Spring has Sprung !

Wow, what a beautiful Spring day here in Mid Devon, everything is bursting into life and the sunshine is the icing on the cake .A walk around my garden, seeing the camellia beginning to do it's thing, and looking over the fields, just lovely.

At last some good news , as we saw the people released from Iran, and coming home...how must they be feeling, and they're loved ones ? Just wonderful, I know there are people left behind, and I know there is such a lot of other difficult news, but we all needed something positive too.

I am slowly beginning to feel more normal, met a friend for a coffee in the square , chauffer driven there and back, but we managed it. How good it feels to be connections with people

Then a delivery of flowers from my mum, looking glorious.

So I have ventured out to my haven, my studio, to get this blog done and clear up some admin. I am just sitting here really , away from the house, and watching what's going on outside. I am taking things slowly lots of surgery sites are still very sore, and  tiredness can hit me very quickly . However sitting here , chatting with you all in my studio feel good.

 

For those of you who are nosy ( like me)here is the inside.

 

 

It's doubling up as a greenhouse at the moment too, as we try to cultivate some veg crops for later in the year, I like to think they are keeping me company in my little studio x

 

 

The weather is so lovely today, I think it makes things easier and I am even more aware than ever of nature and the coming of new growth. Flowers, bees, birds, they are all around us 

So today while I strolled around my garden, which needs a lot of work....

 

Looking at the Spring flowers 

 

 

I settled on one of my favourites . Pulmonaria, or lungwort. It is such an important early provider of nectar in the garden, they grow everywhere, but that doesn't mean they don't have their own special beauty, especially is you look closely

 

 

So back to the studio

 

Begin by choosing a few special blooms that you want to concentrate on and sketch them out, once you have done that, I choose a my brush. I use Winsor and Newton, series seven, which are sable, they come to a great point so I can create detail, but they also hold a lot of water

 

 

Next we are going to start on a pink flower. I am using the white of the paper to create the highlights. So remember to save some white on your painting

 

 

Start with the lightest pink first. I use rose madder, and add a touch or cerulean blue.

 

 

Can you see now I am building up the colour, adding a bit of cobalt blue and more paint into my wash. Just small touches here and there make a difference.You want to create contrast and light and shade.

 

 

 

Do you see, now where I have added the shadow behind the light area on the flower it suddenly pops. This is where painting is magic I think, you suddenly have a real flower, created just from paint.

 

 

Then I paint the green part that holds the flower ( no idea what it's called!) again start light with a lemon yellow, then get darker, Look closely and add the detail.

Now you can carry on with as many other flowers as you want.You can see I have started the one above which is pink and bluey purple. Just paint what you see.

 

The next one up I decide to go blue. Light blues first, leaving white on the petals again for the highlights.

 

 

Adding the dark for the petals behind the flowers really make them stand out.

To finish I like to let my watercolours dance around a bit. I add some more greens to give the impression of leaves and splash around some colour too, as if the pollen and plants are all in the air. Attracting the bees. 

You could go on and do lots of these and create a very detailed piece ( especially if you have more patience than me)  but I left mine there

 

 

and had a nice cup of tea x