Nature does it better

I picked this green ivy leaf one day and added the drawing to my square book. It was the curling stem and the patterns of the veins that I wanted to capture. We have ivy growing on the walls in our garden and it attracts birds and insects alike. I like to cut long strands to decorate the house at Christmas, we have done this all my life.

When it has rained we get soaked as we brush past it on the path to our house but it has so many advantages. We had a Blackbirds nest amongst it and the birds love it. It seems to attract Moths and bees, spiders build their webs in it and the snails hide amongst it.

The other thing I love is the way the leaves age into these beautiful skeletons. They look like the most delicate pieces of lace, nature does it better than us.

My brown leaf is in pencil and Derwent artist coloured pencils, the green one is in acrylic inks. Hope you like them.

My Favourite Flower

This is my favourite flower. Today as the sun shone the beautiful chequered flowers started to open and really show their colours and patterns. It is the Snakehead Fritillary.

Each Autumn I plant some more of the tiny white bulbs in my garden. I always feel excited as I wait each April to see them flower.
I think it is such a lovely shaped flower, so delicate, elegant and beautifully patterned. The tall slim stems with thin leaves which create elegant shapes too. I watch them as they grow and try to capture their beauty as I draw them. There is a black and white ink drawing in my side bar. This one is drawn using pencil. It is a life size drawing as the real specimen shows.
Watch this space as I expect there will be many more drawings of my favourite flower. I have planted hundreds and this is just one of the first to flower.
Hope you like it. You can press picture for close up, and then press anywhere on the image for a zoom up of image.

Beware, this can happen

Today I went to a blog to say thank you for visiting and leaving me a comment. This is what I saw, the picture below. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind, this was my dragonfly. I know my own work. I knew this was my dragonfly even though it has glittery bits sprinkled over it and with this background. I think it has probably been cut out, then stuck onto the background.
So I left a comment. I said did she think I would not recognise my own work. Then I said how I shared my work and was happy it inspired others but I trusted other people not to steal it.

I told her it made me sad to have to write this.

Yes I do post my work here for the whole world to see.

I will continue to post my work here.

It is a beautiful dragonfly BUT it isn't so beautiful when it is just taken.

So what more is there to say, she knows she did it, passed it off as her own.

At least she has me in her side bar, under inspirational blogs !

There I got that off my chest, thanks for listening.

Honesty

I couldn't resist collecting some oak leaves from under the old oak tree in the village. It is probably the last, as they are now very thin and brittle, most of them were broken and crumbling. Soon the new buds will burst and new green oak leaves will appear. When I reached home I was too busy to even look at this leaf until late evening, it had then started to curl up in the heat. I sketched it and painted over two days. I have been wanting to draw the honesty seed heads for weeks so I decided to add them to the oak leaf. I found this lovely brown and cream piece of china in the stream and thought it would go well with the leaf too.

I have been busy as we are decorating, and it will be worth it as I am changing my daughters old bedroom into a room for me. A room to be creative in, sew and draw and paint. I usually just sit in the living room by the window. I draw with my book on a board resting on my knee. My clutter close to hand, pencils, paints, sketch books and of course specimens. It will be good to have the new room and my things all together and tidy. And a table by the window.

I am always busy, but lately I really haven't had much time for blogging, reading and visiting others. I am always thrilled to find your comments, so I do want to thank you for giving your time to visit and leave me comments.

Hope you like today's new page in the square book, I have left the honesty and china for you to see. Painted in acrylic paint, press for close up.

Little Shoots

We went for a ride out and ended up at Kendal. I didn't feel like shops so we walked the footpath by the river. A sandwich and cup of tea from the kiosk and we sat by the river watching the seagulls fly around hoping for some scraps. Ducks swam around on the river, pigeons and starlings walk around the seats looking for any left overs. It was good to sit in the fresh air and watch. We wandered along to a little park and enjoyed the little stroll looking at the allotments just over the fence, some gardening activity and chatting by the owners. The trees were bare and the grass looked wet and muddy, the park seats looked damp. So we just wandered until I stopped to look up at a really large tree with huge spreading branches. It was a beautiful old tree, no leaves to give a clue of what it was. Then I saw the seeds on the grass, so went to collect some. They were a really large version of the "helicopter" seeds, with a flattish end. They all seemed to be standing up right, then as I picked them up I realised why. Tiny green shoots were rooting into the soil and making them all stand up. I collected lots to bring home and draw. I examined them at home, realising the end was split open to allow the green shoot to grow. As I tugged at the shoot, out fell the seed. Two seeds from one of the largest, shaped to fit together...in the middle of the page. It is really fascinating to think this huge tree started off as one of these little seeds. I will check back when the leaves appear to try and identify it, seems to belong to the Maples looking at my tree book.

Thank you for the lovely comments, I am feeling better. I have been painting the seeds with acrylic paint and my trusty number 6 sable brush, another page in my square book. Hope you like them. It snowed today, lightning and hail yesterday, poor spring flowers are getting a battering.

