An hour's drawing distilled

A last minute decision on the morning of May 30th had me cycling over to Elvaston Castle to join in a drawing workshop.

I hadn't cycled that way for years, and was glad of the map facility on my phone. 

It was a cool somewhat damp day, which made the journey easier. 

3/4 hour after leaving home I arrived and was very glad that I was wearing multiple layers as I could strip down to cool off.

I settled down with my favourite fine drawing pen and a sheet of A4 paper, and looked around at the various natural items laid out for inspiration.

The gall on the windowsill above was one of the first to catch my eye.

Later on as I cooled off I roamed the room seeking inspiration, and found this great seedcase, possibly from a verbascum or eremurus.

Towards the end of the hour this was my sheet.

Next I needed to apply the scissors and censor my work.

A handy square of black paper helped in this matter. 

I selected items that could be cut out without losing their integrity, and came up with this arrangement.

The images were a hotchpotch of different scales and both from birds and plant material.

(I have no idea how, if at all, my drawings might get used in the inspiration for archways in a garden there.)

I enjoyed myself on the way home taking more time on my journey, stopping off in Draycott to visit the Beetroot Tree gallery. 

My only regret of the day was that two days later I was told of an app that I could have used to track my journey on my phone.

This week's garden favourites

A few minutes ago I was inspired to go round the garden with a camera. I am waiting for some laundry to finish, and this was a fun way to pass the time.

Firstly, right at the back door, and now fortunately elsewhere, a hardy geranium. I think that this is Geranium oxonianum thurstonianum.

Then one that I haven't been able to identify yet. We call it "small white", although it is slightly off white. It grows like mad and seeds itself everywhere, but is easy to identify at a young stage.

This allium is nearly through with flowering, but has been looking splendid for the past couple of weeks.

Phacelia gets sown as a green manure in our raised vegetable beds, and I always try to keep it growing until it flowers. The form of the flowers and the scent make it one of my favourites.

I think that this is a Tiarella. It is an unassuming plant that has spread to a few locations over the year. The tiny flowers start off cream and turn red with time/pollination? 

We have finally established flag irises in the margins of our pond.

The small maple tree we moved in 1995 has more flowers on it than ever.

The first few of these poppies are out, and as you can see a snail has climbed into the centre. That doesn't worry me as then it isn't eating my salad leaves.

Our viburnam is just getting going.

We have aquilegias all over the place, and frequently pull them up.

Blue flowers don't photograph well for me, but the form shows even if the colour is distorted.

What a weekend!

Way back at the beginning of the year I put in my entry as an individual artist in Derbyshire Open Arts. 

Knowing that I would be showing both knitted wire and porcelain, I combined the two in an image. 

This was fun, as it is hard to tell the scale of the work from the image.

Towards the end of March the brochures were delivered to the studio, and I could start handing them out.

The entries for Long Eaton Art Room looked good together.

In the meantime, at the Art Room much organising was going on to showcase the various activities we provide.

Then came an unexpected bonus. 

I was mentioned in the Artsbeat May issue article about Derbyshire Open Arts. 

During the weekend I know that at least two people not from our area were prompted to visit as a result of seeing this mention.

I tweaked my studio to show off my latest work, and added a vase full of flowers from our garden. 

Knitted wire was shown at the window so that it glistened in the sunshine from around three in the afternoon.

 Porcelain was laid out rather in the manner of archaeological finds elsewhere in the studio.
Several people mentioned this. Maybe the couple of summers I spent in Cyprus on a dig are showing their influence.

Over the course of the three days I didn't venture far from my studio, mainly popping in to see the other studio spaces upstairs.

On Sunday the Henna Fairy was plying her art, and I was quick to take advantage.

Here is how it looked four days later, but today you'd have to use a lot of imagination to trace the remains of the design.