Waiting for tomorrow night

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An Exhibition of Blue opens at 6pm tomorrow night. I know what I have painted but I can’t wait to see what others have done. I could have sneaked in to take a peek but I want to enjoy the suspense like waiting till Christmas afternoon before you open your presents or looking through an assorted box of chocolates looking for my favourite piece.

There are a lot of exhibitors ranging from glass and light installations to possibly found objects. I know someone has based their art on an old blue and white plate design (with a modern twist), I don’t know how my work will compare but it was a pleasure to work with the organiser to enter a painting to the exhibition.

The excitement is increased because I want to see how different people have interpreted the colour blue.

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Yellow bowl.

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Since I did so many posts about Blue I thought I would write a random poem about yellow. ….

Yellow bowl,

full of custard,

Bananas

Yellow bandana.

Rifle through my brain…

Yellow ochre,

yellow belly,

Lemon yellow.

Polka dot bikini.

Cadmium yellow..

Corn on the cob

Belishia beacon,

Beaches of golden yellow sand,

Yellow wands of willow,

Yellow cotton pillow

case…

Painted yellow face?

Hello yellow jello

no need to bellow…

Yellow….

 

I was going to include an American politician in this but thought  better of it….

 

Willow pattern painting

These are a couple of photos of when I painted a willow pattern plate painting. I did it because I had moved into my studio at spode and I had done a series of paintings of pottery.

I looked at various tiny images of the willow pattern pottery by various manufacturers and selected about 3 plates to do the design from. Sitting holding my phone in one hand with the canvas on a table easle is quite difficult, trying to look at photos about 2 inches Square. I made up the outer border mostly from my imagination.

 

Can’t wait for summer flowers.

Every year I get some hanging baskets from a local nursery. They create beautiful collections of flowers and you can specify what plants you have in them. I love combinations of lobelia, begonias, fushias and pelagoniums amongst others. I’m planning to get out in the garden soon to tidy it up for the spring. The old baskets get recycled and replanted to save some of the cost.

Looking at these sunny colours has bought me a bit of joy in cold January. I hope they have for you too.

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Amaryllis

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I have 4 Amaryllis flowers growing this year. The bulb sends out a long shoot after it starts to grow leaves. This flower spike will grow rapidly as long as it gets plenty of water. There can usually be 1 to 4 flower buds. All my Amaryllis plants have deep red flowers but they do come in other colours.

We got another plant in a deep glass vase which was in flower. Now the flower stem has gone over (died back) but its putting out leaves. I have two more plants that I have kept for years. One still has a long leaf on it from last year. Both are responding to being watered by starting to come into leaf again.

A tip, Amaryllis go dormant for a while from autumn. You need to start watering again mid winter to get them to start to grow. If you need to repot them only go up one size. They like to be quite tight in their pots. Use a good house compost, maybe a bit sandy to stop them getting waterlogged. Then sit back and enjoy the amazing flowers.

Reds

Something about red cheers me up, going bright red, seeing a red sky, the glowing coals on a fire. The cherry red of a poker?

Red seems to signify heat and health, richness and cheerfulness. Go further along the spectrum and you get to infrared and far infrared. These colours outside of the visible spectrum can still be seen with infrared cameras, where you can then see the heat signature of objects like the heat radiating from windows and hot mugs.

Red is also the colour of life and blood. Of holding your hands up to bright light and seeing the red colour as it shines through your flesh. Red is love and hearts 💕

Black star ceramics

My husband treated me to a couple of lovely pots today from a pottery called black star ceramics. They specialise in beautiful gkazed pottery and the colours can be spectacular.  I particularly like the red and yellow ones.

I know they sell the pots at Spode but I think they also sell at the Wedgwood makers market that is on the first Saturday of the month. This is out at the wedgwood factory near Barlaston, Staffordshire  I think they also sell at other markets but I’m not sure where.