Slow Pace

Life has been rather slow lately. I have had a really rotten cold and my head has felt like it didn't belong to me. I have been forced to slow down and just let it run its course. I haven't been feeling myself all week and not able to draw or even read blogs.
I felt like I was a snail, slowly moving around feeling very delicate, curling up on the sofa with my pounding head. I will spare you all the details ! When I finally woke up Friday morning and I could breath, didn't need the box of tissues, could bend my head forwards...it felt like bliss.
I really missed not drawing. I sat and looked through a few of my sketchbooks and old drawings. Then I found this snail I did with black ink pens and thought that is how I feel. It was done a while ago. As the temperature warms up the snails that are hibernating in the cracks in the wall, in plantpots and in the hedges will all wake up. I like seeing them in the garden, watching them move around, walking up the walls, hanging over the edges of the plantpots and even creeping into my kitchen. As you know I like collecting and drawing their empty shells.
Hope you like it.

Whats Yours?

Something different today, just a little piece of nature and some of my found treasures. Everywhere I go I scan the ground, noticing things, picking up objects and bringing them home. I call them my treasures. The other day I was balancing on large stones in a stream fishing out pieces of china from the freezing cold water, for the thrill of finding a lovely blue and white piece, or some other intricate pattern. I always seem to arrive home with a pocket full of my finds.
A treasured possession is an old rusty key that I found many years ago. This similar one was found in a second hand shop. I am definitely one of life's collectors, and keys are one of my favourite things.
Then the dresser in my kitchen is covered in old china, items collected over thirty years, second hand pieces chosen for their pattern or shape. I don't mind if they are chipped or cracked. I fill an old chipped jug with flowers and to me it looks beautiful. I love old china, so finding old pieces of sea washed, river washed or buried broken pottery gives me a thrill. Just last week I found lots of pieces in the garden at an old derelict house in the village.
This little blue and white piece painted on the tag was one of them, a great find, as it has a pattern on both sides.
They are little fragments of a time gone by, each one unique. I like to include them as part of a painting with natural objects. You will find examples in the side bar.
I painted on the tag and the larger key is on dark brown card.
Would you like the tag.....I am going to give it away.
Tell me what is your idea of "a treasure".
Leave a comment and I will give the tag to the winner.
I will pick the winner next Sunday 21st March 2010.
The WINNER is Pomona. She will receive the painted tag.
Thank you for your lovely comments, I enjoyed reading them all.
I will have another give away soon.

Mystery tracks

We have been lucky to have experienced some lovely bright sunny days. The sky so blue and the perfect days for walking. It is still cold and things seem to be on hold, nothing much is growing along the hedgerows. The snowdrops are everywhere and the village churchyard is beautiful with a carpet of snowdrops and blue crocus.
I have been out walking most days. I find a few sycamore seeds and oak leaves to add to my on going projects. Then I see lots of empty snail shells in the bare hedges. I like the lovely pale blue shades, as they have changed from their brown colour over the winter. How many other people have a bowl of snail shells on their kitchen sink that have just been washed!
I saw this branch, on the long thorny briers of the Blackberry brambles. It has the white tracks of some insect, I am not sure what makes it. It caught my eye and so It came home with me. Just as we were near home I stopped to look at my favourite Hawthorn. This tree is where I collect most of my red berries. It was bare, no leaves but the new tiny red buds are appearing. Green lichen is growing on lots of the branches and it is interesting to see the twisted shapes of the bare tree. Then I spotted some berries, they now appear in my drawing with the three leaves.
Another page in my square book, painted in Acrylic paint. I even managed to pick a little of the green lichen. Hope you like it.

February Tideline

Yesterday I went for a walk on the shore. It was the most beautiful day with sunshine and a blue sky. So I decided rather than explain it I have posted a photograph. I cross the railway bridge, through the gate and step on to this shore. I look out of my bedroom window every morning at this wonderful view. Some days it is grey and stormy and I can't see the hills. Today a large tide is due and all the grass will be covered in sea water, the shore flooded until the tide turns and reveals the land again. It is always changing with the different weather.

Yesterday was so cold with a biting wind, the snow clinging to the hills in the distance. I walked for over an hour, felt the sun but mostly the wind on my face. Along the tide line I collected some oak leaves, the salty water turns them a bluey black colour. There was a lot of seaweed brought up with the high tide. A great find was the Mermaids purse with its long tangled threads, it deserves a more detailed drawing all by itself. I found a few duck feathers with lovely markings blowing about.

It was the little fat bubbly strands of seaweed that ended up in my drawing with a strange greeny grey holly leaf, a feather and the mermaids purse. I sat for hours last night painting them in acrylic paints, using yellow ochre, red, blue, brown and white to mix the colours. I love being down on the shore, the estuary surrounded by the hills, seeing the birds and collecting bits and pieces to draw. Another page in my square book. Hope you like it.

Press the photograph of the shore, see what I see.