This is what we woke up to this morning – it is stunning and makes me feel so happy – I should go and live in Alaska!
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Month: February 2016
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New paints
Had to try my new handmade paints from Greenleaf & Blueberry, only bought 5 but don’t need many more for landscapes.
Little (5 x 8 inch) test piece on crappy paper, but I do like the colours.
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Graphite and paints
Just completed a graphite exercise from my botanical art course. We were asked to draw a simple leaf or flower and use the stippling technique for the shading. I had to attack my african violet plant with a knife to use one of its leaves for the exercise as we are supposed to use live specimens and there are absolutely no fresh (or otherwise) flowers here at this time of year, so it had to be a house plant.
I’ve never used stippling to this extent before and though quite time consumming it was strangely therapeutic. I like the effect and will be exploring this in the future.
My new handmade (by Jess Greenleaf) paints have come, all the way from America – this is for my limited landscape palette. I have a different palette for botanics and other loose style painting, mostly using Winsor and Newton watercolours.
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New Challenge
Well January has passed and its nearly spring (haha), with newly germinated leek, viola, celeriac and calendula seeds in the polytunnel. The sheep and chickens are not enjoying the weather or the mud but the goats are thriving – they are lucky to be housed in a dry byre with lots of straw and food to eat.
So I’ve begun an online botanical art course (should have done this years ago) I have high hopes for this one. Heres a pic of something new I’ve learnt – hand sharpening my pencils. I think they look neat.
