Outside

Yesterday, 1st December, a pelargonium (sometimes known as geranium) outside our front door. It’s still in flower since we planted it this summer. In flower for almost six months. We have other plants in the garden like nasturtiums. But today is probably going to be the coldest day and night this winter. I will be sad to see everything wilt and die. We can only look forward to next year. We will be planting more of these and some manage to survive the winter too.

Jardiniere

This is the bottom half of a Jardinere I saw at Salts Mill, Saltaire in Yorkshire this week. I was attracted by the mythical beast. A sphinx perhaps? I love the strong red glaze and the crisp modelling of it. There is a top section which has a cherub or some sort of child modeled on it.

I would have included larger photos, but I’m running out of memory!

Close-up poppy

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.

Shall I paint another?

I painted this a few years ago, it’s based on a poppy with a white centre. Most poppies have dark splodges in the centre. I think this looks more subtle. I’m toying with the idea of painting a mixture of both on a larger canvas? The background would be greens and straw coloured. Got to possibly block out or draw out their positions and then maybe add some forget-me-nots.

Poppies wip

Red seems to be the theme of my paintings this week. Red poppies and red steam engine governor. Now I need to try and get the poppies painting finished. I want to work on the petals to make them more realistic. I’d also like to get the leaves and stems right. It’s difficult from imagination so I’m going to try and find some reference photos to work from.