Olive sprig

I have decided to apply to join a local Botanical Art society - well, I say join but they haven't said yes yet! In the process of putting together my submission I realise that I haven't really done much in the way of plants or flowers. Or, more accurately, I have tried and found to my dismay that the delicate and subtle textures of petals and leaves are really hard to capture! 

Today I had a go at a simple sprig of olive, but I haven't done particularly well. It just looks messy and grubby and clumsy - because it's thoroughly overworked. The leaves are quite battered and spotted with a bit of disease which I like, and they also genuinely looked much greener than you'd expect. Olive foliage tends to a much softer, glaucous grey-green as a rule, but I wonder if the light bouncing off my yellow walls made the leaves look a bit 'greener'.

I quite like the 'lines', but the surface and textures are bleurgh. Lots of work for me to do on tackling green things then, and this won't be going towards supporting my application.

For comparison, here's an image of the sketch that I used to transfer onto the watercolour paper. I like this better, even though the lines are really heavy and graphic due to the transfer process I used.

Maybe I should try doing some 'proper' black and white botanical/scientific illustrations...

Physalis

Here's a first-try sketch of these funny little fruits. They have several names, mainly called Cape Gooseberries I think, and I've also seen them referred to as 'ground cherries' as well. This fruit is part of the nightshade family - which immediately makes me think they can't be edible* - they are sort of like cherry tomatoes but with a very intense and sharp fruitiness.

The challenge was to capture the reflected light and colour through the papery outer casing. Not entirely successful, but a useful exercise.

* 'Nightshade' always makes the word 'deadly' pop into my head, such an evocative and perfectly gothic name for a poisonous plant! But, this plant family - solanaceae - includes potato, aubergine, tomato and bell and chilli peppers as well as belladonna (nightshade), mandrake, datura and tobacco. 

Nuts in May

Painting is proving very absorbing.

Here's a little clutch of hazelnuts.

I really enjoyed drawing this little twist of seaweed - it has a very old fashioned feel about it, but both times I think I did a less than idea job of the top bits. It was a challenge though, as in fact it is really very black and matt, and I have indulged in a bit of artistic licence to describe the form.

And then my mum's - and dad's - favourite flag iris. Most of my iris, all of which come from the family garden, are pale purple. This one is really dramatic and bold, such a deep maroon, as rich and velvety as a victorian gentleman's smoking jacket. This is a work in progress, though the flower is going over so fast in this warm weather it's a real challenge.

Bitter melon

I saw this curious thing in the new(ish) Indian supermarket near Access to Music/Epic on Magdalen St, and thought it looked like a good subject for a painting. It's a bitter melon, a kind of cucumber/gourd thing, widely used in all Asian cookery. Can't waste it so will be reporting back later on that.

This needs a few tidying touches, but generally I'm pleased. It was daunting - all those knobbles and ridges, and it's not particularly big either, just 20cms tip to tip. I did it roughly to scale though, partly because the paper I have won't let me go much bigger anyway.

I didn't stretch the paper -  I thought it might be heavy enough to not cockle (my new favourite word), but you can clearly see that it did. Not too much, at least not enough to abandon the process.  But now I'll need to attempt a post-painting stretch...lots of people online suggesting it can be done with a steam iron. That sounds drastic, so I'll do a bit of research and a test run before trying it on this.

Two pink ladies

I like me a nice apple. 

Here's another little study, 22 x 13cm, roughly to scale. Inspired by Phil (the wag) who suggested if I painted two apples then I would have a pear! They are and will almost certainly remain unfinished. I let the colour veer off into a rather cox's pippin orange shade, and it was getting increasingly difficult to pull it back to a cooler and sort of less saturated pink that the typical Pink Lady exhibits. As a result they've got a bit 'overworked' and the paper (cheap, but serviceable for learning) won't take much more. 

So I cut my losses and ate them. Delicious.

Oddly, they now look far more convincing in the photo than they do in real life.

bit of painting

As per usual, blog posting has fallen by the wayside. But, after finally getting round to pursuing the urge to do a bit of painting after many (many many many) years of not, I thought it might be a thing to post about my few efforts to date.

It started with wanting to make a birthday gift for my sister, who likes birds, owls in particular. Our mum was a bit of an owl fan. I finally got round to actually doing it, and it worked out ok.

Then somebody expressed serious interest in having a set. I did these and they've gone to their new home.

Then I did a dead daff. I love those plain and unassuming bunches of tightly furled spring daffodils, it's a simple and enchanting magic as they unwrap themselves - often overnight - and then you know that winter won't last much longer, that spring is gathering pace. I'm a complete sucker for a bunch of flowers, and I love it when they go over too, when the petals start drooping, dropping, and drying to an incredibly delicate tissue.

A comment from my son and others prompted me to have a bit of a read about botanical illustration - which has given me plenty of food for thought. As a result, I had a bit of a go at a pair of pears - they seem to be a favourite subject for botanical style watercolour.

And then I had a go at some grapes.

And then an apple. A cheap, un-named eater. I had a few cards printed up, just to see how well it might translate. No frills, but not necessarily bad either. 

That's it for now - so far, so good I guess!