Place mats and more

Photographed to show the reverse

Craft fair on Saturday 12th April at Seabrook church on the main road. Additions to my stall include place mats and more cushions.

I have also made a gardening apron with initial (nice easy 'K') and a peg apron, both to order.  One of my hats is in The Gambia!

And now it is all about green

I chose Helleborus foetidus and regretted it.  But this is not unusual two weeks into the project, to make a start and then wish I was doing what someone else is doing.  And why must I always work so big?  Granted we are working larger than life size but my piece of paper is always so much larger than everyone else's. Feeling generally displeased with my choices and realising how long it would take to do such a big piece in coloured pencil, I elected to go for watercolour.  Why not?  If not in the class then when?  I am thoroughly enjoying it too as I feel no pressure.  It is lovely working with a brush and playing.  I am trying salt too for effects and have tried cling film and greaseproof.  I am so busy at the moment it is hard to find time.  With husband away for the week I was painting at 6 this morning!  On Sunday it is mother's day and I intend to paint all day.

All about ink

 February 2014

Dried artichoke head in biro

Seed heads of Paeonia lutea

Seed shells two

seaweed in progress

It has taken hours to draw the seaweed and transfer the image to the map, beautifully mounted by Alan Friday at Wood Works in Dover.  It makes a great surface to work on.  Now I am inking in.  Remind me to choose a smaller project next time. 
Like one leaf.  Or one flower.

New year, new crazy things to draw

I did not have to choose seaweed.  I went to Kingsdown beach with thoughts of dessicated fennel stems and sea cabbage, but after all the storms the remnants did not appeal.  However there was a lot of seaweed.  It is so difficult to draw it, keep it in the same place and keep it from drying out.  I may well regret this one.

The Christmas card went down well. Toby and Zenah were pleased with their picture and I drew Physalis for mum but forgot to take a photo of the finished images.  So here they are part done.  When I visit I will try to get a photo.

I have been trying to capture seed pods in ink too.  

Paeonia lutea

December blues

Soon it will be the shortest day and we will begin to come into the light again.  It is a struggle, these dark days, to work by decent light.  Even the daylight is murky, or, on a sunny day, the sun is so low that everything is distorted.  Sometimes I simply cannot see clearly what I want to draw.  The studio at The Cube is too different from home with all round light.
Here is my effort a la Rory McEwen.  I don't appear to have signed it so maybe it is not finished here.  Coloured pencil over watercolour.

I did another in similar style of Monks House, Rodmell.
At present the project is to design a Christmas card.  And surprisingly difficult it is too.  

Equipment

I won £50 on a local lottery recently and spent the lot on paper.  It's not that much paper as it happens, not when the paper is hot pressed Fabriano.  Whenever I make an order from +Jackson's Art Supplies I add on a few coloured pencils (to make the postage worthwhile).  Most of my art stuff is gathered along the way.  I buy sketchbooks at The Cube, pencils and brushes from the shop in Folkestone's Old High Street, a feather from the garden, a magnifying glass from Specsavers.
We have a new lady in class.  She arrives and sets up a very posh big magnifying glass on a stand.  It has a row of LED lights.  Then she stacks up her black zipped cases of pencils and brushes.  There are four of them, identical and pristine.  She has a plastic storage box - not a rejected tupperware job like mine, but a proper affair with trays and drawers.  She comes and goes with a small suitcase on wheels to carry all her gear.  At home she has a workshop in which to artisticate.  I have a small table squeezed between the spare bed and the window, and a daylight lamp from Amazon.  No wonder the bed is strewn with materials and work in progress.
I think I shall start referring to the spare room as 'my studio'.

Working on three pictures in my 'True Facts From Nature' series (see +Rory McEwen ).  One is from our garden, one from Monk's House, Rodmell - home of Virginia Woolf - and the third is from Toby and Zenah's garden.  Also on the go - 'Seed shells' in ink.  Wish I had more time though.  The dark evenings are a struggle even with my daylight lamp.