You already know I love Red

I bought the red currants, they were at the supermarket and under the lights they just glowed so shiny like little fairy lights. It was a while before I got to draw them and paint them. On that same morning I was met by the spider sitting in my bath. It was placed in a jam jar and heading for the back door, until I decided I wouldn't throw him out just yet. You guessed he ended up in the drawing, then later free to go in the garden.

You know I love red berries. I sat in the sunlight in the kitchen and recorded them with red acrylic paint and a number one brush. It took hours but I like the result. Behind me is a lovely pot of three currant jam home made by my friend. She used red, white and black currants picked in her orchard in Wales. It is also a shiny red jam and I know it will taste so good.

As for the huge spider he went free to be replaced the same evening by an enormous one crawling up our stairs...didn't fancy that one..husband dealt with that. And last night we discovered we have a little mouse in the spare bedroom at 4 am...and still not been caught! Thank you for your lovely comments, it is always a pleasure to find them.

Hope you like the red currants. Press for large view. Millyx

Little things

I had just finished a drawing and had lots of acrylic ink left on my plate. Looking around for something small I could draw to quickly use it up. The tiny striped feather was sticking out of the pages of my square book, found on the beach walk and placed between the pages for safe keeping. I quickly recorded the delicate shape and pale coloured pattern. Still more ink to use I decided to find a few other objects. That was easy, small objects fill dishes all over my house after I empty my pockets of newly gleamed finds, and there they stay until maybe one day they are chosen.

And so a feather, an oak leaf, an acorn, a sycamore and that looks quite pretty. I walk around the garden to stretch my legs and collect a red berry, a blackberry and a piece of seaweed, just to use the ink up, but now I need some new red ink for the berry. My eyes are fixed on the jug full of striped feathers and I know I must draw some of them soon, they are so lovely. I collected each one because, well because I couldn't leave them, each one a different shape and colouring and to me so beautiful. It always seems so hard to choose between them and leave them behind and when I brought them home I promised to draw them.

So I chose one, added it to the little things that were just to use up the ink. How things lead to others. Well I like little things and the feather I chose. Hope you do too.

Spotty Leaves

I thought I would show you a series of drawings to show the development of the two spotty leaves. I used acrylic paints and wanted to capture the fresh greens of the sycamore leaves which I picked off the tree.

First my pencil sketch and using a mix of green, yellow and brown paint I added the colours. Then the progress as I painted to the end result with the shadows. Another page in my square book. This was completed in around 6 hours.

Yesterday we had a beach walk and I collected some pieces of freshly washed up seaweed and feathers and shells. I hope to find time today to record something as a reminder of the beautiful sunny day, because today is grey and stormy and very windy making the sea rough and angry looking. So I am off to sort out my salty sea smelling bag!

Hope you like the two spotty leaves. Press for close ups.

Thank you for your comments about the Butterfly Sheet. Millyx

Festival of Quilts NEC ....My Butterfly Sheet

Photographed before I posted it.

I went to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham NEC on Thursday. It was a lovely day, so much to see and be inspired by. The Quilts were amazing, so much variety and colour and skill.

Then there was my own quilt. I made it by hand printing the butterflies with rubber stamps and fabric paints. I used an old recycled white sheet, added the original label and kept the actual top and sides showing, see the fine yellowy woven stripe in the weave. This was the first time I had ever been to this huge show or entered a quilt. The quilt was pure fun to make, mixing up the fabric paints and printing the images and seeing the sea of butterflies appear on the huge white sheet. It was like starting a drawing, every mark and shape and colour was made by me. I had fun with my new sewing machine and used lots of coloured cottons to embroider the grass at the bottom and the tiny circles of colour. I spent hours hand quilting the grid pattern, which you can see on the back of the quilt. I loved the finished result, making it and achieving this beautiful coloured quilt.

It was exciting to see it hanging at the show, although it seemed to be a little crushed, hadn't travelled too well as a parcel. The backboard was white so my vintage white sheet appeared a little dull , even grey. It wasn't lit too well down the display aisles and the colours didn't glow like at home in my sunny room. But I saw so many people stop and look, go nearer for a closer inspection and many even took lots of photographs......already seen two on Flickr. It was my intention to share my quilt and to hopefully inspire others, so I hope it did. It was a simple idea inspired by collections of butterflies and colours. I like simple. Drawings from Nature is all about seeing beauty in nature in ordinary simple natural objects. Hope you enjoy looking more closely.

As this is my100th blog. Guess how many butterflies are printed on my quilt. The nearest will win a prize, something butterfly related. I don't know the answer myself yet as I will count them when the quilt arrives home, in a week or so. Millyx The answer after a double count is 777 and as Teresa guessed 778 she certainly deserves to win.

