New paintings and regular art updates.
The garden is starting to bloom. The pear trees were in blossom a few days ago, and the cherry tree has come into flower over the last couple of days. Over in the hedge a plum tree is blossoming too.
The only trouble is it’s windy and as yet I haven’t seen any bees or insects about. I hope they get to the nectar before the petals blow away. If I’m going to get any fruit this year the trees need pollinating. Fingers crossed for the crop.
Have a happy Easter. I realise it’s not just about chocolate eggs and bunnies, it is about faith and resurrection. It is the centre of the meaning of being a Christian, like everything else it has become a reason to market chocolate and other treats like hot cross buns.
But I enjoyed doing this scraper board drawing on holographic card. It’s decorated with flowers like tulips and daffodils plus eggs and rabbits.
I hope that however you celebrate this time of year you have some peace and loving kindness. Take care of yourselves.
An imagined cat on a white wall. The plants make it feel like a courtyard. I had fun with the paint mixing different tones and colours . The cat is a ginger tabby staring out of the painting. Acrylic on canvas.
Twelve years ago, another cat we took in as a stray. He wasn’t microchipped. He was going in a local shop and climbing on their shelves, they didn’t like it so we took him in…. He used to sit in the middle of the road waiting for me to come home. Sadly he was injured by a car and had to have an operation to save his leg. He recovered but a year later he was knocked over again. I was so sad to lose him. I think he was the silliest cat I ever met. I even used to draw cartoons of him having adventures. Climbing trees, balancing on fences, stealing steaks!
I have these hanging in my window. The top one is Ygdrasil, (not sure of the spelling), the tree of life. I don’t look at it very often but with the blue sky it was more visible. I do seem to collect a lot of stuff. The house is full of clutter. Some of it has got to go. But not these. The bottom one is flowers and a dragonfly. Both made by my talented wire weaving friend D.
They give you flowers
To salve your loss
To show they care.
I feel so grateful
To be remembered
But the need of a vase
Can be a problem.
I found one at last.
Flowers setted
Rejoyce in their beauty
Begonias, still in flower, In our hanging baskets….In November! I think its because their stems are a bit more robust. The fushias, with woody stems have also survived. There are also lots of green leaves because this area is a bit of a microclimate and things just survive round there. It’s enclosed so it holds the heat. Also the plants all shelter each other holding the warmth in x
Consider the lilies…. Don’t plant them near the front of plant borders, the pollen is poisonous to cats. They can shed a lot of pollen which cats can breathe in or it can fall on them and they lick it off when they wash.
But if you can plant them safely they are beautiful and showy. But beware of lily beetles. They are big red shiny beetles that can munch and destroy lilies. I’m afraid they need removing and squashing if you want to save the plants.
I was at the potbank cafe, which was part of the potbank hotel in the grounds of Spode factory site, part of the industrial heritage (and revolution) of Stoke on Trent.
The cafe was taken over by a cafe group called “the quarter”, but the hotel is still there and is based within the industrial architecture on the site.
I think I drew the flower in a jam jar while waiting for a friend? I noticed the deration of the flower stem in the water, an example of how the density of matter changes the way light travels through it. When I was young I hated trying to calculate the angle of defraction. Perhaps I should have drawn it and measured my drawing?
Bees and hover flies pollenating the flowers, I don’t get out to deadhead them so they are going over (dying back) sooner than usual, but they are still joyously beautiful.
I didn’t realise how much the back yard meant to me ubtil this period of isolation. But I just have to look out of the back door and I see this glorious view. I haven’t taken any recent photos so I must get some before it’s too late. Have a lovely September.
Mallaband-Brown