A little visitor

All day yesterday we saw a little bird hopping around the flowers beds by the kitchen patio. It didn't fly off when I went out to look at it but it was too quick for me to take a photo. Then last night Paul heard something by the window as he was on the computer, he came out of his room and when he returned the little bird was perched on his monitor! Here it is on Paul's bed!

Obviously it can fly a little if it managed to get into Paul's room but we think it might have flown the nest and got lost or been abandoned. We weren't quite sure what to do with it but it didn't look too stressed when Mark picked it up so we put it outside again. I was afraid it might die of stress if we kept it in but it might be eaten by the cats if we put it out. I left some seed out for it during the day which it wasn't interested in so we think it may be a flycatcher of some sort. At first we thought it might be a robin, but it's not. It has some reddish brown feathers in its tail. Does anyone recognise it? We put it outside as it was still raining and the cats wouldn't be around. We closed the window and it hopped over to look at us through the glass and flew off. I can't see it this morning, I hope it's still alive!

EDM # 62

All this painting and my blog is so quiet! I've been getting impatient to post something but most of it is just experimenting or just plain rubbish! There are many faults with this but it is, at least, not as embarrassing as most of my efforts. As a bonus it meets EDM #62, which is to do a previous challenge again in a different medium. I did a bunch of bananas before. Reading that post now, it's ironic that I should have chosen that particular challenge again, my thoughts on using other media are quite different now. Using watercolours presents it's own challenge and I look at my subjects quite differently but I don't think now that I see any less.

Here I was trying to keep everything very loose, although that pencil line on the left and the distance between it and the paint looks too regular to my eye. I was attempting to mix on the paper and not the palette as I think colours looks so much more vibrant that way, but that takes much more experience than I have right now, to get that right. It's very much hit and miss so I wouldn't attempt a more complicated subject or grouping until I have more control.

I drew the pear four times and this one, the first, was the best. The others, that I thought would be better, got overworked!

My Winsor & Newton paints, looking quite neat and clean for the photo! A lady at the watercolour class had her colours laid out on paper like this which I thought was a good idea. Her palette was much larger and her paper was in clear plastic taped onto the box. I have two more pans now so I'll have to rearrange and make a new one. Also, the brushes I'm using. I like the mop brushes and used the small one quite a bit but now I'm using the smaller ones more often, especially the No.7, far right. Unfortunately, last week, I had a trouble getting anything decent on paper and was so cross with myself I just got up and left everything. I found my lovely paintbrush in the water the next morning with the paint cracked. Dang. That will teach me to be temperamental!

Looking at that paper reminds me of a game where you have to guess the co-ordinates of some battle ships, but if you get it wrong you could get blown up by the mines. That yellow, second from left (Cadmium Yellow Pale) and the fourth red (Permenant Carmine) are the mines! Ready to explode on the paper and take out everything else if I'm not careful. The next reds and yellows I get, I'll take those out and replace them with something friendlier. I have Winsor Violet too, which is a gorgeous colour but very intense and needs careful handling although I feel 'ready' for it, being an unusual one, whereas the red and yellow can easily catch me out amongst the others!

Annabel asked about the watercolour class. It's not really a structured class so it's difficult to say. To practice techniques we copy pictures of other watercolours which sounds very dull, I suppose, but for my level it's fine and with her guidance I feel I'm learning quite a bit. Trying to match colours, getting effects like wet on wet and controlled washes have been really interesting. Matching colours hasn't been as difficult as I thought it might be but getting the water to pigment ratio right is quite a challenge. Getting the colours to look vibrant and not overmixed is something I'm concentrating on. Charles Reid says to let some of the original colour show in the mix which I think is very good advice but experience is needed to control the 'accident'! The most useful thing I found out is that watercolours are much more manageable than I expected, there are many ways to manipulate it and correct mistakes, it's not totally unforgiving. The teacher is a lovely lady who makes it all seem easy and fun - not something rigid with rules set in stone! 'Oh, don't worry, we can cheat!' or don't worry, I can show you a great way to correct that', she says with a twinkle in her eye, and she comes out with a mine of information!

