ‘Scallop’ sculpture on Aldeburgh beach. (Some of you will have seen Maggi Hambling presenting one of the the recent life drawing classes on TV.)

Before leaving the village for home, I bought some samphire. This is a plant that grows on certain parts of the coast and has been harvested for many years. It is also known as ‘poor man’s asparagus’ and is mentioned by Shakespeare in King Lear. I had never eaten samphire so I was delighted to try some. I may not bother again. …..! It is very salty and takes a lot of washing and picking over before cooking.

So I had an excellent day with good company, learned a lot, saw some great art and tried a new food – what a lucky woman I am!

EDM # 231 Draw your junk drawer

2009-07-13T20:23:00.001+01:00

I thought this would be very difficult as the drawer would be so complicated and such a muddle. Then I remembered that, a while ago, I had a really good idea - accepting the necessity for a junk drawer, I had decided that I would have a ‘sorted’ junk drawer. Using empty ice-cream cartons, I divided up the drawer and put the junk into the cartons I then labelled the cartons, thinking that even if it was a junk drawer, I would be able to see what was in the drawer and perhaps find stuff more easily. You can see here how well the idea worked. Duh! ….

And no, I did not sort it again – this carton went back into the drawer just as it came out!

I wanted to draw this with a dip pen and Indian ink. My sketch book is not too fond of that combination so I drew on cartridge paper and stuck the page in my sketch book. The paper was white but came out very grey in the scan.

EDM # 299 A Map

2009-07-05T17:22:00.001+01:00

A challenge for a woman with no sense of direction!

I remembered how, as a child, I loved a book with a map or plan on the end papers. I guess, even then, I needed a map to help me find my way around!

These are two old books. The one on the bottom is my mother’s copy of Winnie-the-Pooh. It was given to her for her birthday in July 1929, so it is now eighty years old. There is a map of Pooh’s travels around the wood on the end papers.

The book on the top was given to me for a Christmas present when I was six. it is called ‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’. It was written by TH White, who wrote ‘The Sword in the Stone’. I remember listening to this tale being read on the Radio for ‘Children’s Hour’ and was delighted to receive the book for Christmas.

I expect most people are familiar with Winnie-the-Pooh but I wonder if anyone else has read ‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’ – or even heard of it!

Both these books are looking their age and I wanted that to show in the sketch. I struggled with the perspective for a while but I think I more or less got there in the end.

EDM # 229 a Summer Joy

2009-07-01T17:26:00.001+01:00

This is the first summer that I have sketched and painted outside and that is a joy in itself. Added to that, my gardening labours are starting to come to fruition with the promise of squash for the winter. Joy upon joy!

Apparently we are now officially into a heat wave! I expect our few days at 25C plus seems derisory to many of you but here in the UK we are not used to this. I am happy enough – up early and into the garden to do whatever needs to be done then inside until things cool down a little. I live in East Anglia and I think we are one of the driest parts of the country. We shall be crying out for rain before long!

Here is another first for me ….

My first recycled book, filled with sketching paper. It is pretty basic and has its faults but I am pleased to have done this. (Thanks to Shirley for her tutorials and encouragement). In a couple of weeks I am going to a ‘beginners’ bookbinding workshop. It is only one day and we are told that we shall come home having made a single section book and a Japanese style book. Given the months it has taken me to produce this first effort, I can see that I shall have to work very hard!

EDM # 228 Something funny …

2009-06-21T17:01:00.001+01:00

You may well wonder what is funny about this. Well, when it started, it was not intended to be funny. A couple of weeks ago, when my friend came around for our regular Monday morning painting practice , we were bemoaning the amount of junk mail we receive. I was having trouble deciding what to paint and hit upon the idea of making use of some of the junk mail by painting on an envelope. I decided to use a ‘window’ envelope and paint a scene ‘through the window, so to speak. hence the tree. Had I taken photos along the way, all there was to see at this stage was a little tree in watercolour and the torn envelope (with window) pasted over it.

As the days went by, I felt I might do more to this – after all, a window needs curtains… Now, I could have found a scrap of fabric to use but wanted gingham and had none. So I wove my own from tissue paper. Then I had to put them up – sewing machine and glue.

Then I felt it necessary to show more of the the interior….. By the time I had found some pressed flowers and got going with the gluing, quite a lot of time had passed. (I am a messy glue-er and found that tissue paper and small pressed flowers do tend to stick to the smallest dot of glue, whether on the paper or on my fingers…)

Then I thought how funny it is that I can feel free to spend so much time on this ephemeral object (will probably fall to pieces in a week or two!) when there is washing, cooking and cleaning to be done, let along considering the state of the nation, MPs expenses, global warming etc etc.