Beach collecting

Last Thursday we went for a walk on one of the local beaches. This one is fifteen minutes by car from my village. It has a long sandy beach and sand dunes, now owned by the National Trust. The tide was coming in and although the sky looks stormy it was a beautiful bright day. I love it here and take along a bag to collect beach treasures. We walked for over an hour and on our return this photograph shows the tide line on the right where the sea water reached, covering this huge sandy estuary.
The sea washes up hundreds of little shells and sea weed. It was like a "pick and mix" version of
the sweet shop, so many to choose. I arrived home with shells, seaweed, feathers, a mermaids purse, rope and a sycamore seed. On Sunday I sorted and washed them all. This is what I selected for my page. I decided to use my acrylic inks, exploring the colour mixes, as I sat on a cushion outside in the sunshine. After about four hours, a huge red insect bite, an overturned water, ink drying too quickly, a lovely ice cream.......this was the result. Hope you like it.
Thank you for your lovely comments. My next blog is my 100th.....a giveaway coming.

So Delicate

I collected these little seeds after a very windy night. They were scattered across the road. As I picked them up I slipped them into my bag and I didn't think they would make it home in one piece. To my surprise they survived intact. They are very tiny and have such delicate stems, like young children not yet fully formed, and yet a miniature replicate of their adult. They will never grow any more but it means I can admire their beauty at this stage.
As I drew them I was influenced to make such fine lines, to use soft watery colours and paint with a slow and careful manner. I just wanted to capture the tiny fragile shapes exactly as I saw them scattered on the ground. It is a simple little page in my square book but to me a very beautiful page.
Hope you like it too.

The paints are out again!

It seems to have rained and rained for days now. It was sunny yesterday so I grabbed the chance to go for a walk down on the shore. It was wonderful to see blue sky and the sunshine twinkling on the water. I collected some beautiful feathers and this twin sycamore seed in the tide line. I came home with a real urge to draw. I intended to draw some of the feathers but the berries in the jar with the slowly rotting stalk had to be first in the queue.
I picked it on Monday from my sisters garden. It had green berries then, which changed to orange during the week. Since yesterday, as you can see in the photograph, the stalk has turned to a soft slime!
It has been a while since I have had my paints out so it was lovely to sit and paint again. It took me five hours to complete this page in my square book. I chose a piece of china with orangey markings and added the new sycamore too. I used acrylic paints, two different yellows, green and red to mix the colours for the berries. Then I added blue and white with the other colours to paint the china and seed. Also a little touch of gold paint on the china, it must have been something beautiful in its day. Hope you like it. Press picture to see it larger.
My husband has just arrived home with a tiny Magpie moth he found on the road.....a gift for me ....so I am about to draw it now. I will be back soon with the results.
Once again thank you all for your lovely comments which I do appreciate and love reading.
Millyx

From this to this

Each year I pick one of the amazing shaped "Lords and Ladies ", the green specimen on the left. I want to record it but more often than not it just gets left and wilts and another year slips by. Well not this year, I picked it in May at the bluebell wood and managed to do this drawing. It was so large, I wanted to record it life size, so I placed it diagonal to fit my page in the square book. I then left it in a jar outside and to my surprise it kept alive and changed into the next stage of the plant.

It is always hard to imagine that it eventually ends up with bright red berries at the end of a green stalk. This I have recorded many times, so it was easy to show you that. What really amazed me is that the minute yellow seeds grew and formed the berries ....whilst outside in a jam jar.

When I returned home in June I discovered it still alive and was able to draw the green berries. Now in July it still lives and bears green and orange berries. The stem has rotted away to nothing but the berries are still changing from green to red. In the hedgerows the red berries usually appear late summer, August to September. I will be interested to see if they change to full red and see how long it lives. Hope this makes sense to you. I am fascinated by such things.

Thank you for lovely comments. I am stitching like crazy to finish my quilt for the dead line and the days are flying by, will soon have more time for reading and visiting blogs.

Lovely Memories

I am home after a really nice holiday in Madeira. It was so nice to return to the island as it triggered so many memories as we stayed here for ten weeks back in 2004. It was a time when I did many drawings and paintings, little objects each day. The picture shows many of the little shells I found on the sandy beach near us. The two lovely shells I bought in Madeira were later made into one of my art cards. This was part of a display of some of my shell collection from when I had my exhibition. They always remind me of Madeira.

Lots of beautiful things inspired me as we looked around the museums and galleries. The colours of fruit and vegetables and the flowers at the market. Tables piled high with freshly picked cherries and strawberries been sold on the corner of the street.

A tropical garden, incredibly beautiful churches, tiles, Mosaic patterned streets, to name a few of the images fixed in my memory. The Firework displays over the harbour, as young and old all joined in to watch, were magical. Everyone makes you feel so welcome, it is relaxing place and now back home I feel very refreshed and inspired.

I was pleased to read all the comments while I have been away. Thank you.