Isn't The Countryside Beautiful Now?

Back again after my little blog break. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped but you never do, do you? I will be racing around to catch up with everyones' postings tomorrow. Have been out and about walking and geocaching lately and taking lots of photos of gorgeous countryside. Everything is lush, green and beautiful.

I have lost touch a bit with giveaways, but if there is anyone that hasn't received what I promised them, then please let me know and I will put it right.

I was inspired to draw this rather sad portrait after chatting with friend Hannah about how much we liked quotes from poetry. The quote for this picture is part of a poem by Paul Verlaine called Autumn Song and if you cannot read the script it says: "when the hour sounds I remember days of once and I weep". I think she looks suitably triste.

This young lady is a WIP (work in progress). She is going to be in a garden with a background of flowers etc. She is pen and ink on watercolour paper so that I could use watercolour washes if I decided to. I like her smiley face.

I love this gorgeous ceramic hen by Elspeth Soper. You can see a selection of Elspeth's work here at the Shropshire Guild site.

Model Hen

This lovely little collection was received in the post from the lovely Robyn of Artpropelled. It was sent as a thank you for her winning giveaways that I have held. I love the little wooden carved goddess and also the tin spiral and the wire and bead fridge magnet. Definitely a taste of SA Robyn and thank you very much for thinking of it. For those of you who don't know Robyn's blog, she not only creates wonderful carved items in panels but also blogs about the talented artists and craftspeople that inspire her. I would definitely recommend popping over to her blog to say hello.

We have just returned from a lovely walk in the lush spring countryside where everything was refreshed by a day of rain yesterday. There are so many photo opportunities at the moment that I am quite spoiled for choice.

Cow Parsley

Dandelion Clock - I have never seen as many dandelions as there are at present. They are so perfectly designed for spreading their little feathery parasols to new areas of countryside.



Magnificent tree seen in the distance. I love the way solitary trees spread themselves out perfectly and symmetrically when they are untrammelled by other trees.

Mary Carter is a Devon artist whose beautiful paintings are collected all over the world. She works on a tiny scale but still achieves a wonderful delicacy of colour and detail. She prefers to paint interiors and people and her portraits of young girls are really lovely and have a very old fashioned look to them. You can find Mary's website here and more of her work half way down the page here at LlwellynAlexander.

At The Gate

The Taffeta Gown

Profile Of A Young Girl

Do you remember my post about geocaching where you log onto a website for GPS co-ordinates to little boxes hidden in the countryside (or towns). We have taken our geocaching to the next stage now and are looking for suitable hiding places for our own treasures for others to find. This is much harder than you think. Apart from trees with handy holes in there are not a lot of places to hide things in the countryside. We did have a few strokes of luck though and have picked up a few innovative ideas from other peoples caches.

We found a nice hiding place along this lane

Our hunt for hiding places was successful here too

Sunset on our way home

Do you ever hanker after beautifully tufted rugs with gorgeous designs? I found these lovely ones on the Green Culture eco friendly rug site here. They have lots of lovely rugs but these are my Wish List rugs if I had a large house to accommodate them all. Even though my artistic taste runs to colourful and decorative artwork, my taste in rugs is more contemporary and minimal. I am not one for traditional flowery rugs with borders.

Bari Rug

Almond Rug

Monte Rug

Seismic Rug

Rufio Rug

The Glasgow born artist Lesley McLaren is the creator of the lovely images below. There is something a little "other worldly" about Lesley's art. Her inspirations are the wonderful Scottish Border countryside where she has her studio. Her work is very contemporary and beautifully composed and I find the colours and light she gets into her paintings quite stunning. Lots of sheep and birch trees in her website gallery here.

The Watcher

Belties Under Snowy Pines

Springtime