Try, try again

Every year when the Japanese anemones come into flower I want to capture them on paper. Often my attempts are rather stiff and lifeless so instead of picking a flower to paint I had a little plein air session in the garden today. This is still not quite right, but better than previous attempts.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and the air was buzzing with hover flies. I was too busy to get the camera set up but I will share these I took last August.

Unfortunately this year my lilies have succumb to lily beetle and the recent heavy rain finished them off ...

...and the eryngium is very disappointing this year...

but there are plenty of these iridescent green flies flitting around.  

There are still a few swifts around, but they will be off soon. Early in the morning there are a dozen or so young blue tits and great tits at the feeders and occasionally a flock of long-tailed tits passes through the garden. It looks as if I shall be spending the summer at home again so it is great to have an eye for an urban safari. 

News for give-away recipients - all gifts are in the post!

The turning of the year

So it is August. How did that happen? July, been and gone. At least keeping a visual diary like this helps you look back and see what did happen.

Unfortunately I should have kept my mouth shut on my last post about Mr T as the next day he developed an infection and will probably have to return to hospital for some more work. He is on mega antibiotics and a district nurse is calling weekly to change dressings. What a wonderful service they provide - last year they were calling for seven months!! Goodness knows what that would cost if we had to pay. (PLEASE don't let it go on so long this time!!) Meanwhile we are keeping cheerful and busy.

I had an inspiration for my August page when I saw this picture in The Guardian from the Garima Gospel. You can read more about it here.

As I say on my journal page the colours remind me of Italian majolica ware which I love for its association with some great holidays so that was my inspiration for August.

What will August hold?

The summer seems to have peaked early this year. I do hope the brighter weather returns for all those who are forced to take their holidays within the school break. But I have been spending time in the garden this week. Not only tidying up, but doing some drawing. This year I have lots of Rose Campion - Lychnis coronaria. I love the way it brightens up the dullest corners.  I had lost all of mine, but seeds from a friend have brought them back to the borders. Only a process red acrylic ink would be bright enough for this flower.

The pinkest pink in the garden!

There are lost of great seed heads appearing and some leaves are turning red early so here is another composition from my A4 journal.

This is drawn with a waterproof pigment liner pen and coloured with Brusho powder watercolours. I have some jars of mixed up colours and I enjoy using the limited palette, mixing the colours only by layering them, some times dry and sometimes wet in wet. It certainly helps keep the piece loose and lively.

If you have been, thank you for 'listening'. I hope your weekend is turning out well and have a good August.

Come into My Garden

I thought I'd show you what I had been doing in the "Come into my Garden" book I had started at the Frances Pickering workshop, just to show I am not a total flipperty-jibbert and can see an idea through (that is my image of myself, not yours, by-the-way. Well it might be, but you are too polite to say so) .

This double page spread with the little half page, uses one of the vintage  flower labels my sister gave me.

I have been collecting garden and flower quotations.

The flowers are all mine, but the butterflies are customised scanned images from a chart.

I was a bit disappointed with the book to begin with, but it is beginning to take on some character now. I may well add a bit more to some of the pages.

The sun was out this morning so I managed to cut the grass and do a bit of tidying up in the garden, so much nicer than housework!

Hope your week is going well, Jill

Splatter patterns

Since starting to keeping an art journal and making lots of collages on a regular basis my clothes, incuding all this year's tee shirts have aquired interesting spatter patterns mainly from opening bottles of gesso and acrylic paint that have got a bit gummed up - sooooo ....

+

I promised myself I would always wear an apron when doing my art work - so now my clothes have a more exclusive spatter pattern- ( Pics inspired by Cathy's - hope you don't mind)

September

September is an emotive time of year especially for those involved with schools all their lives like me. It has always associated with new beginnings for me, even more than January. Seeing the school children making their way for the new term this morning made me think of new books and sharp pencils and new resolutions for the term ahead.
I conveniently forget the weeks of planning, sorting, ordering stock, relining pinboards for displays and staff-meetings and records, records, records to read and start to fill in.
In the 'old' days I also enjoyed starting the new class register with its red zig-zags and blue 'O' s. I always joked that I only wanted to be a teacher so I could keep a register. I used to make my own from my dad's spare football pool coupons - something else only fellow uk readers of my generation will know (Do they have them any more?). Now the register is computerised and far less romantic.
When I was a school-girl myself, I loved walking to school on September mornings when there was a morning dew.The cobwebs on the front garden shrubs would be magically transformed to diamond necklaces and the air would be scented with chrysanthemums and damp leaves. There was often a early morning chill with the promise of warm sunshine. The leaves would be starting to turn and the pavements were often slippery with berries and ripe fruits shed from overhanging trees. As I generally walked to school by myself I was able to keep in touch with my nature-loving self - not too cool for a young teenager if in the company of her classmates.
This is my second September since retiring - I was looking forward to a glorious Sepember last year, but it did nothing but rain and was gloomy most of the time, so may be this year will be glorious. The leaves seem to be turning early and the blustery weather is putting paid to the apples. They are being blown down before we can pick them and then they get bruised and won't keep.
I found the quote from Alexander Theroux on the internet, and although it does not quite match my sentiments voiced above - there is that whistful feel of summer's done.