New Painting

Well, it isn't actually a painting, yet, but I have started the studies for it.  It's complicated:

Here is Tuesday's work.  It's a pencil drawing that was started in class and continued at home.  The photo was taken in the evening so all I had was electric light.  The paper looks very peculiar, but at least you can see the subject - a group of musicians.

Tonight I added a few details and started work on the female singer/drummer.  I don't have the angle of her head right so it will have to go.  Tomorrow I will start over - she's also too close to the clarinetist - there's no room for her drum!  

The composition needs thinking about - there's a dog to add and the background hinted at.  The musicians may need to be spread out a bit even though this is the way they were seated when I took the original photo.  

I'll wait and see. As I said in the beginning of this entry - it's complicated.

Monthly Garden - Front Yard, July 15, 2014

This year I have determined to take photographs of the garden and post them at monthly intervals.  Of course, the problem with that is one misses really special occurrences and weather can wreak havoc in between.  None the less, it does help to keep track of what's going on because it is the best way to judge what works and what doesn't over a period of time.  Something that is really lovely one day may have only that one day of beauty and ninety days of lumpishness.

 Front yard: copse, June 15, 2014

 Front yard: copse, July 15, 2014

The hostas have bloomed and are past, the big pot our daughter gave her dad can't be seen in this shot, but the plants in it can, and the annuals have begun to fill out.  I'm not sold on these new Wave petunias, yet, though.

Front yard: berm. June 15, 2014

Front yard: berm. July 15, 2014

I will have to check the angle of the previous month's photos before I take that month's.  Otherwise it is hard to see what is going on.  Here the perennials and the annuals are both coming along nicely.  I love that new delphinium and the white cosmos behind it are filling out a bit.  As I couldn't find any more of them, I plan to add six white cleome tomorrow.  The gooseneck loosestrife (lysimachia) is blooming nicely, and I'm very glad I was ruthless with it in the spring.  There are still a few odd runners showing up here and there, but when the bloom period is over, those wanderers will be pulled out.

Front yard: fernery, June 15, 2014

Front yard: porch railing pot, June 15, 2014

Front yard: fernery and porch railing pot, June 15, 2014

Both the fernery and the railing pot are growing well; all the rain we've had is helping and I'm trying to feed on a regular basis (well, more regular than usual).  The bright red coleus you can see in the fernery in June were transplanted to the big white pot.

Front yard: porch planter, June 15, 2014

This wasn't photographed in June as I didn't plant it until after the fifteenth.  You can see familiar plants from the front yard, but I used eucalyptus in this pot which I've never had in the garden before (only dried in the house).  It's doing well so far.  I wonder if it will carry over the winter in the house?

Dilemma: What to Paint

It is possible to have too many possible subjects for painting, I have discovered.  The most recent attempt has been shelved for a while as I was getting frustrated with my inability to put on paper what was in my head.  

Tuesday I did a drawing that was intended as a study for a painting.  It turned out all right.  If anything it turned out too well because I thought I'd "said" all I intended to "say" without painting the subject.  

However, there is a painting that has been lurking in the corners of my mind for some time now; it's another one from New Orleans.  That's a little surprising because I would have thought England would be clamoring for attention as a subject or seventeen due to our recent trip.  Writing this blog and posting photographs should have cemented it.

Such is not the case.  Flowers and pretty gardens aren't calling my name . . . yet, though I know they will.  I even have a folder of photos that I've labeled "Paint Worthy" - rather pretentious, but at least I can find the pictures when I'm ready.

I guess this entry has been an exploration of possibilities, and in its usual circuitous way, my brain has found its answer.  

New Orleans it will be.

Chelsea #2

The first photo today should have been with yesterday's series on the Potters, but I overlooked it.  Frankly, I think the Fates are enjoying having me eat my words; yesterday I should have said that I don't ordinarily like lupines, but I'm close to changing my mind due to the colors in which they are now available (and I've had to say that in one form or another frequently in the England trip entries!).  Here again in this photo are lupines in a glistening white that would be stupendous in my white flower garden . . .  So instead of "Another view of the Potters' garden" I'll simply call it:

White lupines.

Ideas abounded in the Chelsea Garden show and one was unique/clever ways to show case plants, flowers, areas of garden, hardscape, etc.  The geometric shape formed by the pavers in the above picture is lovely.  That may be moss or creeping jenny or a sedum, I didn't take a note of it.

I think this would do nicely in my garden, don't you?

D was quite fascinated by these planting walls that we saw in several different places.  This one is a frees-standing wall with "pockets" constructed so plants can grow and water drain out of said pockets.  Lovely for height in the back of a garden, as a screen hiding oh, say, a garbage can, or as a stand alone for shade or just pleasure. 

A unique way to hang a planter - note the "ceiling" above; great for a garden party.

The two photographs above show ways to have standing planters with the planter itself hidden by the plants.  That would take a lot of advance planning!

Sigh.  Lupines again.  I like the colors in this one.

Now inside the BIG building to see plants out of a garden setting for the most part.

And one of my "must-haves" in next year's garden is this particular form of allium (all allium were very, very popular every where we went and with good reason).  This one, my favorite, is Allium schubertii.

Now I'm going a bit rose-mad . . .  bear with me.

Next time I go to tea, I want it to be like this - even the food was infused with roses.

Ah, a clematis; this one is "Empress".

This shrub (Ceanothus 'Concha') was all over the place, and I do mean all  over.  It is one I had never seen before and with that color I would have remembered.  We saw it spilling over walls almost everywhere we turned.

Such a little plant with such a BIG color!

Ah, the Bird of Paradise; isn't it lovely against the hot pink behind it?

The color and shape of this flower - well, it's just a knock-out!

And now, I think, this is really the end of the journal of England's Great Gardens.

Chelsea Garden Show #1

How could I have forgotten the very first place we visited?  Possibly because it was so overwhelming, and I had so many photographs to sort through?  Probably.  Anyway, while not the largest flower show in the world, it is close, and it was very crowded as one would expect.

Some of these photographs may have been shown in the very beginning and some as Flower Portraits, but I decided to show them all as part of this particular facet of our trip.  As you look at them, remember the anniversary of D-Day was coming up, and this show was dedicated to the memory of that day in particular and WWII in general.

D is holding our ticket, and if you look at the print at the lower left, you will see how much a ticket cost.  Enough to say it is pricey but not when you realize what you will be seeing.

We saved the tent for last.

You will finally be shown a lot of flower and plant material today - no doors or windows or odd birds . . .

But, of course, there will be water features.  I'd love to have something like this!

Well, this is nice, too, though the unrelieved black (something about the black rubber liner of the pond doesn't have the right quality of blackness to me)  isn't to my taste and where is the fountain?  But this may have been a remembrance garden - one for contemplation, and some find sound distracting.

The colors were wonderful - from dark -

to light.  Lupines are my favorites, as I've probably said before, but the colors in which the are now available?  Oh my!

I love this spikey yellow flower.

A lavender - one with wings but not as fragrant as some.

This is the first of a series on Potters - the sign is at the end.

If you click on this one, you should be able to read it.  Please do, it's worth it.

In this garden (which I really liked) the water ran down the glass wall of this outdoor room (the blue and white porcelain pot is inside - the Imari reflecting ball is in the garden outside)

This reflecting pond was both unique and successful.

How could I pass this up?

It was still early, but the crowds were gathering.

More garden views and flower specimens tomorrow.