End of summer

Although I no longer have a teacher's holidays I still plan as if I did!  I intended to do so much!  I completed an artichoke, flowering, in coloured pencil, but it is not right.  

Artichoke
coloured pencil

The seed pods picture is almost done.  
I am working on a depiction of the cliffs at Capel where I was bowled over by the dark silhouettes of the alexanders  (Smyrnium olusatrum) among the golden grasses.  I am using a big piece of paper and the plant material is tall.  The only way I seem to be able to manage is sitting on the floor, the board resting on my knees and against the table edge with the plant material in a vase also on the floor.  It is all very uncomfortable! There should be an easier way.

Smyrnium olusatrum or Alexander on the cliff top.

Cannot wait for the class to start again but meantime I am going to Florum at Sevenoaks and to +Kew Gardens  to see the Rory McEwen exhibition.

Summer

Our homework for the summer is artichokes but after a week or two of doodling I have ignored the remit.  It is not that I don't want to do artichokes, it is just that there are so many other things I want to draw as well.  
I have been working on Nectaroscordum, a Berry 'bombe', a birthday present of Periwinkle and a selection of summer seed pods.  All are in coloured pencil. At present I do not have enough free time to do everything I want!
Nectaroscordum is not on blue paper and I do not know why it has come out like that!
The 'Berry Bombe' is finished but I am wondering if it was better a piece of fruit ago.

Berry Bombe
coloured pencil

Nectaroscordum siculum sp. bulgaricum
coloured pencil

Periwinkle
coloured pencil

Doodling and artichokes

We have had our last class of the year and the holiday homework is artichokes. With the whole summer ahead I feel no pressure and artichokes are casual at present, one drawn in pencil, three in watercolour with no drawing, one mad splashing colour about in what could be called a loose style or could be called messy.  None of these will make it on to here, too public a space.  Next, an artichoke in ink.  
Meanwhile I am drawing Nectaroscordum siculum bulgaricum, one of my favourite plants, and Periwinkle (Vinca major).
It is good to have some time to experiment.

Goddess done

Flora is now complete.
At the art class Claire asks who has finished their Coming of Spring piece and I have to say that I need her to tell me if it is finished!  It is, just about.  The face has been the hardest part but a tweak here and a tweak there and she is done.  Spot the snail!

Flora, Goddess of Spring
Coloured pencil

Flora, Goddess of Spring

Is she finished?  I think she is almost.  I take a coffee and sit and look at her and try to decide.  The face is the hardest part.  She must look like marble.  I will have to see what Claire says next week.  Then it is artichokes....

Bought the catalogue for the Rory McEwen exhibition at Kew which we are planning to visit.  Wonderful stuff.  Such talent, and not only as an artist, but also as a musician.

Artist's block?

I have come to a dead halt.  I have twiddled and tweaked but added nothing new.  I have drawn lovely things in my sketchbook but they don't seem to fit on the finished piece.  Cannot seem to move on at all and I don't know what to do next!  That marigold intimidates me.  Maybe another periwinkle flower?  I would like blossom and I have drawn cherry, damson and apple.  None seems right.

Flora

Flora is moving along quite well.  We are supposed to be working in watercolour but coloured pencil is so much easier for me when my time is often snatched.  I can do 20 minutes in coloured pencil, but for paint I feel I must have some sustained time.
I am trying to depict marble becoming plants, death to life, dark to light.  The plants I am using are of spring, some with their own symbolism - primrose, marsh marigold, hart's tongue fern, periwinkle and strawberry.
I wonder if that big yellow blob of a marsh marigold is rather a mistake.

Hart's tongue fern, Clematis montana,
chionodoxa, primrose, marsh marigold

Celandines added, also veronica umbrosa.