Saturday 17 January 2009

CHAPEL LANE WINTER PLANTS

A little bit of nature's brightness to cheer us up in winter:



Despite a winter so far here in East anglia including little bit of snow, sleet, rain, fog and freezing temperatures, on a stroll one sunny day last week I spied all these brave plants growing in the hedgerow opposite our houses in the lane. Some may have been planted a while back by neighbours or our predecessors, as I dont think they are all wild. Must be very sheltered here for them to continue to show their lovely faces here in the middle of January. I leave you to name them.

Just to prove the fog element of our winter weather of late here's a photo from my study window looking past the apple tree (with pigeons or doves) to the church tower in the mist one morning.


I've been playing with my YUPO 'paper' and finding it much more difficult than putting watercolour onto gesso. Oh well, I think I must forget trying to achieve a 'picture' and just play with colour and techniques. I've bought some rollers (smooth sponge) to blend the colours side by side or smooth an area so maybe I'll end up with an abstract effect. I'll keep you posted!

6 comments:

Margaret Ann said...

Beautiful shote...the hedgerow...as well as the fog. I remeber the hedgerow of Englad from a trip a I took another lifetime ago...they fascinated me then...and still do...I onlu wish I sketched back then as a more serious artist.

To answer your zentangle question...I don't think there are any rules...as far as I know...which is not much...it's artist's free choice of media! WooHoo! :)

Can't wait to see your Yupo work.

Sandy Maudlin said...

Beautiful photos of hope for spring. Thanks for posting them.
YUPO- try the rollers, blotting with a flat tissue or one all crumbled up, using a window washing squeegee to 'spread' out the paint - thicker paint, not juicy wet or it all wipes off. Took me 2 years to finally feel like I knew a little about how to make it work. It was well worth it tho and I keep learning. Most of all, have fun. Spray it, tap color in spot at a time, let the colors charge into each other.....
Good luck.

RH Carpenter said...

Lovely photos, especially foggy old England :) I love fog - the quiet that settles down over everything - the mist that hints of things ahead. I was going to give you some pointers on the yupo but I see Sandy Maudlin posted and she's the Mistress of Yupo (seriously good at making it do what she wants and letting it do its own thing at the same time). So no need to hear anything from me - afterall, I learned it all from her!

Anita said...

Lovely photos - they don't look wintery at all! I like fog too - its so long since I have seen any though. Its like a comforting blanket.
I've heard Yupo is hard to work with - nice to be able to play with something new.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Glad you all liked these photos of local nature. I could not resist the foggy tree with the birds sitting there which I spied early one morning from my study window.

Thanks for the YUPO advice Sandy - definitely going to play.

Robyn Sinclair said...

Wonderful photo of the doves, Joan.