Summer Flowers and Chickens

I popped this one back into PS this morning and changed the pinky coral tree to a white one. I think it balances the image more and the chicken's comb doesn't get mixed up with the tree anymore but stands out. A definite improvement I think. The sharp eyed amongst one may remember these chickens with a different background and different colours. I felt I could improve on it and I think this does. I am pleased with it anyway.

I enjoyed drawing this pen and ink kitty. His face reminds me of Felix in the Purina cat food adverts.

Found this beautiful angel etching on Eleanor Healy-Wills website here. She has some lovely etchings displayed.

I was tagged the other day by blogging friend Lesley of Sea-Blue-Sky & Abstracts to give a list of 6 silly things I like.

1) Walking through quiet woods and touching the trees as I go past.

2) Picking up beautifully shaped leaves from our local town where they have some wonderful trees in the high street. I press them and use them for drawing.

3) Sitting out in the back garden at midnight just to take in the peace and quiet.

4)Watching the night sky for meteors or satellites.

5) Scaring myself silly watching ghost films on TV late at night.

6) Re-reading my old copies of Fungus The Bogeyman and When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs.

I am really into retro colours and designs. I love this retro ceramic found on Etsy user PardonMyVintage's site here.

Lots of lovely flowers around this summer but the weather has been down in the dumps. It is quite funny really because in spring we were told with great glee by the media that the long range weather report was forecasting a "barbecue summer" with very high temps. We did have about a week of very hot weather and since then it has rained and been quite cool. A typical summer really. The weather office are now back tracking and stating that they said there was a 65% chance of a hot summer. Don't you wish sometimes they would not try to predict the weather weeks ahead? They admit that they can only accurately predict it a week ahead anyway. A number of people decided not to go abroad for their holidays this year because they thought the English summer would be exceptional. Having said that we have now been told that the next week will be getting warmer again. We shall see.

These are some hedgerow dogroses from a while ago. Common flowers but they are so pretty.

I photographed these in a garden centre a couple of years ago. Gorgeous blues.

It is only early August but a lot of the crops have been harvested and I think there is a tiny hint of approaching autum. I suppose it makes sense really considering that all the seasons seem to be a month ahead. I spotted some fully ripe blackberries in a hedge recently. Surely they are far too early.

I happened to find myself in a local town the other day with one of the Oxfam shops entirely dedicated to secondhand books. What a little paradise. I was in there far too long but I found this little gem. I have mentioned before how much I love the Lark Series books. I have quite a few now but this is one I didn't think would appeal. Once I looked inside though I was amazed and fascinated by the types and styles of work by contemporary basket makers. Some of them are so incredibly imaginative that you wouldn't even think to call them baskets. The most amazing thing of all was that the book was only £3. Such a bargain couldn't be ignored. Here are three fascinating and beautiful examples of contemporary basket art I found inside.

Amy Lipshie-Amphora. This beautiful artwork is created from cereal boxes.

Barbara Walker-Les Petales. This is woven from bleached and unbleached linen cords made by the artist. This is a beautifully designed piece.

Jo Stealey-Fruits of My Labour-Fertility. This lovely artwork is created from waxed linen, reed, handmade paper and silkworm cocoon. Jo's website is here.

A few years ago I came across printmaker Roger Harris (at Art In Action but I will say it quietly as everyone is probably tired of it now...ha ha) I was very impressed by his beautiful mezzotints. Mezzotints are etchings where the metal plate is prepared beforehand by use of a tool called a rocker. The rocker has tiny teeth and is rocked back and forward over the whole plate. Basically it is a very time consuming method of producing a print of exquisite quality and depth of colour. I was entranced by his detailed work which is absolutely gorgeous in real life. He very patiently explained the whole process to me although he had probably already explained it to at least a million people beforehand. It must take a true love of printmaking to go to such trouble but so very worth it. You can see more of Roger's work here at Iona Gallery.

Lady Godiva

Spirit of the Wood

I have a long-standing love affair with etchings and trees and when the two come together so beautifully as in the etching/aquatint by Jo Barry, I am in heaven. More of Jo Barry's work can be seen here at Iona Gallery also.

These are my flower photos from some little while ago. I thought I would do a little nature colour coordinating. Apparently purples and lilacs and violets are very popular colours at the moment. I was mentioning to someone the other day that I have difficulty in assigning names to the colours in the purple/violet range of the spectrum. I am quite good with reds and oranges and greens and turquoises but those purple, mauve, lavender, lilac and violet colours fool me.

