The dead heading of roses is a sad task but eventually new buds will come. I am trying very hard to keep the roses blooming – I don’t paint them but simply enjoy their beauty and fragrance which carries on the wind.
It is beyond mid summer and the days become shorter minute by minute. Hardly noticeable yet. Sunset skies, gentle twilight, and early dawns still continue to give an abundance of light and it is good to be outside absorbing as much of it as possible.
Standing in fields of poppies, wild flowers and orchids recently, I remembered it wasn’t that long ago – about 2 months- I was walking in bluebell woods and spring flowering meadows.
Our garden lawn was covered in buttercups and daisies ……….. now we have a carpet of white clover and purple self heal. The bees are having a wonderful time.
Fruit is forming on the apple and damson trees and it won’t be long before the elderflower berries turn dark purple – a forever changing colourscape.
Summer Meadow
Painting white… painting green… it’s all about the trees.
May blossom has fallen and the cow parsley is fading to green but there are signs of delicate elderflowers appearing … the hedgerows and our garden have been overflowing with whiteness since the blackthorn appeared in early spring.
It is calming and restful.
How to paint white? Is it a natural pure colour or tinged with gentle shades of green, browns and subtle pinks.
It is tempting to add colour – but which colour?
Our daisy lawns are beautiful and when the sun shines on the buttercups the colours of nature compliment the gentle pinks and purples of the flower borders.
Spring is over too quickly – Maytime and cuckoos, bluebells and song birds, waking early to hear the dawn chorus.
June will soon be “busting out all over”.
Chilly winds and blackthorn blossom remind me that summer isn’t quite here but as the clocks go forward the light lasts longer and for an artist this is pure joy.
There have been many grey skies since the Spring equinox and it is such a treat to be enjoying the sunshine on a blue sky day. Our spring garden is full to bursting with yellow celandine and hazy blue rosemary. Silver birch, hazel and ash trees are waking up – and if I sit still I can almost see the leaf buds opening.
My daughter and I are discovering ancient sunken paths, stone markers, hidden lakes and ponds in the countryside near Tisbury in Wiltshire. Climbing up a narrow, steep track with Castle Ditches an iron age hill fort on our left and Swallowcliffe woods on our right, we paused to listen to the sound of green woodpeckers, drink tea and eat chocolate cake. A perfect setting for a Spring picnic!
Blue bells are just starting to come into flower. Wood anemones and primroses are scattered on the mossy banks.
Painting springtime will be energising. Woodland walks with primroses and Dorset heathland trails with golden gorse are waiting for me to get out there and feel the colour.
Leaving a bleak winter in England behind us we arrived in Portugal …… soon to be in Spain. Two countries divided by the river Guadiana. From the Algarve to the Costa de la Luz, the border crossing is easy – no checks here – one of the benefits of being in the European community!
Everything in Spain appears to be on a much larger scale ……… the intensive farming, (mono culture,)strawberry fields forever (under plastic). Oranges and almond trees grown in vast monotonous rows. However, spending time in the Donana National park and the Bay of Cadiz, we discovered beautiful unspoilt marshlands where spoonbills and storks feed in the shallow water and reed beds. Hotels and villas continue to spread ever closer but for the moment there appears to be a pause in developing the increasingly rare nature areas along the coast.
Vista de la Bahia de Cadiz
Strong northerly winds keep the temperature cool – really chilly! Then the wind drops, blue skies return the sun shines and the heat of the land creates a profusion of yellow flowers in the orchards and wild areas.
Returning to Portugal the almond blossom, white gorse and wild flowers are in full swing. The landscape is more intimate and small pretty farmhouses can still be found everywhere. My favourite place, the Ria Formosa estuary is enchanting and tranquil.
We watch spoonbills, egrets and herons feeding and our minds become still.
Almond blossom time
Capturing the essence of Spain and Portugal is a wonderful challenge. The light is strong, sunsets incredibly rich in colour, skies deep blue. We will soon be returning to England – winter grey skies, but Spring is not far away and the days will be getting longer. Snowdrops and daffodils, Blackthorn blossom followed by Hawthorn. Even a few blue sky days! There is never a reason not to paint.
Sunset in Cadiz
Christmas has passed, January is here and sunlight is a rare thing.
Walking on the footpath towards King Alfred’s Tower at Stourhead in Wiltshire I turned left went through a gate and found a hidden lake. Small pockets of woodland, remnants of the great Selwood Forest cover the slopes of the valley. Climbing a hill to stand under an ancient oak I paused to enjoy the sunshine. The gentle light softened the dark silhouettes of the leafless trees. It was so quiet and peaceful – winter sun is beautiful.
Returning home from Shaftesbury – after a typical gloomy grey day – a winter sunset lit up the sky over the Blackmore Vale. It was extraordinary, breathtaking and uplifting.
A brief unexpected brilliance.
(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.
