So much blossom

Posted on April 16, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Life, Photo, Plants, Russian vine, TreesLeave a comment

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.

The garden

Posted on April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bees, Blossom, Cherry, Environment, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Hover flies, Life, Nature, Pear, Plants, Tomatoes, TreesLeave a comment

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.

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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!

Drawing our Easter Garden

Posted on April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Blossom, Easter, Flowers, Fun, Garden, Life, Plants, Sketching, Spring, Trees, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent3 Comments

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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.

Today in the garden

Posted on April 6, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Drawing, Flowers, Fun, Garden, Narcissi, Plants, Sketching, Spring, Spring flowers, SunshineLeave a comment

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I drew this today, sitting in the garden, looking at a jumble of narcissi and other plants ( I’m not sure of their names).

Another of the USK Stoke thirty day challenge. I’m really enjoying this series of sketches. Every day a different way of stretching our practice. So many different sketches by different artists. I hope you like this.

Spring garden

Posted on April 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Daffodils, Dicentra, Flowers, Garden, Helibores, Muscari, Primroses, Pruning, Pulmonaria, seasons, Spring, Spring Garden, Spring plantsLeave a comment

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Various views of our spring Garden, top view is flowers, including Daffodils, Muscari Hyacinths, Primroses, Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra), Helibores, Pulmonaria, and Celandine. The bottom photo shows the Pear tree propped up with some wood, the weight of the pears pulled it over last year, Cyclamen in a pot, the path to the summerhouse, with some railway track and our back yard, waiting to be tidied up.

I did a bit of pruning today. I’ve had so little exercise these last few weeks that I felt very wobbly when I’d finished.

Amaryllis

Posted on March 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Amaryllis, Bulbs, Feeding, Flowers, Gardening, Indoor plants, Leaves, pots, Red, WateringLeave a comment

IMG_20200302_112003_579_optimized It’s flowered. My Amaryllis is in flower. Bright red trumpets. Three big flowers.

There are two other plants, they have leaves, but no flowers. I hope they might still send up long stems with buds. I’m watering them, but it might not be till next year, then perhaps they will flower. Amaryllis like to be tightly packed into their pots, and so I don’t re-pot them until they have started to outgrow their pots. The one that is flowering is over ten years old. It was a Christmas present from my mother. It has a second bulb growing next to it, and when that gets large enough I may try and dislodge it and grow it in a new pot.

I do think they have possibly been overfed this year. When I have fed my orchids I have given any spare water with food in it, to the amaryllis plants. Usually I don’t bother to feed them. They do seem to have put on a lot of leaves so perhaps that is why they are not flowering as well as normal.

Morning glory plants

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Blue, Flowers, Gardening, Green, Hanging basket, Landscape, Morning glory, Painting, Plants, Summer2 Comments

A few years ago painted this morning glory as it flowered. I’d nurtured the plant on a windowledge, carefully watered it. Put it outside when the summer was warm enough so it would stay alive.

It was in a hanging basket outside in the garden when I decided to paint it in situ. As I painted the flower opened and then at the end of the day closed and wilted (the same thing happened with the following days flowers). Hard to capture but beautiful. I might do a copy or similar painting.

Acrylic on canvas. Small flowers are lobelia, and the cream ones are surfinias.

Hydrangea

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blue, Colour, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Hydrangea, Inspiration, Life, Petals, pH, Pink, PlantLeave a comment

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New plant for the garden, although its really too cold to go directly into the garden at the moment. Hydrangeas change colour depending on the acidity of your soil. I don’t remember which way it is, but they either turn blue or red depending if the soil is acid or alkaline. You can do a pH test if you want to. The flowers appear as florets, lots of little flower heads spread across the bloom. There are different sorts, some with small flowers which looks like lace, others are chunkier, some are flat headed, others have rounded bunches of flowers. Leaves are large and usually mid to dark green with serrated edges to the leaves.

I remember the pink hydrangea in my Grans garden, it was pink with huge heads of flowers. I did a painting of her in front of the plant. I will have to try and find a photo of it.

Sprigs of spring?

Posted on February 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Cold, Colours, Environment, Flora, Flowers, Grey, Life, Photo, Poem, Poetry, School, Spring, WinterLeave a comment

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In months my garden

will be aflower,

floral fancies,

blooming anew.

But sadly now

the sight is of grey hue.

Cold sprigs of twigs

leaden coloured,

deadened stems.

Give them some sun,

some warmth

some food?

Then they will improve their mood.

I wait and cry

with many a sigh,

Looking around

For colour on the ground.

Daffodils and Tulips

Crocus and Snowdrops.

Then Bluebells and Violets,

will stir the air,

colours will flare!

Brighten the world,

set bees abuzz,

and waken my love,

of nature.

Painting mugs

Posted on February 6, 2020 Posted in Cat, Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Canal, Cat, Design, Etruria, Etruria Artists, Etruria Industrial museum, Flowers, Horses, Mugs, Painting, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

At Etruria Artists today we painted mugs, they were blank white mugs and we used on glaze paints that stay the same colour when they are heated. The most exciting thing is that they can be heated in an ordinary domestic oven. They have to be dried for twenty four hours, then heated at 150°C or gas mark 2 for 35 minutes to bake the colours in.

The outside photo is lock 40 on the Trent and Mersey canal. It was a beautiful morning, bright and sunny. I really do prefer coming to Etruria Artists ‘hands on Art’ at the Warehouse next to the lock in the morning rather than the evening. It is on from 10am to 12 noon if anyone wants to come along.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Flowers