These beautiful bracelets are the work of Shropshire based craftswoman Lana who admits to being obsessed with colour (I know how she feels). She certainly has a wonderful sense of which colours to combine. The bracelets are made from cotton, silk and merino yarn. Lana also creates other textile lovelies and can be found here on Etsy as "easternsky".

The paintings below belong to the highly talented English artist Anna Pugh. Anna lives a modest life in the countryside where she paints extremely lovely images of animals, nature, the countryside and things around her. She has a particular affinity with dogs and plants, but I love her hens and cockerels best. Her style is bright and detailed folk art and she has a huge following. You can look at her paintings for ages because each one has so many different elements and scenes within scenes, but the whole picture gels together as a complete entity. You can find a large collection of her work at Lucy B Campbell gallery here. I was also lucky enough to come across her book of paintings a few weeks ago. The book is dedicated to showing off her artwork rather than text, but the paintings speak for themselves.

Last Set

Mountain Pool

A Change Of Heart

The Challenger

Two Partridge

More To come

Charity Shops And Cockerels

Ths is called "Cockerels Amongst The Seedhead" and is a digitally coloured drawing. You may notice that these seed heads are the same ones as the central panel of the garden at midnight picture below. I liked them so much I thought I would give them another outing.

This is a pen and ink drawing which I dug out of my sketchbook and redid properly. I cut out a cardboard leaf to draw around to create the shapes. I would never have been able to get them so perfect otherwise.

This started out life as a brightly coloured digital drawing which I wasn't happy with. I had a fiddle with it in gradients in PS which I haven't got a clue how to use. After a few colour changes I got this one which I thought was quite quirky. It is called "In The Garden At Midnight".

This is a quick pen and ink drawing called The Scarlett Sash.

If you enjoy textile sculptures you will probably enjoy this one. Pod by Bird Ross is made from vintage silk kimono and thread.

I think this wonderfully coloured image by Julie Barnes is very springlike not least due to the little lamb!

I want this quirky casserole dish by Kevin Warren. Love his geese.

I have long been an admirer of Vanessa Pooley's beautiful sculptures. I particularly like this "Tiny Mother and Child" artwork for the material she has cast it in. She creates lots of differents sculptures but I think her mother and child ones are really lovely. It would be wonderful to own one. I think they are very tactile. She has a very informative and extensive website here.

Spring is literally a week away now - the 21st of March is the first day of spring. I really enjoy the profusion of beautiful flowers that come into bloom in spring. These ceanothus belong to the people whose garden backs onto ours, but there bush is so huge that it spills over the fence and we can enjoy it too.

Can't wait for one of my favourite flowers - the allium - to come into bloom. We have lots in the garden but these beauties were in the grounds of a nearby church.

This narcissus is in the grounds of a local cemetery which has wonderful fruit blossom trees and masses of bluebells. More of that at a later date.

Love these delicious images by Pauline Hughes. Pauline is a sculptural artist who also creates wall art. Her website is here.

I really enjoy Sir Terry Frost's colourful images. I haven't seen this egg one before though.

James Campbell is a ceramic artist and painter. He was born in Scotland and was brought up there and in Wales where he now lives. His work is a combination of drawing/painting and creating ceramics to which he applies his very distinctive artwork. I love his painted images of simple, moody landscapes and his wonderfully stylised crows. His work is more powerful I think because it is fairly minimalist. He attributes his work to the beauty of those two places where he grew up. The Stour Gallery has a large display of his work.

Night Journey-Standing Stone

Wintersun Ceramic

Encircling Hill 2

Landfall

Misty Morning

Night Journeys-The Lake

Night Landscape Ceramic

Night Journeys-The Tower

The Encircling Hill Ceramic

The Old Straight Track

Wintersun ceramic bowl

Wiltshire Wane

Aren't charity shops amazing? I am sure I am not the only one to think so. What ever did we do before the first charity shops really made an impact in the high street. A lot of people complain that our streets are full of charity shops these days and they are taking the business away from the "proper" shops. I suppose in some ways they do just that. There are so many good quality M & S items available in charity shops that M&S must notice the drop in their sales to some extent. Those who try to live greener lives appreciate the chance to buy "recycled" items which cannot be a bad thing. I suppose like everything else there are pros and cons.

I know for a fact that I have had access to far more interesting and originally expensive books than I would have been able to purchase new. I am constantly amazed by the quality of items people give away. I have come across books originally costing £30 to £35 and even more and sometimes they have only been published that year. It is almost true to say that if you really want something and don't mind waiting, eventually it will turn up in a charity shop. That is very true of some of my books. I have purchased all my Kaffe Fassett books second hand. You can often buy books that are now out of print too. Thank goodness for people having the urge to declutter their lives. There are even some charity shops that cater just for books...ah bliss.