Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Erica's Collection

As she walks home from university, Erica collect things for me to paint; this week cotoneaster berries and a big fat rose hip. The pelargoniums are still going strong in the window boxes, so I threw one of those in to compliment the red theme. And the hydrangeas? Well they speak for themselves.








Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Orchid Contours

Another exercise, this time doing contour drawings of orchids. I have to admit, I did lift my pen off from time to time. But heck. It's my page so I can do what I like. These orchids were the most odd and beautiful shades of yellow, gold and orange with touches of red. They were a gift from my mom and dad during a recent visit. All of my live orchids were afflicted with a strange white mould last year and slowly died off. This new batch of cut orchids inspired me to go out and start my live collection again. I picked up a rescue orchid at the local hardware big box store. It was marked down to a very low price but still had several buds yet to open. Score.





Lemon Fresh

This was part of a lesson from Jane Lafazio's online class. I should have made more of a page of it but the lemon looked so bright and fresh that I could not bring myself to mess with it. And so, the lonely lemon.




Sunday, November 3, 2013

More Hips

I spent an afternoon volunteering at my friend's art gallery. I snipped some rose hips before I left home, wrapping them carefully in a cloth, more to protect me than the rose hips. Gosh those rose thorns are sharp and spiky. The gallery was quiet on All Hallow's Eve, so I took the time to slowly look at the rose hips and eventually cut one in half to see the seeds. I love the way the watercolour makes the hips glow and look shiny.