New paintings and regular art updates.
I think this might be finished but I’m waiting for daylight to check the colours. I might tone down the white and I may add some blue tones to make it feel like the sky is being reflected in it. The poppy was real, but I took this from a painting I did of a photo so I might look at some images of poppies.
Nasturtiums sprawling in the back yard. They are in our front hedge too. There are flowers six foot up in the air. You can tell its nasturtiums because of the shape of their leaves, sort of like umbrellas. The leaves, as you can see, are sometimes variegated. The colours vary from pale cream to deep red. I’ve never seen a blue or purple one? Maybe they will do some genetic modification to change that? At the end of summer they are something cheerful to look at.
The back yard looks very green now. The flowers are going and there is some wilting, but temperatures have stayed reasonable so there isn’t any frost damage yet. I suppose we will have to compost the plants if it gets really cold, but I’m one of those gardeners that keeps going as long as possible. Successes are the fushias which have woody stems, also the begonia that is in the shelter of the wall. A few lobelia remain and the nasturtiums hubby planted into the old brick wall are trailing everywhere!
Hard work, but I think it was worth it. I think some of my paintings are like knitting or embroidery, pulling all the threads together to bring it to a finished piece. And sometimes it’s knowing where to stop, to feel satisfied. Sometimes my hubby says I overwork things, but I think I know where I am with this. I decided not to add any bees or butterflies, I think that would just distract.
Poppies and other flowers, I started painting this a few days ago and am trying to make progress. The flowers and tangle of vegetation is based on a photo I took at Trentham Gardens this summer. I hope it can be a meditative piece for a quiet room at the gallery which I have work in. I’m going to press on with this, it’s keeping my mind off things.
I’ve started working on a painting of flowers in a meadow. I am not including the sky, I just want to concentrate on the flowers. I’m afraid I don’t know the names of all of them. I want the image to look realistic and hopefully beautiful. It’s about two feet by one and a half. It will be acrylic on canvas.
Still a sea of flowers. The weather forecast says temperatures of 5°C tonight but I hope that the enclosed yard will protect the plants. I will see in the morning…..
The red flowers seem to be the main things that are still flowering. The yellow line at the top is our washing line, but it’s hard to dry clothes on it in the summer.
The flowers and plants will wilt and die over winter. Autumn is still slightly warm and they are clinging on, but I’ve noticed the delicate leaves are yellowing. I will try and get a few photos of the back yard before the hanging baskets die off. I might plant some of the more robust plants into the main garden to give them a bit more shelter to overwinter. I will miss the bright colours that have sparkled in the sunlight this summer. I know things probably will last till November. Early this year we still had a few flowers in January!
Nasturtiums like poor soil. They have large seeds about the size of a pea. I think they would be great for children to grow. You can plant them in succession over a few weeks and they first put out tendrils with umbrella shaped leaves. When it rains droplets gather on their leaves. Then in late summer, or early autumn the flowers appear. Trumpet shaped, the flower from pale yellow to deep red, with diffeepatterns and stripes as well as full colour ones. You can eat the spicy leaves and flowers in salads or on cold soups. I think the victorians used to use them as food decorations.
Wonderful to see new flowers on one of my orchid plants. They are behind this glass Robin. I didn’t want to try and move it out of the way incase I knocked one of the flowers off. They are a bit brown on the edges, I think the orchid had dried out a bit so I need to get a mist spray for them. My other orchid plants are green but not flowering. I think they need new growing medium and to let their ariel roots get some freedom.
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