Winter Green.
When we decided to replan and redecorate the room I use as a studio we knew exactly the colour we wanted for the chimney breast. The green of our local harbours in the winter.
Colour chart investigating led us to Hesper.
The name intrigued me and a little googling took me not to the sea but to a Mexican Palm Tree.
Now I am wondering if I could grow a Blue Hesper Palm in the yard. More googling, perhaps not.
But for now we have a Hesper chimney breast.
Colours are fascinating.
Yesterday was a great day of life imitating art and glorious colour.
This magnificent tree was on my walk to my favourite haberdashery store. Where I needed to buy a spring green thread.
I just caught the tree in his skeletal form before the sunshine brought on Spring growth.
I was also on the search for some orange buttons. My favourite navy blue cardigan has contrasting (non-contrasting) dark brown buttons. Every time I put the cardigan on I feel the energy drain away from my soul . Dark Brown with Navy Blue! Make at 140 saved the day.
Now things are much more joyful.
Joyful too was the end to a recycling project. I store bigger, older canvasses in the garage. I had three, all the same size that I was planning to paint over once the weather improved. A couple of weeks ago I discovered that the local mice had started a recycling project of their own. Two were unusable but one was in perfect condition. Their nests must be in glorious technicolour. I haven’t painted many large paintings since the Covid lockdowns. Smaller watercolours or prints have been my thing since then. I wondered how two years of painting small would have affected painting big. I also now live in an urban and maritime environment rather than rolling countryside. My subject matter, this week, was a curious mix of urban and natural.
We live in an area with lots of old concrete built as defences for the Naval Dockyard and Port of Plymouth. Some of the older concrete is a bit battered and breaking down. Nature manages to find a way of rehabilitating the ugly angular shapes. In this picture Sea Holly fills the gaps
How has two years of small watercolour painting and some printing affected the bigger picture?
Confidence I think, in painting with colours that I would not naturally use much of , and accuracy in creating layers. Spending time with the bobbers, some of whom are obsessed with turquoise and blues. Just for comfort’s sake, I hid my favourite reds, golds and purples in the underpainting.
Erygerum and Concrete is ready for some Summer exhibitions. I am so glad the sun is out and life is full of colour again.
Sunday musings on a sun lounger. Not everything goes to plan. This is true in real life, just as it is in pandemic life. I’ve always been accepting of the wonderful John Lennon lyric.
‘ Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans’
I’m surprised by the accepting way the whole world has taken to changing its plans, very little protest and a lot of understanding.
Things happen @theoldmortuary, under normal circumstances,that I had never even considered needed plans. A trip to the supermarket, coffee with friends, weekends with our family. These things happened, sometimes spontaneously with very little thought. Now doing anything takes great thought and the mundane has become something to dress up for and revel in, when three months ago it would have been a chore.
This weekend would not have been mundane.We should be exhausted and bursting with ideas and inspiration. This would have been a weekend in London soaking up the buzz and vibrancy of our favourite city.
Friday would have seen us at The Chelsea Flower Show, but like everything it has been cancelled.
The rest of the weekend would have been spent with friends and family in various parts of the city. Our hair would be cut, our minds would be restocked with happiness and great ideas, some shopping might have occured and, by now, we would be on the A303 chattering about everything and, in particular, how much our garden would be tweaked. Chelsea and Hampton Court are the two flower shows that inspire us.
I’m not actually dwelling on the might- have-been because there is a future out there for most of us , we just have to wait a bit to experience it. Today I should have been spending four hours on the road but actually I’ve spent four hours in the garden enjoying some of the stuff we’ve learnt in the past, at Chelsea, and the washing is dry.
So a Sunday, not as planned, but a Sunday full to the brim of unplanned loveliness.
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