I have not been retired quite long enough to feel guilt free at spending my time in this way but clearly I am getting there. Giggled quite a lot as I pondered this. So the making of this struck me as quite funny, in a gleeful sort of way.

Then of course there are the deeper questions to ponder – the ‘funny-peculiar’ side of the collage. Which bits of this piece, if any are more ‘real’ than other parts? Would a scrap of fabric have made the curtains more ‘real’ than tissue paper ones? Are the painted leaves any more or less real that the dead ones, that look quite different to the way they did in life…. Ho Hum – shall have to put off the chores even longer while I work all that out!

EDM 227 A Tote Bag

2009-06-16T17:38:00.001+01:00

This looked so complicated that I almost chickened out. Then I decided that I would have a ‘practice’ attempt. This is it. I thought I would stop while I was ahead ……!

I have been away for a few days, staying in Northampton with my daughter and my grandchildren. While I was there, I bought a new pen – a ‘Uni-pin Fineline' 0.2. I really like it and used it for this sketch. I think someone on the EDM group mentioned that they too had bought one of these and thought it was great. I didn’t see that post until after I bought this but do so agree. These pens are made in a good variety of sizes and I shall certainly look out for some more. In addition, they are cheap!

Now I am up to date with the EDM Challenges and shall have to start to think about the current suggestion. All sorts of things make me laugh but I am not sure if I can draw any of them….

EDM # 226 A Screw

2009-06-06T18:10:00.001+01:00

I did try drawing screws, honest. But every time I tried to follow the thread, I lost it. (I often loose the thread these days…). So I sketched one screw and put the rest in this ‘screw’ of paper. And I went to get my eyes tested and order new glasses ….

I think that, years ago, shops used to sell goods wrapped in a screw of paper. We certainly used to buy packets of potato crisps that contained salt wrapped in a screw of blue paper. We used to search for it in the bag and sprinkle it on the crisps. Perhaps that idea could be revived and then we would have more control over our salt intake!

A New Stick …

2009-06-03T20:32:00.001+01:00

I bought a new stick yesterday – a bamboo pen. I found a new iris had opened in my garden today. The two came together…! Not only that, but also another nice surprise. The end fell off my new stick and guess what? (As if most of you would not know this already, but hey, I never saw a bamboo pen before.) There was a brush inside! I haven’t used the brush yet but I did sit in the garden and draw the iris today. There was a breeze blowing and the petals were being moved about quite a lot so I am pleased that I managed to draw it at all. I am also pleased that I drew it BIG. Well, big for me. Oh, and leadless too!! I drew on an A3 pad of very cheap paper with W&N drawing ink, Nut Brown.

This stick is not so good for writing but the effect is interesting, if barely legible. You can see that I am not used to drawing with a bamboo pen – the lines are a bit unpredictable. However, I really enjoyed the process and shall no doubt get better with practice.

EDM # 225 Something sticky

2009-06-01T18:05:00.001+01:00

I do hope that my postman will not see this – he collects ‘foreign’ stamps and usually has mine. Mind you, I don’t think it will matter whether he sees this or not, since he would have delivered the cards to start with! Sorry, postman – I needed them…

If the Queen is looking (unlikely, wouldn’t you think?), I trust that she will not mind being ousted for DG. after all, it is only one stamp…

Teresa came to paint with me this morning and we worked in the garden. These are the couple of sketches that I did. I have several small sketch books that I want to fill be fore buying a new one and as I am spending a lot of time gardening at the moment, I am intending to record some of my efforts for posterity!

Moving outside into the garden is a prelude to moving to sketch in the BIG outside, where we shall not be able to nip into the house to put the kettle on or to grab an additional brush etc. (And it is where there are PEOPLE we do not know who may look at us and our sketches. Oh dear…)

We are planning a trip to a cemetery – nice quiet place to sketch…

EDM # 224 A Jug

2009-05-25T18:59:00.001+01:00

I fear that my painting does not do justice to this pretty little jug and the poor scan does not help.

I asked my friend, Anne, if she would loan me a jug to paint as I know she has lots of pretty things in her home. Anne suggested this little jug. She told me that it had belonged to her grandmother. Given the date of Anne’s grandmother’s birth, we calculated that the jug is about one hundred years old! You can imagine how carefully I am looking after the jug until I return it to its home!

I enjoyed the painting, especially depicting the garland of roses and the gold boarder around the edge.

