In the garden

I took the camera out into the garden this morning to capture all that is going on. It seems to be a riot of colour with this wonderful warm sunny weather we're having. This is the wisteria by the front gate.

The clemetis has loads of buds just about to burst open.

Peonies the size of soup bowls. The shiny, metallic green beetles love these and they seem to get intoxicated in the pollen. They're all over the wisteria too but they fly around haphazardly so you have to watch out when going in and out of the gate!

 















In the back garden the pansies are out. We have a few of these - the colour is so intense.


















My favourite, this one is so delicate but only one little plant survived the winter.

A newcomer this year - it reminds me of one of my favourite watercolours, Schmincke's Translucent Orange!

The tulips are all out.

A close-up of the orange ones. Who designed these things?!

Another new one - we bought two large Polygala bushes to put in big pots on the patio. This is a close-up of the small pea-like flowers. It's such an amazing design for something so tiny.

Another little favourite. I can't remember what it's called but it's a ground cover plant and it's tiny flowers are deep red and then change to a very light pink, almost white. I love it when they are dark red but it's still so pretty when it changes too.

The flowers on the chives are really interesting in close-up.

The Aquilegia have gone mad! Such an amazing shape and the leaves too. The leaves look amazing when they start changing colour in the autumn.

Aquilegia without it's petals.

Finally, a lilac - wonderful little cup-like petals!

Comfy platforms

Yes, there is such a thing! I went out this week to look for some comfy sandals - something to replace my old flat sandals with - and came home with these instead! They are probably the highest thing I have but they are so incredibly comfortable. They will go nicely with my white flares. Yep, I'm totally embracing the 70's fashion comeback!

This is another drawing done before getting out of bed - I think it's my take on Julia Cameron's morning pages!

A few sketches...

from my 'random sketches' sketchbook. I picked two faces from a magazine for this one and quite like how the page turned out. I was really tired yesterday and didn't sketch at all so I brought a magazine to bed and drew this this morning before getting up!

This is the reason why my good intentions came to a halt the other day - I got yet another migraine. So I put this sketch in too, of the blister pack. Migraines don't just affect me for the two or three days I get them but it takes a few days afterwards too to start feeling normal again and always interrupts the flow of creativity.

A quick sketch of some sweet peas. I had thought of doing just a pencil sketch and only having the colour samples to indicate the colour but I couldn't resist colouring them too.

My obsession with red and orange leaves has come back with a vengeance! A quick sketch in my small watercolour Moleskine. More of these to come!

New idea for an old sketchbook

I've been aware for some time now that my sketchbooks are getting a bit out of hand - I have loads of sketchbooks for different categories, like TV sketching or tram sketches, and now I can't find anything! They are nearly all unfinished but when I found this one, above, with only one sketch in it from 2009, it gave me an idea. 

Since all these pages are empty, and probably would be for years (it's an inch thick, so has lots of pages!) why not see if I can fill them up with any random thing that inspires me? I'm going to allow myself any medium, any subject, any technique I want but most importantly, they need not be posted to my blogs and be of interest only to me (i.e., not what I think will please).  It sounds simplistic in writing, but it's a little more than that, it's a place to be me.

The drawing that put me off this sketchbook originally was this one, an abortive attempt to draw a building. I'd even put it a few pages in in a vain attempt to not ruin the new book! Anyway, it felt like an appropriate place to put these three colourful leaves, above. They're a failed attempt at a postcard for the Postcard From my Walk exchange - as I do like them, I just didn't like the border I put around them so I cut them out of the page.

The first sketch - I had a couple of Jamie Oliver cookbooks open on the table as I'd been looking for a recipe. (I made 'Crispy and sticky chicken thighs with squashed new potatoes and tomatoes' - it's a fave!)
I was watching a Radiohead concert on TV and drew a mackerel from the book.

Then I thought it would be fun to repeat it and make a pattern. The book is too small to do it and the compositon not right, but it's an idea I've filed away to do again.

A portrait taken from another of his books. It's a combination of the look on his face and the fact that I think he is a visionary that inspired this. Plus, the background colour added a nice contrast to the colours in his skin! I didn't plan either of these, I just let them happen so who knows what will be on the next page!