Walking in the sand

On Monday we went for a walk along one of our local sandy beaches. The tide was out, so it was one vast expanse of sand. We walked for about one hour exploring the tide line and seeing how the weather and sea had changed the shape of the beach and sand dunes. We explored the little Limestone outcrop before returning .
It took longer than the hour as I stopped to collect more oak leaves and pieces of blue china from the debris that littered the sandy beach. The interesting objects that the sea had gathered here could easily fill my sketch book, but I just selected the objects that I wanted to draw. From all the many tiny shells, I chose this blue striped one to match the blue tones in the sea washed oak leaves and my piece of blue pottery.
It is now another page in my square book, painted in acrylic paints, my palette of blue, brown, yellow ochre and white using my number 6 sable brush. Grains of sand dropped on my page from the objects. I love how everything always looks so beautiful in the sand on the beach.

Page Three

I had a new smart black 10 inch square sketch book. I like the shape and the size of my new book. What will I draw in it? Somehow it seemed the right shape for my first drawing of this year, then I used it for the sycamore leaf and branch and here is page three. The paper is a little thin and someone spied the image of the red berries showing through.
This busy little arrangement feels so me, my red berries collected in the snow under the Hawthorne tree. The little leaves which seem to dance in a line and and an empty snail shell. They are objects that I have seen all my life, I know the time of the year by the state of the berries and their colour. The patterns of the little leaves scattered on the ground in autumn, I notice them on my walks just as I did as a child.
Why do we draw what we draw? I read somewhere, "Draw what excites you, what gives you joy." I draw the things I know, each year I see them but they still give me joy when I find them. They remind me of where I live, who I am, where I belong.
My drawings are like a diary, a calendar, a record of walks and people and places.
A new year to capture, so "Page three" of my square book it is.
It is painted in acrylic paint, my palette of red, blue, brown, yellow ochre and a little white in the snail shell. They are simple things but to me very beautiful objects. Hope you like them too.
Thought you might like to see a few of the real specimens.

Trapped in the ice

I went for a walk in the snow. The roads were very slippery. Everywhere was white except for the dark shapes of trees and stone walls. Even the little rivers and streams were frozen. It all looked so pretty, we don't see this snow scene very often.
I kept finding the tiny dark sycamore helicopters in the snow. Then a dark leaf covered in the black spots, it was trapped under the ice. I carried the piece of ice with my leaf and brought it home to draw. The little branch with three doubles came home too. My little drawing was painted with acrylic inks.
I also found some red berries but they are featuring in another drawing soon.
Thank you for the lovely comments.

My First Drawing this Year

On the first day of the year I went for a walk on the frosty shore and admired the beautiful scenery, the snow capped Lakeland hills. I kept seeing images of oak leaves trapped under the ice. My eyes constantly scanning for the objects washed up by the sea in the tide line. I saw plastic objects, glass bottles, assorted balls, drink cans, metal objects and lighters littering the shore.
Of more interest to me, a huge tangle of natural objects clung to the wire fences separating the grassy shore from the fields. I was not alone, a crowd of young bullocks pushed and shoved against the fence for the best view, curious to see me poking amongst the debris. They followed me as I examined and picked through this giant fishing net for interesting finds. It possessed seaweeds, shells, mermaids purses, a birds skull, feathers, acorns, leaves, berries, a fir cone and many lovely oak leaves, all tangled up with grasses and string. More objects trapped in the ice, gave some fascinating patterns, but I had no camera with me.
It was a bitterly cold day, but very inspiring and reminded me how much I love this place. I have sorted through some of the bits I collected that day, put them together in this drawing together with the fragments of pottery I have found. It will always remind me of that day, the blue sky and my bag of odds and ends found on the frosty shore. Hope you like it. It is painted with acrylic inks and a paintbrush.

The Seeds of Time

I love all the different seed heads in all their amazing shapes. Nature is the designer, tiny seeds held in little pockets and beautiful intricate designs just waiting to fly or sprinkle or blow on the wind. My pencil drawings were done a while ago and the seeds collected from the Snakehead fritillary.
I think a blog is just like Seed dispersal as it spreads and then grows, read by people all over the world, seeds scattered to far corners of the globe. So to everyone who reads this I wish you the very best and "A HAPPY NEW YEAR". And thank you for all the lovely comments you leave me, they are appreciated.
I would love to hear from you and how far my little blog has reached.
It is a beautiful sunny bright day, snow on the hills and very chilly. I am just going for my first walk in this new year 2010, to see what I find, then maybe some drawing.
Millyx

Fragile Oak and Fern

It is really cold and frosty. I went for a walk and under the giant oak tree I saw all the oak leaves pale and flattened, thin and fragile in shades of creamy yellow ochre. Some of them so thin and fragile they remind me of tissue paper. The fern is the colour of raw umber, stands alone in the empty banks of the hedgerow.
This year I only found a single acorn under this giant tree. I was puzzled as I always find them here each year. Maybe when I went searching I was too late, Or, as my husband suggested, Did the squirrels collect them all early because they knew it was going to be a cold winter. I don't have the answer, but it is certainly very, very cold and the snow is here.
Anyway this little drawing was done from specimens I collected last year. The many different interesting shaped acorns, their little cups, some oak leaves and a little fragile piece of Fern.
I have used my Derwent coloured pencils, colour soft or artist. The colours remind me of this time of year and a walk on a frosty day.

Carolina shells

As promised I am posting the drawing of shells I completed for Carolina. She was the one who won my give away, and she requested shells. I posted "the original", all the way to Peru and nearly three weeks later Carolina left a comment to tell me it had arrived safely, three minutes earlier. I think it is fair to say she seemed very pleased with her prize.
Also, I now know these shells are called "Haitian tree snail shells", thanks to another blogger telling me. So I googled them and discovered they are also known as "candy striped" and "rainbow" shells. It was the lovely coloured stripes which attracted me to buy them from the craft shop.
They have been painted in their true colours, I matched them as near as possible for both colours and patterns. They are so lovely, a joy to draw and paint.
So now somewhere in Peru, one of my original drawings is giving pleasure to someone else, that is a really nice thought.

Red Berries all in a row

I love red berries and they are always popping up in my drawings. When I am out for a walk it is impossible to pass them without picking a little bunch. Sometimes they are recorded, but if I am not quick they soon lose their glossy skins with the heat indoors. Sometimes they are the star of a picture, as they just seem to add the finishing touches to a little arrangement of leaves or shells. Then I always throw them outside for the birds to find.
When I bought this Moleskine zigzag book I knew it had to be full of red berries. I started it last Autumn and returned to add more to it this year. It is a little hard to photograph, because of the long shape, so I am posting several little sections. I quite like the way you just see little glimpses of different pages. The berries are Hawthorn and rosehips from the hedgerows. Some have been coloured using acrylic ink, some with acrylic paint and then there are a couple of pencil studies. I think it might look nice spread out as a Christmas decoration. I have started a second zigzag book of sycamore helicopter seeds. Hope you like the red berries all in a row.

Shells by candlelight

It was such a wild stormy night over the weekend. The lights were flickering and we thought we might lose our electricity, one part of the village did last week. So I lit candles and put one next to me as I was drawing. I was only playing, seeing what the shells would look like on the brown tags.
I painted them in acrylic paint, which was a little thick and didn't spread too well on this "new" paper. So I just carried on, not seeing too well, paint not mixed too well and colour matching by candlelight. It gave me a sense of what it must have been like years ago, writing and drawing in the evening.
So three painted tags, I could improve them but decided to leave them, they are what they are....painted by candlelight. Press for close up.
Thank you for the lovely comments, it is so nice to read them.