New paintings and regular art updates.
Snowdrops and Crocuses
Then Daffodils and Iris
Helibores and Hyacinth
Grape Hyacinths too…
Slowly the Tulips
Spread their petals
While perennials lift
Their sleepy heads
From the soil.
As rain falls
And air warms
The Magnolia
Opens its petals
And Cherry blossom
Blooms…
I keep finding old photos of my drawings over the last few months. This was day 25 of our Urban Sketchers challenge to draw pictures in lockdown. Over the months I’ve had more drawing practice than I had for several years before.
I notice the tricycle, that had to have new back wheels one of the old ones collapsed and the other one was almost rusted through. And the copper coloured windmill that fell apart in a heavy wind!
The blossom was pink and white cherry and pear blossom. Billowing and beautiful, we had abundant fruit this year. Only five or six months to wait before it comes back.
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This popped up on my Facebook memories from a couple of years ago. Winter blossom shows a face in profile hidden in the twisted branches. The idea of the tree is based on a tree across the road from us that actually blossoms in December. It’s just coming into flower now. But clearly my idea is a bit more abstract and surreal. I did the painting and it sold at an Orme Art exhibition in the November, where my friend had fallen in love with it.
Spring, sprung
Six months ago
Remember the blossom
The cherries that followed
Apples and pears
All out there
Hope reigns that it will come again.
Springing up from cold earth
Bitter rain
Chilling frosts.
Hope springs eternal….
Blossom on the trees turned into leaves and a wonderful crop of cherries.
We also have a lot of pears growing and a few apples. The elderberry Bush is starting to fill with fruit and the blackberries are ripening on their bushes. The only thing I miss is gooseberries. My hubby has eaten them all fresh off the plant!
Yes spring was good this year. Good to think of something other than a virus!
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The sky, bright blue.
Clouds of cherry blossom
float above the ground,
tied down to branches,
so they don’t soar up,
creating pink and white billows,
high up in the cerulean sky.
Blossoming petals,
snowing down in the breeze,
landing on soil and paths,
scattered by the breeze.
Cotton candy flowers,
nourishing the bees.
As I sit quietly at home I’ve realised how good the weather has been, and how much blossom is on the cherry and pear trees. And then, my friends have all been posting photos of blossom near them. Clouds of pink and white.
I will try and get a photo against a blue sky, but I just wanted to share this. The bees have been buzzing so they are happy.
I was thinking how the blossom comes out before the leaves. Is that to make it easier for insects to pollinate the flowers?
Now we need rain, it’s been dry for most of the month. Without it the farmers, who are struggling with lack of workers, will struggle even more. Time will tell…. Cherry’s and pears will ripen, hopefully.
In the meantime the Russian vine we planted a few years ago has started taking over a couple of parts of the garden. It ‘rushes’ along, growing fast, and wrapping itself around everything. My arms hurt after spending a couple of hours trying to cut it back.
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This is what I was trying to draw. As you can see it’s very complicated. Lots of trees and branches.
Behind me when I took this photo are two greenhouses with green plastic covers, ones got tomatoes in it, the other is waiting for tomato plants that my friend says she will drop off over our gate when they are ready to plant out.
The weather is set to turn, it has been warm and sunny, but the wind whipped up this evening and you could feel the temperature starting to fall.
I took these photos of cherry and pear blossom. As you can see the sky was starting to darken. There have been reports on the weather forecast of thunderstorms nearby. It certainly was getting windy, I hope some of the blossom gets pollenated before it blows away. And then there was a warning of Frost!
Day 25, urban sketchers challenge. Suddenly the blossom has burst in the garden, where there were buds a couple of days ago, now tiny pinky white flowers are sprouting out of the branches and twigs. I’ve seen and heard a very loud bumble bee, and also worker bees and hover flies. Hopefully they will do their job of pollinating the blossom and we will have cherries and pears and plums as the summer progresses.
The garden was hard to draw because of all the details. I can get the branches approximately right, then adding leaves and blossom complicates things. Distinguishing between leaf shapes and colours for instance.
I used two thicknesses of black unipin pens, fine line water and fade proof pigment ink (0.5 and 0.8). I also used a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen black 199*** S size. Then I shaded in with a 3B graphite pencil and a charcoal pencil. I would have liked to add some dabs of colour, but I think the overall effect is quite good. I’ve taken a picture and used a black and white filter because I took the photo under electric light and one corner, a bit turned up, was reflecting back quite a bright yellow.
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Never seen so many pears on our pear tree! This year there are over fifty. Sometimes the flowers don’t get pollinated, get caught by a late frost. Or it’s to hot and dry in the summer for them to grow. Sometimes we get too much rain and they swell up too quickly and split. Last year a lot got blown off in June. The tree leans over so we propped it up this year to stop it getting twisted by the wind. Perhaps that’s why we have a bigger crop. Anyway fingers crossed for a bumper harvest. X
