(with ladybirds, butterflies and singing birds)
Autumn has been like summer and the warm days have given us time to have “painting picnics”.
My artist daughter Sam and I have been exploring the Vale of Wardour near Tisbury in Wiltshire. A truly magical place with an enchanting castle almost hidden by the trees.
On our first picnic we were surrounded by swarms of harlequin ladybirds. They filled the air, landed on our paintings and settled in thousands on the old castle walls.
We had to eat our second picnic in the car …..
After walking uphill beyond the castle in the gentle rain through the beech and chestnut woods. Many of the trees were still green, some had changed to gold and the singing birds made it feel like spring!
The third picnic was on a gloriously warm, sunny day just before the wind changed and the arctic chill arrived. This time we sat in a field with butterflies! They fluttered and settled on the yellow daisy flowers – and then disappeared into the grasses.
The clocks have gone back and days are getting shorter – Sam and I are already planning winter/Christmas painting picnics with mulled wine and mince pies.
With less daylight hours painting becomes more difficult but we will try and go out earlier and grab every minute of light possible.
It is now September – almost Autumn and after a long hot summer the warm days linger on. Sweden has had its hottest summer ever.
Fields of red clover and wild flowers still in bloom, create a food larder for the bees and mushrooms appear in the dew soaked grass under the ancient oaks.
Everywhere trees are laden with apples, acorns, chestnuts and rowan berries.
It is difficult to see the birds in the forest -it is dark and silent.
Leaving our hotel on the hillside overlooking the Baltic Sea – the woods open out onto meadows. We spot nuthatches and red squirrels, bluetits, chaffinches, willow warblers and woodpeckers. Nature comes alive here.
Sweden is a land of light and dark – it will be difficult to capture its essence. Granite rocks, dense woodland, wide open farmland and ever changing skies. Painting the wild landscape will be a challenge and so little time to study it before returning to gentle Dorset.
At last it has rained. The grass is becoming green, the roses are blooming again and wildflowers are growing in our lawn. It’s bee heaven. Even gardening in the soft, warm rain is a joy.
Clusters of red and orange berries are already in profusion – a sign I think of an early autumn? Who knows, our climate and weather is so unpredictable but I still look forward to a “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” .
It is nearly September and every evening dusk comes earlier. The sunsets in the Blackmore Vale have been beautiful and there will be many more if the rain is brief and the sun returns. Welcoming the sun and the rain, it would be nice to feel that we receive both in equal measure but at the moment it seems that it may well be all or nothing.
To paint end of summer and early autumn colours will be my inspiration. We are lucky to have four seasons and all that they bring to us – colour and light changing constantly.
The sizzling summer sun keeps shining and the heat goes on.
Breathing in the cool air in the morning before sun-up and sitting in the garden at sundown are the best moments of the day for me. Deep blue skies have replaced the greys and neutral tones of a cold spring. To paint a cloudless blue sky is quite a challenge – it is a rare thing and more often seen in mediterranean countries.
Every evening as the sun sets the sky becomes orange/pink/violet – breathtakingly beautiful.
The vale of Blackmore at sunset resembles a Tuscan landscape and the lovely Purbeck hills change from slate blue to purple.
The heatwave will end and rain will come and the grass will become green again but for now I will simply enjoy taking time out to embrace these special summer moments.
June is blooming. May blossom and bluebells have gone, elderflowers and foxgloves take their place. The buttercup fields on the edge of Gillingham have escaped housing developments, (so far). The footpath across the meadows is hidden by beautiful yellow flowers. Kneeling down I took a picture and stayed for a while just looking.
“Where every flower that was not a buttercup was a daisy” – Thomas Hardy…
“He was a man who used to notice such things” – Thomas Hardy
And so to the Chesil Beach – from North Dorset to the Jurassic coast. Wild flowers everywhere – the pebbles are transformed into a beach garden. Completely natural – not a gold medal winning Chelsea garden, this is a garden created by nature alone. One of my favourite places to find inspiration for painting.
Kew gardens were spectacular – immersed in May blossom. cow parsley, pink campion and daisies in profusion, the natural beauty of the wild flowers (in my mind )stole the show.