I've started going to her Monday class too, at her shop. She has an antique linen store with a beautiful little open courtyard at the back. Three of us sat at a table in the shop with some soft jazz in the background and it was a lovely experience. The Wednesday class is at the boys' school, in a really beautiful setting and lovely old buildings but the class itself is held in the 'art shed'. There's usually a class going on next door and it's fun to see what they are doing and hear the kids banter. They have music in the background too but it's usually rap or something that reminds me of how out of touch I am! Everything will finish at the end of June but there may be workshops in the summer and a new class in September.

Flowery nonsense

When people say there is no such thing as perfection, I can't help but think of images like this. I mentioned the 'p' word on a quilt group once and a woman wrote and told me to Google it because it's a sign of being mentally disturbed. Maybe it's true if you see things only in black and white, in terms of right and wrong. (Hand washing may be a sign of obsession or it could be a sign of cleanliness!) But if I looked at this rose and tried to find evidence of imperfection, I think I'd have more to be concerned about.





















My favourite stripey rose. Looking quite different to last year, as seen in the previous post.





















I've no doubt that it was from looking at nature and seeing how perfectly colours are blended - in feathers, bird's eggs, plants, fish scales etc., etc., - that shading became so important to me early on. (I could just as easily been inspired by patterning - I remember being bowled over when I saw a barn owl close up -but somehow shading made a bigger impact and still does.) It seems to me the height of arrogance to say we mustn't try to make our art perfect. As if it is a default setting, so easy to achieve, we must guard against it!

Anyway, that's enough ranting. These thoughts were brought on when I tried to upload these photos a couple of days ago and found the 'add image' button no longer worked. To cut a long story short, I can now post to the blog using Firefox instead of IE. It got me wondering if posting photos of my flowers was worth all the hassle! But then, I thought, why are flowers seen as frivolous and feminine?

If I hadn't started this blog and seen that flowers are a running theme, I wouldn't have realised how much I like them. Not just because they are 'pretty' but for their diversity, construction and shading. There are too many other subjects I like to draw to simply concentrate on flowers but they could provide a lifetime of inspiration and you'd still only capture a fraction of them. Pencil doesn't really do them justice but the photos will be good subjects for practising my watercolours.




















Mark and I went looking for a garden centre on Friday. We should have had visitors this weekend but plans fell through so as the new patio in the back garden is almost finished we used the hire car to stock up on larger plants. It took about 45 minutes to find it because of the bizarre road network. If Mark has trouble finding anything, there is no hope for me! Now we know why at one stage all the cars ahead of us took a short cut through a car park. If drivers need to do that, there is something wrong with the system. It's similar to Kuwait in that the network is like spokes on a wheel, radiating from the centre, but trying to get across the 'spokes' is almost impossible. And because planners want to keep you away from certain areas with one way systems, you end up clogging up roads you don't even want to be on! That Mini Cooper is looking less desirable now, it's so much easier by bus and tram!

Anyway, the photo above shows some of the plants in the front, waiting to be planted and also a topiary tree that Mark has had his eye on - a dolphin jumping through a hoop! He thinks it will look good on the patio by the pool!




















Something I've had my eye on are these larger lavenders. I think it may be called a French lavender, but it is bigger than the ones I've seen before and the shade of the buds is so deep it almost looks blue.




















I just love this shape and the long trailing bits.




















Another new fuchsia! A small hanging basket of pale delicate flowers, in contrast to






















this monster! I lugged this home a couple of weeks ago. It looked fairly big in it's plastic container but when I freed it, it was the biggest hanging plant I'd ever seen. It's about three, maybe four, feet high and wide! It's hanging outside the front door and will probably need shaping, but it has so many huge bursting buds I haven't the heart to do it just yet.

