Stars for an Old Friend

The eve of December and these beautiful berries on the old tree have pretty much disappeared now. 

All of a sudden when the North wind sends whispers of a frost the birds descend. Blackbird, thrush, pigeon and this year redwing. Maybe that's a sign of a colder winter ahead? I tried to capture them on camera but each time I got near they flew away. They are not as tame as the birds in the garden.  

As usual, we picked our bunch before they all disappeared. The sprigs wait patiently in a bucket of water ready for festive decorating. Unless of course Mr Blackbird discovers where the secret stash is. Having a pane of glass missing in the green house, this could be a real possibility and in fact has happened before. ;-) 

It's been a strange year indeed. I still can't believe that we are heading into December already. I don't have any inspiring pictures to share with you as I haven't been anywhere and have been so busy keeping up with orders.  I don't think a studio mess, piles of boxes, receipts and overflowing waste paper bins would have quite the same kind of vibe, so instead will show you the latest painting. 

It's called 'Stars for an Old Friend' and is painted in acrylics on paper.  I filmed the creation of it in time-lapse and made another film. So if you are interested in watching, click here or see below. It's available in both shops as a print. 

'Stars for an Old Friend'

Don't forget to get your advent calendars out and up ready for tomorrow.

See you in December! 

X  

Painting Toadstools And Jack O Lanterns

October offerings.  

I've decorated my wind fall birds nest with colour, to brighten up the fading days.

On the previous blog post, I had an urge to paint toadstools. I've seen quite a few out and about and some in the garden but sadly not any fly agaric which I was hoping to spot. 

So instead I painted some...

It's good to step away from whatever you are doing sometimes, just to be indulgent and fill the creative urge. I added a robin for a finishing touch, just because... ;)

Sunday's walk lead me to this magical Briony plant twining among the hedgerows. There were some fallen berries, so I popped a couple in my pocket and planted them in a pot when I got home. This would look so beautiful in the garden and would hopefully spread in the wild hedgerows nearby too. Fingers crossed they germinate? Does anyone know if they are easy to grow? 

This evening the little pumpkin tea light holder was lit. It's the first year I think that I haven't got around to doing a real one. I was going to today, but decided to use the time on painting instead.

As a child, pumpkins were never as popular like they are now.

Instead we made Jack o lanterns out of ‘mangel wurzels’ These if you don’t know, are sort of like a turnip or swede. A couple of nights before Halloween us naughty children from our estate would go to the local farmers field and pull our lantern out of the ground. Running home with them in the dark, like a scene from Harry Potter, they looked like stolen mandrakes covered in mud. Once home we would leave them by the back door until Halloween, then we scooped them out, carved a face added a candle inside and threaded string to the lid to carry around. They normally lasted until Bonfire night.

🎃✨Happy Halloween 🎃 Happy Samhain✨ May your pumpkins and jack o lanterns burn bright tonight! x 

A veil as thin as smoke

Days are quiet here now. My son has returned to university and daughter is back at school. September has returned and in the garden the flowers are still blooming, holding on as long as they can while the sun is still warm. There seems to be a lot of purple around. Here below is Verbena bonariensis one of my favourite plants. It's so pretty, the bees and butterflies love it, and it's quite a tough cookie.  Standing tall and very rarely falling over even in the heaviest of rains and wind.

This year, sadly there has been a distinct absence of butterflies here. No where near as many as we normally have.  Here though below is a blue butterfly enjoying the Oregano that I spotted the other day.

It's been a good year for the apples and the blackberries which are are abundant in the hedgerow.    

When the days have been warm  and dry, I've been sat with the doors open and re positioned my chair by the door for maximum daylight.

I wasn't alone, there is always company just a few feet away

This is what's been on the easel.  An A3 sized painting on wood. Here are some progress stages.

And the finished piece. 'A veil as thin as smoke' the colours are slightly different here. In reality the original is probably somewhere in between. Prints are available here for anyone interested.

Now I'm busy painting toadstools and the odd bee.