The regiments of purple alliums in the wide borders and the brilliant colours of the rhodedendrons are for most people the main attraction but in the dappled sunlight of the woodland – the trees and wild flowers had a special magic and the carpets of daisies created a dusting of white on the green lawns.
In the buttercup meadows of Ham, by the river Thames, the hustle and bustle of Waterloo Station seemed a long way off… cows grazing in Petersham farm meadows completed the picture. Constable would have been happy painting there.
In Dorset… on the Somerset and Wiltshire borders.
The warm spring sunshine continues and I find myself in Penselwood walking through bluebells. The lanes are edged in a haze of white, green and pink – cowparsley and campions.
Monet would have been happy painting here.
From the soft colours of the Dorset landscape in spring , the vibrant colours of Spain are certainly challenging to paint. I only have a few days to feel the sense of place.
With the blue mediterranean sea on one side and the Parc natural del Garraf on the other – the land and earth in between is red interspersed with bright yellow broom flowers and cascading mimosa trees dripping with blossom.
A stunning picture of Blue – red – yellow. Everything in nature creates a natural balance in colour.
The high hills of the Garraf can be explored by walking dusty trails deep into the scrub and forest but compared to the Purbeck Hills and Studland peninsular they look almost inaccessable.
The Costa Dourada of Catalonia and the Jurassic Coast of Dorset – from the sublime to the beautiful…
Red Earth
The equinox has come and gone and the clocks have moved forward 1 hour – but
the wind still comes from the north and the east and it feels more like winter than spring.
Spring has been on hold for a while now and there could be more snow to come they tell us and so we wait patiently for warmer days.
Contrasting days of clouds and sunshine, brief moments of warmer air then chill winds, rain, snow, ice. Grey sky days and rare blue sky days.
The pussy willow by the river Stour is beautiful, silvery white against a blue sky.
At Arne nature reserve the woodland is dark, silent, no birds singing but at Shipstal point the oyster catchers feed in the shallow waters and egrets can be seen in the reed beds.
Silver birch at Arne
The Chesil beach will soon become a garden of sea pinks and yellow horn poppies. The dark shoots of sea kale are just peeping through the pebbles. On the heath the bright yellow gorse is in flower.
Spring is definitely in the air – almost!
It’s February and just when you think spring is just around the corner, the arctic winds continue to blow across the winter landscape and it feels colder than ever.
Walking along the trailway from historic Shillingstone station in north Dorset we were able to shelter from the wind and pause many times to look at the river Stour winding its way through the meadows. Facing the towering Iron Age hill fort of Hambledon Hill we sat in a bird hide hoping we may spot a kingfisher or even an otter!
We were stopped in our tracks by the sight of trees covered in beautiful yellow green catkins. The sky became blue, the sun came out and we suddenly felt as if spring really was just around the corner.
At Sturminster mill overlooking the river Stour we sat in our car enjoying a winter picnic when we saw a flash of blue. A kingfisher was flying across the fast flowing water of the weir and landed on a tree in front of us. Unlike us it didn’t pause for long – just a few seconds of magic.
The Mill on the Stour – Sturminster Newton, Dorset.
The days are lengthening slowly, winter storms come and go, the sun feels warmer out of the wind.
Sometimes it feels like spring and then the icy arctic weather returns.
Walking in the winter trees at Kingston Lacey in Dorset the snowdrops are beginning to cover the ground with a white carpet of tiny flowers – not yet at their peak of whiteness but a magical sight nevertheless.
Suddenly we look up and the sky has changed from blue to a dark metallic grey and it’s raining again. Our moment in the sun in the snowdrops was brief but beautiful.
Finding More Inspiration – on our doorstep.
Walking beyond housing developments in Wyke , the outskirts of Gillingham become farms and fields again – an open country landscape.
We discover another mill sketched by Constable at Eccliffe – deep in a valley overlooking the river Stour. It is a day without light – grey clouds pour across the wintry sky and all we can hear is the wind and the water tumbling over the weir below us.
We are sheltered by the high banks on either side of this part of the Stour valley – the fast trains from London to Exeter roar past us on one of these and the other is a green sloping field.