Coming up roses

Well, the roses are doing very well but my laptop is not quite the same even though it is working. I lost all my links so I spent an hour or so yesterday putting them all back. I've lost all my e-mail addresses so if any friends are reading this - do drop me a line! The most irritating though is that I've lost Adobe Photoshop so I can't put any photos or drawings on the blog for the moment. This stripey rose - my favourite - was taken last year but they are out now and looking even bigger and better. Most of my photo folders have gone too but some must have been saved on another drive.


I should be going up the walls, being a computer addict, but I feel surprisingly calm. I should have done some sorting and deleting but now it's been done for me. I feel quite clutter free! And even though I can't show any drawings, I feel I don't need to produce anything for the blog and so can use the time splashing about with the watercolours - my efforts are too basic to show anyway.


There is more good news about the watercolour class though. The teacher is running a class at her studio on Monday's too and due to illness and other things, the class of four is down to one so she asked if I'd like to go along and join in. Did I say yes please, or no thanks? No prizes for guessing! I also, last week, found a partner for sketchcrawling, so, artwise, things are definitely looking rosy!

Temporarily out of action...

My laptop died today and my ESP failed to warn me so I may have lost all my e-mail addresses and blog links along with everything else! Coincidentally Mark's pc is down too (it may be a virus that attacks Windows) so I could be offline for a while. Hope to catch up with everyone very soon!

Tagged

Thanks Lin and Robyn! I've been tagged to write 7 facts/habits about myself which, when I think about it, always reminds me of how boring I am! The last tag was to write about some 'weird' facts and none of mine were really weird at all so I thought this time I would include some of the weird ones that I've only hinted at before.

1. I knew the day before that one of my family was in danger. I rang him up and he was fine. The following day he had a heart attack. (Not the one that killed him, unfortunately I got no warning about that.)

2. Mark called me during the day to tell me his secretary had had a baby boy. In the evening I called the baby by his name but Mark said 'where did you get that from?' it hadn't been named yet and anyway it wasn't going to be an Christian name, it would be a traditional name from his father's country (I'm trying to keep this anonymous!) A few days later he was given the name I said.

3. I met someone who would become a friend at Mark's 40th birthday party. We talked briefly in a group in the kitchen. I saw her again on her own and mentioned about her birthday 'next Wednesday'. She was really shocked as she hadn't told anyone. I thought she had mentioned it in the kitchen but she said she was so depressed about it she was going to keep quiet about it, so she knew that she couldn't have.

4. I can quite often look at a photo and 'know' the person is dead. Wishful thinking gets in the way so it's not always reliable! I test myself when I'm reading the papers, looking at the photos before reading the article.

5. I can tell if things planned for my day are going to happen or not by whether or not I can 'imagine' them. It doesn't matter how much planning or how big or trivial the event, if I can't imagine it or it doesn't feel right it usually (in fact, always, this one is reliable!) doesn't due to something unexpected. One example was when Paul was due to go to his first school, near us in Kent. When I looked at the building I just couldn't see myself dropping him off there. A few months before he was due to start, Mark got the surprise news of our relocation to Dubai.

6. I spent a year, from about the age of 5, living with an aunt and uncle in their hotel in Cork, when my parents moved to London. (Pearce Brosnan had a similar experience, must be an Irish thing!)

7. I was the only student at boarding school with family in another country.


This tagging thing is going like wildfire around EDM so it would take me hours to search for anyone who has been missed out(we are supposed to tag another 7) but I think Annabel may have escaped so I'm going to tag her!

Sunday sketching

I was going to say, I don't normally go out on Sundays (unless it's for a walk) so this sketch is unusual, but then I realised the explanation would seem ridiculous. In short, it's because of government restrictions!

