a little peep

I have collected many acorns this year, they are plentiful. So I thought I would let you have a little peep at my oak project. I started this zigzag book with found oak leaves way back in January. I planned to add anything I liked. The seasons brought different stages of growth and colours and of course the acorns.

I had quite a collection in my kitchen on a tray on the floor, dropped there as I empty my bag of found items after each walk. This morning when I entered the kitchen I noticed an acorn half way across the floor. It seems my resident mouse has helped himself to most of the acorns. Not only is he living in the house, had several sightings now, but he now thinks I am collecting acorns for his family.

The most amusing part of this story is that I have been painting some acorns gold for Christmas. My mouse has stolen some of my golden acorns, it would make a great story. It really is true, the mouse with the golden acorns.

Hope you like my acorn studies...in paint, pen, ink and whatever I felt like at the time. I really love some of the beautiful old brown leaves, they hold memories of a place and a day we went for a walk.

Thank you so much for the comments.

Fragile Beauty

I was out for a walk on Wednesday. The sky turned dark and a strong wind warned it was about to pour down. I rushed home and ran up the garden path. It started raining, Leaves were blowing off the trees and I caught sight of a brown jagged edged leaf on the ground. My hands were already full of finds. I picked it up to discover it was not a leaf but a butterfly. It resembled a leaf in both shape and colour. Inside the house I placed it on a plate and realised it was wet through and the wings were stuck together. It only had one antenna and it just fell over to one side.

This morning I went into the kitchen and the sun was streaming through the windows and my butterfly was sitting with its wings open in the sunlight. It was damaged and yet it looked so beautiful with the many colours glowing. It was very fragile and the wings are damaged but it made me stop and look. So of course I had to draw it, I found a box of crayons and sat and recorded my find.

Several hours later, here is my little drawing. It has been a long time since I used crayons, today I used mostly Derwent studio, around ten different shades consisting of browns, orange, yellow, blues, a black and a white. My model sat still and just closed and opened the wings once.

Hope you like my little butterfly. Press for close up.

I am having problems with my laptop, strange colours waving across my screen, so hope this works okay. I cannot see the colours accurately.

Press for close up.