The Stour gently flows on… “stealing away like time” as Thomas Hardy said. The sky grows darker, we have to leave this quiet place and make our way back to the busy, noisy Gillingham town traffic. For a short while we have been able to imagine it as it once was over 150 years ago.
Autumn trees on the Stour. Lin Adams.
In Bygone Days – there were castles and forests , silk mills, corn mills, water wheels, hidden springs and ancient tracks.
Mere , Gillingham, Bourton, Milton on Stour and Silton still have traces of these Bygone Days but Mere and Gillingham are steadily growing at a pace and new housing developments spring up it seems overnight!
Behind Purns Mill, Gillingham
We walked in John Constable’s footsteps towards Purns Mill. He painted this Mill and waterwheel a few years before it burnt down. There is still a mill by the Shreen at this spot and as we stopped to listen to the rushing water by the side of the mill we imagined how it must have been over 200 hundred years ago. The little bridge beside the ford is enchanting and the noisy Gillingham traffic still avoids this deep water obstacle. It is a peaceful place to pause and reflect.
The Ford near Gillingham
Two entrancing thatched cottages remain, hidden from view, behind Waitrose car park – their gardens full of flowers , vegetables and chickens! We step back in time.
The serenity of walking by the Shreen waters in Mere was a joy. Finding hidden corners where mills once flourished, water wheels now still – no longer turning, was captivating. A patchwork of footpaths criss cross Mere and one of these took us along the shallow river up to a tiny hamlet on a hill, a short walk away from the frenetic dual carriageway. Just below the spring line a mill with waterwheel (now a private home) stands at the beginning of the Shreen.
Climbing the castle hill – sadly no castle now – the views were amazing and worth the climb! Little is left of the Gillingham Forest but there are still remnants of mixed woodland and the autumn colours were beautiful.
After crossing Lordsmead Meadow (Lordsmead Mill is still there but private) we found a small bridge over the Shreen and eventually the path arrived at Woodlands Road, where we were met with a housing development in its early stage of groundwork preparation.
The Shreen waters
Gillingham has already been developed on all sides. Wonderful names like Peacemarsh and Bay are now mainly housing estates. The names remind us of quieter times.
Bourton Mill – unlike Constable finding Purns Mill we were too late to see this Mill – it has just been demolished to make way for a small housing development. We managed to get a glimpse of the mill pond after walking up Kites Nest hill but gave up on finding the ancient Saxon boundary marker called Egberts stone. The road past the mill had been closed but maybe next spring we will try again.
The river Stour at Stourhead springs into action gently, slowly gathering momentum until it reaches the sea. In Bourton the Stour is a stream and becomes a brook meandering past Milton on Stour into Gillingham. Touching the Shreen waters before continuing through the Stour Valley. Lots more to discover and paint – we will return soon… must be quick before the landscape changes forever.
The last leaves of Autumn
The autumn sunshine in Dorset is glorious – the trees are gradually turning to gold and red and my memories of Monchique in Portugal are beginning to fade already.
Monchique
Still – I have my sketches and postcard size paintings to work from to create bigger pictures. My art studio in Shaftesbury is a few minutes walk away from stunning views of the Blackmore Vale – a gentle English landscape. Hilly Portugal is a different landscape but both are equally inspiring to paint.
Returning to England from the heat of Portugal, the air is cool and there is a strong breeze but the sun is shining and the sky is a light shade of cobalt blue .
Peacocks and red Admirals gather nectar from the last remaining flowers on the buddleia and wild asters.
Despite the wind there are hot spots along the pathway that crosses the wetlands and reedbeds.
Autumn is here but the butterflies still think it’s summer!
High up in the beautiful hills of Monchique in the Algarve, the owls are calling to each other and the starry night is gradually changing from darkness to light.
Only at dawn does the sky become violet , pink and then apricot. It’s nearly the end of September and the endless blue skies and hot sun make painting in watercolour so difficult – I should have brought my acrylics! There are no gentle tones of colour here – everything is touched and scorched by the blazing sunlight.
Sunsets and pink dawns – that is what I will paint, seeking the shade of the eucalyptus trees during the day.