When we first moved in, we thought we had a large boiler and therefore there would be no shortage of hot water. But in the winter it seemed to run out very quickly after we all had our showers. One day last year when we had a visit from a water inspector, Mark asked how to change the timer. We assumed the previous owners didn't need so much as us so they set it for a shorter time to heat. There is a cheaper electricity rate from 10pm until 6am every night and, at that time, a few hours on a Sunday. Recently, the charges went down (yes, indeed!) and the cheap rate was extended to all day Saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, the inspector told us, the timer is set to come on only at cheap rate and it cannot be changed. Since it only comes on during the cheap rate and the government sets the time, the government decides how much hot water we have! Well, since everything is pretty expensive here, like anyone else with any sense, our dishwasher goes on at night and we wash our clothes at the weekends. Hence, I'm usually washing and drying clothes on a Sunday!

So I thought today would be a humdrum washing day as usual but one of the boys had to go to the doctor for a replacement inhaler ahead of P.E. day at school tomorrow. Since all the shops including chemists were closed, I went into town, to Gare Cornivan, the main train station, where there is a chemist and supermarket open. On the way home, it seemed so quiet I thought I'd go to a little bench I spotted just up the road from home and opposite some nice plane trees. It was really good practice, there were only a couple of passers-by and I felt I could relax and get used to the sensation of drawing in public. I was a little too close to this tree and the leaves are starting to shoot now (I prefer the pollarded trees without them) but hey, it's another step forward!

Life drawing and sketches

This week's life drawing is a little different as I concentrated on the model's face.

















The model turned up late so we took it in turns to pose for each other - I'm glad she arrived just before it was my turn! These were very quick, unfinished sketches and I only got the cap of the third but I think they capture something of the subjects and they are quite nice to have.

After doing these it felt natural to concentrate on the model's face. I found myself using an HB so I decided to stay with it rather than having some darker areas drawing attention away. Also, after doing the face and some shading on the body and arm it felt finished but I continued anyway to see if it would look any better. It didn't but no matter, I quite like it. There's nothing wrong with the foot, by the way, it just didn't fit on the scanner!

Afterwards, I took the tram to a shop that the watercolour teacher told me about. I had thought there was only one good art shop but this one had even more! The trouble with the little one is that the staff come out as soon as you enter and expect you to know what you want, but in this larger store you are free to browse. I'm sure every painter has their favourite colours but I went in to buy Cobolt Blue and Van Dyke brown. The first she was surprised I didn't have and the second is one of her favourites I think. She gave me some handy hints about mixing colours so I wanted to have the correct ones while I build up my confidence with them. I saw some Isabey brushes and wasn't too surprised at the prices, I had expected worse, but I bought a second, larger, Raphael mop brush. I'm using the mop brush all the time as it holds a lot of water and has a lovely fine point.

The best thing about this store is they have loads of different papers - not just those dreaded Canson pads! I was pretty good this time but it's nice to know they are they if I should need anything. I have a trip to London planned in a few weeks and I had been wondering how much paper I'd be able to carry without wrecking my back and shoulders!

Whirligig

It took a bit of Googling but I found out these are Osteospurmum Whirligigs. Strange word, whirligig, it sounded cute until I read it used to be an instrument of torture! Anyway, I do like these unusual flowers, spotted yesterday and given a new home.

The name is quite apt though as my mind feels as if it's spinning like a whirligig. Bizarrely perhaps, the more I have to say the less I blog, and the more I think about the restrictions I place on myself and why they came about.

I went to my first watercolour class and it was loads of fun. The teacher was just as nice as she sounded and one of those rare individuals who absolutely loves what she does and really wants to share it. She was bursting with information and I felt like a sponge, wanting to soak it all up but she didn't want to overload me with too much! However, taking the class represents a lot more to me than learning a new skill. The fact that I can enjoy it and have fun is quite a step forward but not feeling I have to prove that this is something worthwhile and purposeful, that's the giant leap.

