Today’s draw, something old, something new.

Posted on April 15, 2020April 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Cherry blossom, Drawing, Garden, Ivy, Old and New, Plants, Sketching, Spring View, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent2 Comments

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Sketch of new cherry blossom and old Ivy. It was black and white, drawn in uni pin 0.1,0.5, and 0.8 fine line black ink pens ( made by mitsubishi). On A4 paper. USK Stoke-on-Trent 30 day challenge. Day 27…. ! Really? Where has that gone?

Once I’d finished I decided to use a couple of green permanent markers to define where the ivy and other vegetation was. This had the effect of making the blossom more visible.

I’m pleased with the result. I hope the blossom all turns into cherries. We get them from the bottom half of the tree, the birds get the top half!

Someone asked about the garden…

Posted on April 12, 2020April 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #forestwood, Cherries, Garden, Gardening, Growth, Hard work, How to Ping back?, Land, Nettles, Pear, Plants, Trees, Walnut, Weeds7 Comments

A fellow blogger asked if I used permaculture in the garden, I actually don’t know what that is? We’ve been here about twenty five years and when we moved in the garden was a patch of land fenced off by the woman who used to own the house. It had three lilac bushes a patch of what turned out to be Japanese knotweed and lawn. We rented it off the old owner of our house for twenty years then bought it. I only used weedkiller at the start because of the knotweed. Since then we put in a pond, planted all sorts of trees. Some of its too shady. The walnut tree must be forty foot high. Just put a bit of fertiliser on occasionally. There is rubble and broken pottery under the soil. You get archaeology when you dig it.

I did not believe that we could get mature trees in a little over twenty five years. Some of them seem to grow like weeds. The back of the garden has had a shed and a summerhouse put on it. I’m hoping to do some art in there. We are trying to get perennial plants to grow. I have lots of geraniums but most of all we have a lot of ivy growing everywhere.

It is good to sit in the garden, but I feel sorry for people who don’t have anywhere green to sit.

Stay safe,

Keep well.

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.

Citrus plants

Posted on April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Citrus fruit, Eating, Food, Fun, Gardening, Kumquat, Photo, Plants2 Comments

My hubby has bought some citrus plants and has them in pots in the garden. They came with the fruit on them. He took them inside the summerhouse for a couple of nights but he’s trying to let them harden off. One was a kumquat, whatever that is. I sort of think they were ornamental, but they say they are edible…. He just eats them whole! Anyone know what these are?

Anyway I might chop one up and add it to a gin and tonic!

Garden pictures

Posted on April 7, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cat, Daffodils, Fun, Garden, Gardening, Photos, Plants, Summerhouse, Sunny, woodyLeave a comment

Oh its coming on…. I’ve been cutting back a few bushes and tidying up. The summer house is full of junk so it needs clearing out. I’m keen to go out there and paint. The weather has been lovely, we’ve not really had any April showers yet. I guess they will be in the way.

Oh I ache from trying to cut back overgrown buddlias and ivy climbing up the cherry trees. When the cherry blossom is out I will try and share photos.

By the way the cat is Woody, he’s the outside cat we look after. He’s really enjoying lying in the sun now the weather has improved. But we have tomato plants, so I’m scared he will squash them!

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.

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.

Hyacinths

Posted on February 4, 2020February 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Faces, Hyacinths, Life, Mirrored images, Pareidolia, Pattern, Plants, Smell, Spring4 Comments

Sitting on our windowledge in the kitchen, the hyacinths look lovely. I have no sense of smell but I can admire their beauty. Yet again I decided to create some symmetrical patterns. I like the intricacies of images like this. They create a surreal impact which makes you look again. As usual my pareidolia (is this the spelling) kicked in and I started to see faces in both images. The mind truly does play tricks on you.

Shades of green

Posted on January 22, 2020January 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 64 million artists challenge, Art, Colour, Design, Fun, Green, Layout app, Montage, photo montage, Photos, PlantsLeave a comment

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Today’s challenge on the 64 million artists January challenge on Facebook was to take a journey through your home or garden or to take a walk and collect images of a colour. Because I’ve got a lot of plants and other objects that are green I decided to choose that colour. Including crocheted blanket from my sis, a book on trains, a box for a toy train, a multicolour duster (green section). A late I designed based on clarice cliffs’ pottery, a little sketchbook, Christmas cactus, some plants I’m growing on for spring, ferns and a green bottle, my cat and the garden outside, the border round some photos, finally the ariel roots of my orchid…..

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Plants