Seashore, Butterfly and Hare.

I have had a busy time enjoying a lovely walk along one of my favourite sandy beaches.  I collected lots of beautiful shells and some seaweed and feathers.  I always try not to gather too much but it never works because as soon as I see a pretty shell, well how can I resist it when it looks so small and so lovely.  The trouble is I feel like this about so many of the found objects and so I end up with all of this.

I went for all the lovely blue shells, see how gorgeous they look  as I washed them and arranged them on a plate.  Then I washed my feathers so I could include some in a drawing.

Now to choose,  I take a few shells and the delicate seaweed and make a start sketching them on my paper.

 Then off to my Tai Chi class and back home to sit and paint  for the rest of the afternoon and all evening. Inks, water and paintbrush ready.  It is dark so quickly now we have changed the clocks,  so this is how I spent my evening cosy by the fire with my drawing board balancing on my knee and listening to the radio.

Just enough for one evening and looking nice.
 Next day I  chose some feathers and some more lovely shells and added them to the page.

All finished and a record of my beach walk.  My photograph shows  how the view out to sea is now changing as more and more windmills appear on the horizon.

I really wanted this amazing piece of seaweed in the water,  it was just fascinating and I played with it and arranged the leaves and then photographed it.  The tide had been up and left it stranded in a little pool.  I would have loved to draw it,  but as I always draw from the real object it was a little on the large size to bring home!  You can see some of my tiny shells in the water.

The other day I found something else I would have loved to keep, a perfect butterfly in our garden.  It just sat for so long,  long enough to take some photographs. It sat on my husband's hand,  so well behaved and then off she went, up, up and away.

Now for the Hares.  Last March I went on a book making course and made two different handmade books.  So have I used my new skills?   I knew that I would make a book with my hare drawing on the front.  On Saturday with a whole day to myself  I finally got around to making it.  I was afraid that I would not be able to remember all the instructions but me being me, I had made lots of notes and it all went well and hours later I had my book glued and finished.  I  was adventurous and made my own style with three tapes and larger than the one we made at the course with two tapes.   I am thrilled with my hand stitched "Hare book".

The pages are stitched and ready to glue the front and back in place.

My first ever photo collage.

My beautiful handmade Book with my hare drawings.
 You can buy this Hare Linen fabric at "Peony and Sage".
So there you have my week.  Hope you enjoyed seeing what I have been doing .
Millyx


Thank you for your comments which I always enjoy reading.
Please do not take my drawings,  Please respect my copyright and ownership.

Sunny October Days

 It was love at first sight with this wonderfully coloured Gourd.  I saw it outside a shop and immediately  went inside and bought it.  Sadly it has taken me a while to find the time to draw it but I think I have given it the respect it deserves.  My Dad used to grow these for me, all kinds of fascinating shaped specimens which I could then choose from to draw.

 I sketched it in pencil and then painted it with three colours of my acrylic ink.....Flame red, Yellow ochre and Sap Green.   The red and yellow created all the orange tones.  I used the red to darken the green.   Look at all the different shades on the plate, created by mixing the three colours.

 I used a new brush, Aquafine by Daler Rowney, it was a script liner number 3, it was very nice to use , if not a little hard on my eyes but made lovely fine lines. I also used a sable 3. It was painted in little pockets of time over four days, about twelve hours work. I really enjoyed  drawing this gourd with all the lumps  and bumps, and I loved recording all the detail and texture.

We have been enjoying some beautiful sunny days and each day I have managed to get out and take a walk. For a change we headed up hill and around the lanes in our village. The view above shows our estuary and the railway line which loops right around the shore in a horse shoe shape and then travels up the west coast.

 I like this gate,  it is the entrance to a very steep field.  When we were children we would run down it and it was so steep we could not stop until we reached the bottom.  We used to scream as we ran down, then laugh when we safely reached the bottom.  Sometimes there was a herd of cows and their young calves which chased us! The frisky young calves would  join in  and run after us, we ran even faster, our hearts beating so fast and we screamed louder with fear. So very relieved to climb the next gate and into another safer field where we then laughed louder.  We were great at running on sports day!

 The views to the North of the Lake land hills.

 There were lots of seed heads standing so tall above the stone walls.

 The red berries on the hawthorn trees, once a thick hedgerow now twisted and bent with the elements.

 All the walls are getting old and wobbly,  ferns growing on the top.  All hand built from the local stone which is still quarried in the village.

 The view to the west, showing the opening to the estuary and the open sea where the hundreds of windmills are being erected. The tide is just coming in and will cover all the sand with sea water.  This is where I was last week, see my last post.
Every where looked so fresh and green after lots of rainfall. The rain water drains off the higher ground and the moors, last week this road had water running down each side and it caused some flooding in the village.  Many homes were sand bagged to protect the water from getting into their houses,  lots of stones and debris was carried downhill as the water gathered speed and scattered it along the roads.  The drains struggled to take the volume of water as many rivers swelled and burst their banks and many local roads were flooded.

It has been lovely having the blue sky and sunshine, fine days with  crisp views and now the frosty mornings.  The shore was covered in a blanket of white frost and  looked so pretty.  Hope you are having some nice days. Glad  you visited and  enjoyed the walk with me.  Thank you for the lovely comments which I really appreciate. Photographs of the village by my husband.
See you soon.                                                            Millyx