Carnet de Voyage

Sounds so much nicer than 'travel book' don't you think? You'd never guess from this blog but I have been very productive! There is a lot of talk on EDM about a May challenge to do a drawing a day and it's very frustrating that I can't join in as I have been drawing and painting every day but nothing that I think is worth putting on the blog.



It wasn't worth scanning but I have taken a photo of some sketches I did whilst out and about. The figure at the top is of a 'lollipop lady'. I'm not sure if they are called that anywhere else outside of the UK but she helps the schoolkids to cross the road at lunchtime. I was sitting in the bus and the strange angle of her legs caught my eye.



The one at the bottom was drawn today coming home on the tram. She was sitting right in front of me and her head was at such an angle I could almost she her face but she was oblivious to me, listening to her music. I've been visiting the art shop so often that the staff are getting to know me now so I stuck one of the receipts in too- although I could have used it a bit more artistically perhaps!



I've been practising the watercolours for the last couple of weeks. After reading a post on Wally Torta's blog about his wonderful Schmincke paints I just had to try them and lo! and behold, they sell them here although only in a set, you have to order the individual pans. I have a set of Winsor & Newtons too, which I like, but I think Schmincke has the edge, they seem much creamier and to flow really well. I know nothing about papers so I've been trying out the different types and so far this little Carnet de Voyage by Arches (hot pressed, satin grain) is my favourite. It's really much too nice to ruin it with my messes but I can't help it! I tried a Langton cold pressed fine grain which I didn't like (too much sizing) and my Strathmore cold press bought in Kuwait which is also a lovely paper. Unfortunately the market here is flooded with Canson so the choice is not great.
















I had my camara with me today and passed the Flower Clock - looking much more colourful than it did last year. I like the way they have scattered the numbers randomly.





















The buses and trams are looking good, flying flags for Red Cross Day. I resisted the art shop today but I took this photo outside Branchard, a sort of 'coffee table' stationary shop. Lots of lovely things to buy if not very practical but I did find two small books with a bit of texture in the paper that I thought would be different.




















It's not a great photo, but here it is anyway. Branchard is on the corner of a swanky road lined with expensive boutiques and art galleries. Parc des Bastions is at the end and it's just off the main shopping area in Bel Air so it's way too easy for me to get to!




















It was a dull overcast morning and started to rain as I was coming home. I don't normally go into town in the mornings as it can get busy when the office workers pour out at lunchtime, so wouldn't you know it, the sun came out this afternoon!

Progress (and regression)

This is a flower on my little lemon tree. Everything in the garden has come into flower very early this year- the wisteria has been and gone and now even the roses are in bloom. Mark has finally shaken off his virus but I heard this week of two other 'husbands' with the same bug and a theory that because we didn't have a cold winter perhaps there are more of these bugs thriving. Who knows, but it does seem like global warming is a very real threat now rather than a fanciful scientific theory when you can almost see it with your own eyes!

What with the virus and the migraine, it wasn't the happiest start to the week. I have no drawings to show this week as I've been concentrating on watercolours. I've tried these half heartedly over the years and because I had high expectations, in hindsight I never really gave them a chance. I felt the time was right now to give them a go and applied for a class run at the boys' school. I was told there weren't enough sign-ups for it to start so I was quite surprised today to get a bill in the post. Turns out there were some last minute sign ups but someone forgot to let me know. The good news is though, that I can still join so I rang the teacher to conform and to let her know that I am an absolute beginner and she sounded so helpful and friendly that I can't wait. I've been dabbling for the last couple of weeks and with each day seems to come a new revelation, particularly about what I expect from myself. I started out doing swatches and colour tests and gradually learned to let the mind shut down and simply respond to the colour and just enjoy the process.

As I'm painting I'm reminded of these little paintings I did when I was about 5. I can still remember how it felt to play with the colours and I loved seeing how certain colours looked placed next to others. I don't think anyone mentioned to me that cats and dogs don't have blue ears and I certainly didn't care! It's been so much fun tapping into that feeling again!