New paintings and regular art updates.
Morning glory seedlings growing up in our bathroom. I’m amazed at how many germinated. Usually I only get a handful of seedlings. But this year it was warm for days when I put them in. It was warm for about a week. The packets directions said that they can take a few weeks to grow. Now I’m waiting for it to be properly warm again so I can get them outside. It’s been cool for a couple of weeks with rain and cold winds. But I want them out in the sun, growing gorgeous flowers.
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Today’s Urban sketchers challenge Stoke-on-Trent was ’round the corner’ so I drew the yard looking out of the back door.
The yard is full of hanging baskets and pots as you will have seen on a previous post. I guess I could have gone out and drawn the main road round the corner from my street. But this is a more pleasant view. Hard to draw all the leaves and flowers. You find yourself losing the detail as you draw more of them. I have to bring my mind back and fight against going into autopilot mode. Controlling where the pen moves instead of just scribbling.
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Doing what we always do this time of year. Cram the back yard full of flowers. We have a big patch of land next to the house, but it’s full of trees and shrubs and fruit trees and a couple of small plastic greenhouses with tomatoes. But the back yard is visible from the kitchen and living room and I love a riot of colour. The baskets are mainly from a nursery, but some managed to survive the winter. My hubby even planted an iris in one of the baskets. We’ve put a couple of lilies in the far end so the cat can’t get near them (poisonous to cats).
They will grow and get blousier. It’s amazing that the brackets can hold three baskets in one go. Water the top one and the lower ones get watered too.
I will post more images as they grow.
A few weeks ago, we had so many plants in the boot of the car we had to fit a hanging basket on the back seat. They are all doing well but it’s rained so much since that I haven’t been able to set them up as I would like. I also pulled a shoulder muscle picking them up so I can’t lift my left arm up above my head. It’s frustrating me. It meant my hubby had to reach up to pick the cherry crop while I pulled the branches down. I’m hoping we get some breaks in the weather. Then I can get the stepladders out. Even if I don’t climb them, I can direct where they should go.
The baskets are beautiful, I was told about a farm a few years ago that do baskets for half the price of garden centres. You order in advance and they make up whatever size you want. I chose colourful plants. Sometimes they last into the winter. I even have fushia plants that have over wintered in the yard and are growing again now. And are in full flower! I think our small back yard must have its own microclimate. I have courgette flowers growing there at the moment.
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I tried to zoom in on this goldfinch but the colours are really bad. It’s got a bright red head and yellow flashes on its wings. I tried to enhance the colour and exposure but didn’t get very far. If I try and enhance the red the whole picture goes red. So I can only post these images.
There were also blue tits, house sparrows and blackbirds feeding this morning.
I misidentified it as a zebra finch. It is actually a goldfinch
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Day 32, urban sketchers challenge.
Medium, spectrum noir colouring pencils with a metallic sheen.
This morning when I got up I saw another con trail in the sky, this time horizontal north/south. Then as I started to draw I saw a plane and another con trail cut across the sky, west to east. I could see the tiny plane. I knew I would not be able to do it justice so I left it out.
The next door neighbours back yard beyond the trellis fence is a bit boring. I’m waiting for hanging baskets to hang off the fence and brighten things up.
Back to normal? I don’t think so…..
Day 29, #uskstoke challenge, 17.5.2020.
The prompt was to do a house portrait, so I drew the back yard with lots of pots and hanging baskets. I ran out of energy so it looks neater than it is, there is less foliage than there should be. I used a charcoal pencil to do this, it has a plastic cover around it so you can sharpen it.
I had to start a new sketchbook. And these challenges keep going till day 38! So there are a few more to tackle.
I took a few photos of them this morning. The sun wasn’t shining so I think they don’t look as bright as they could. There’s lobelia, fushia, begonia, surfinia, pelargonium, nemesia and other plants in them. There are other plants in the yard and I’ve taken a photo of the cala lily as well.
Mallaband-Brown