New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was over… Today’s walk led us under this hawthorn tree that was growing over the road. Its in Hartshill on the way up to Queens Road. Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
Oh I used to run past this tree. I was convinced as a child that it was inhabited by a ghost. As part of this terms college work we had to remember some landscape from our childhood and this was what I thought of.
I’ve probably missed out trees and I can’t remember if there were houses in the background. But it will remain with me forever!
View from the kitchen window. This is the little plum tree ar the bottom of the garden. There is a cherry tree trunk in front of it and branches from that obscure the view. I decided to leave that out. I painted with watercolours. Palest first, then the pale greens and blues. It’s hard to fit the dark colours in without leaving white edges but I have never used masking fluid to hide the paler areas and I don’t want to start now.
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I keep coming back to this tree as it spreads its branches over the view from Penkhull. I have watched it in leaf, with dying leaves, bare and now in bud. It makes me realise how fast a year can pass. The same with gardening, the seasons and plants come and go. And I’m a year older and no wiser….
That tree doesn’t look right? She said. It’s growing in a funny way. The left side could almost be a cage.
He looked across to where she was pointing, it did look strange. But then these were old trees. There almost seemed to be a pattern to it.
They sat on a bench in the graveyard and watched the sunset over the victorian houses beyond. The tree seemed to slump slightly as the sky darkened, but they didn’t notice as they were in deep conversation.
The top of the tree gradually brushed the ground and slid sideways towards them. The cage of twigs and branches shaking gently although there was no breeze. The boughs crept forward, the front twigs lifting up like fingers on a huge hand. Then, Drop! The branches encircled its victims, squeezing them. There were twigs piercing their veins. No chance of escape. They were plant food!
As I walk I’m looking at trees, I’m waiting for the buds to burst, the leaves to stretch and expand. But we need some rain now to get the buds to swell. Then I will have more idea of what these trees are.
Oak before Ash,
In for a Splash.
Ash before Oak,
In for a soak….
The old rhyme of what to expect from the weather this Spring…
Also the weather has been very windy after a quiet start to March.
The saying for that is :
In like a Lamb
Out like a Lion.
(it can be vice versa), old weather saws that my grandma told me…
I found this face in these tree roots. Could be a little devil? You never really know what you are going to find until you play with an image. What fun…
Turning a tree into a bug… Photograph of a tree last week, I decided to mirror it in four sections. I deliberately centered on the blue in the background which I also think gives a feeling of a stained glass window.
Little Oak tree
Not great yet.
Just middle aged
Not ancient
Will you survive
Into your centenary?
Have your acorns grown,
Have you got galls?
Surviving a winters day
With a squirrels dray.
My friend took this photo so I hope they don’t mind me sharing it. But I wanted to find out what causes this sort of overgrowth. I’ve seen twigs fused together before but is it a virus or a fungus? Or is it caused by insects. A gall? Any info?