This timid little sketch was done in my garden this morning. I am not used to painting outside and must do so more often now that the weather is so much nicer. I used a water-brush and I think the water was more in control than I was!

EDM # 223 My Favourite sound

2009-05-18T17:43:00.001+01:00

It is difficult for me to pin down ‘favourites’ of anything – perhaps I am fickle! This is a bit of a cheat as radio can broadcast almost any sound. Nevertheless, I saw an opportunity to celebrate our wonderful Radio 4 and could not resist. What would I do without this stalwart of my day? I time tedious tasks to coincide with a good play, listen to news and comment throughout the day and enjoy the company of the World Service if I cannot sleep. Sketching hard, ‘boxy’ objects is not what I prefer to do (definitely not a favourite), but I was pleased to make the sacrifice in this instance!

My friend, Anthea and her husband are travelling. They went to see the Giant Buddha in Hong Kong and Anthea sent me a picture postcard. Here are a couple of leadless (!!) sketches. Both similar and both simple and plain.

I painted with a friend this morning. I thought I would try to paint on brown paper as I have seen this done by others and like the look. These are a couple of sketches I produced:

I shall do this again as I found it great fun. no worries about spoiling expensive paper. And I have masses of brown paper, courtesy of IKEA. Only drawback is that the paper is perforated - I suppose to make it easier for the staff to wrap the goods and perhaps to save waste. My friend said it was like using toilet paper to paint on. Anyone tried that…..?

PS : A while back, I posted a picture of a WIP – my first sock knitting. Well, they are completed and I wore them yesterday, for the first time. (It did not take until yesterday to knit them.) I think I have discovered a delightful new hobby!

EDM # 222 My Favourite Drawing Tool

2009-05-11T17:34:00.001+01:00

As I am still new to drawing, I don’t have a permanent ‘favourite’ – I like to try different things. Nevertheless, I do like to draw with a dip pen and ink and this is a pen holder that I use. Nothing special – just a cheap wooden holder. I keep my nibs in a little tin, with a sachet of silica gel that I acquired from somewhere or other. I think it helps to stop the nibs going rusty.

I was pleased with the way the boarder worked out – I had an idea of how I wanted it to look but was not sure how to bring the notion to fruition! Since it worked as I hoped, I wish I had made the boarder wider…. Never mind, I can use the idea again.

EDM # 221 A hand-held game.

2009-05-03T19:10:00.001+01:00

I constantly play Scrabble on my PDA – about the only game I do play - unless my grand-children come to visit, when I play Snakes and Ladders, Dominoes, Snap etc. (As grannies do!)

So, for some reason I decided to draw a game of Patience! I had to find a pack of cards first. Then I had to practice to ensure that I could remember how to play…….

What did I learn from this sketch? When I want to paint a boarder, I need to watch where I am going, not where I have been!

People at a meeting…

2009-04-29T20:12:00.002+01:00

My first effort at drawing people around me. I was at a meeting and so people were sitting fairly still, listening to the speakers. You will note that I mostly did those in front of me, so didn’t have to draw faces!

You can see that the paper was cheap – just the pads provided at the meeting. Also some scribbling to test the pens and pencils provided.

This will teach me to take my own another time….. !

Learning something new..!

2009-04-29T19:49:00.001+01:00

I am learning to knit socks! I can knit already but have never knitted socks. I am enjoying it – but haven’t got to the heel yet…

EDM # 220 The Moon

2009-04-26T13:35:00.001+01:00

Not the sort of map that any astronaut might rely upon … just two different notions of the surface of the moon. I enjoyed making purposeful ‘happy accidents’ to depict the craters!

This is a corner of my garden, painted from the window. I am wanting to try painting in a looser way and have been reading a brilliant book – Loosen up your Watercolours by Judi Whitton. But I don’t stop soon enough ….. Never mind, I shall practice until I can do better.

Another ‘first’ – in fact more then one! I noticed the Iris are coming into bloom so did these little sketches. First time painting outside and first time ‘leadless’. I did these sketches very quickly and really enjoyed the feeling of trying to ‘capture the moment ‘ very quickly. Again, I need to practice but I can see I shall be doing more of this.

EDM # 219 A Window

2009-04-19T17:45:00.002+01:00

I don’t know of any particularly interesting windows around here, so this is a quick sketch of the little window that I see when I look up from my painting table. Out of view, below eye level, the ground floor of the house is not symmetrical but the level I sketched here is so symmetrical and full of angles that I think it may, one day, make an abstract picture!