Rose – Pierre De Ronsard (WIP)

This is my latest work in progress and my favourite rose in the garden at the moment.  It is a big call to name my favourite rose, but Pierre wins.  Old fashioned roses are my favourite, the abundance of petals and the heavenly scent are major points in their favour.  I love the way the colours move from cream with a hint of green on the outside, to cream with a flush of pink on the edges in the middle, to a beautiful subtle pink in the centre.  The combination of cream and pink with the hint of apple green is stunning in this rose.

This particular climber has been in my garden for over eight years and is well established and producing magnificent blooms.  I find that my roses produce better blooms the older they get.  This is especially true for the old fashioned roses who tend to ball (go brown at the bud stage and never open) when young.

I have drawn this rose in my usual style with a under wash of sennelier ink then coloured pencil over the top.  It has been a great deal of fun to get back into this work again after a bit of a break and I have really enjoyed working with the beautiful colours of this rose and the challenge of making shadows in the cream rose work.  There is nothing like drawing a flower to make you really understand and appreciate it.

 

It has been ages since I last posted and the past 12 months have been very difficult.  My Mum passed away this time last year and after caring for her for so long and other major life crisis following on, I haven’t had the energy to keep the blog going.  My final blow was being made redundant a couple of months ago, just when you think it couldn’t get worse it does.  But it was a blessing in disguise and it has given me time to re-evaluate and make some new choices on what I would like my life to be like.  One of the clearest decisions was to take the opportunity to follow my art more seriously.  So for the last month I have been preparing my website and deciding on some business strategies and am looking forward to telling you all about them in the next post.

Karen

 

Late Autumn Sun

Late Autumn sun, Ink and water colour journal page

The sun streams into my cottage at this time of year and it is just wonderful to sit on the coach in the sun and look out onto my new garden.  I tried to catch the look of the sunshine through the french doors as it filtered through the dark, red, grape-vine leaves.  As I sit and look at this picture again I am torn, it is close to the feeling I wanted, but not yet there.  I have fiddled with it a bit, but will have to walk away now as more will ruin what I have gained so far.

Late autumn sunshine photo reference

Here is the photo I used as the reference, although I did crop the image for the drawing.  Even posting this I can see the issues, will I ever get my darks and lights bold enough?  I have spent ages working on colour and I am happy with that, but struggle now with the contrast.

Work in progress

Here is a WIP photo of when I had just started adding colour, part of me thinks I should have stopped there.

Work in progress

Here is another as I struggle with the balance of the drawing, I was not happy with the doors and went back and darkened the background to make the rest pop.

Well it is always great to challenge ourselves and I will give this another try with different sketch later. Always another day, another page in the journal and more winter sun.

Rosella in the rose hedge

Here is a picture of a Rosella just outside the window to cheer us all up, as it is a cold, wet, windy day here today, even the bird is all fluffed up.

Karen

Settling In

Bounty in a mid- century kitchen Water colour and ink

It is Sunday night and for the first time (in more time then I care to remember), I am tired after spending time in the garden doing physical activity.  Nothing beats the feeling of putting your feet up at the end of the day after you have really achieved something.

I have been working on three gardens this weekend.  One garden has the straw bales seasoned and it has just been sown with beautiful flower seeds.  I did start planting them out in a careful pattern, but sowing seed is harder then it looks as some where so tiny, so as usual the great plan was thrown over to a more adhoc system.  Another garden has had the straw bales laid out and it will be planted with peas and beans, its seasoning process has begun.  The other garden has been planned and the plants ordered, it will be a 17 metre long rose garden, under-planted with lavender and catmint.   We have chosen mostly old fashioned scented roses going from a deep red, through the pinks to white.  You have no idea how much fun it is to order 19 roses at once.

The double page spread

During the week I stayed at a friend’s house, she is an amazing cook and adores all things mid-century.  I bought her some local produce and she displayed them in her new Lucie Kaas bowls.  This is her picture, but I loved the composition so much I had to draw it.  It shows three things close to her heart, great produce, great design and her kitchen.  What’s not to love.

Karen

A New Start

View From my door May 2016 Pen and water colour pencil

The move has occurred and I have begun to settle in and even found enough time from the unpacking to do a quick sketch.  It is so good to be back in Castlemaine full-time, (will almost I still go to Melbourne two days a week for work) and I can finally get to play in my garden.  Lots to do and lots to plan.  Next to my art, creating gardens is my favourite thing and at the rate I move around, creating gardens is what I end up doing, rather than watching them age and mature.

This is the view out of my front door, of the old pepper-corn tree with the bird feeder and elk-horn plant.  The crimson rosellas are frequenting the feeder again as I am able to keep it topped up for them.  It is so lovely to have their flashes of colour in the garden.  There are also blue wrens hopping around and I will be drawing them in upcoming works.

I like to think of gardening as drawing and designing in 3D, with the added bonus of scent.  The garden will be a major inspiration for my art, so dear readers you will be seeing the creation of the garden along with the creation of the art.

I have done lots of researching on sustainable gardening techniques including permaculture and have found that you can make straw bale gardens.  You use strawbales and start them decomposing and then plant into them.  They will last about 12 months before they break down too much and you use them as mulch.  I am going to use some for the vege patch and others for an annual flower garden.  I will share the results with you.  Lots of pretty flowers with an abundance of gorgeous scent.

Start of the strawbale garden

So hopefully I will be making pretty things and getting enough sleep.  The recipe for a happy life.

Karen