Sweet peas and Flowers in a Jug

Thursday, 31st July

Em, my daughter grows the most fabulous sweet peas - while I have a weedy collection of pale pinks and pastels, Em produces masses of exotic looking blooms ranging from sexy dark purpley reds through to light lavender flowers edged with dark violet. She brings me a bunch now and again, which I put in a vase in the kitchen....

I love the erratic way the sweet pea stems grow- their leaves are like butterfly wings - and their twirly tendrils. The lime green tobacco flower sets off the reds beautifully.

Last year I used her flowers as a design for a lino print, alongside the sweet peas are cosmos and small sunflowers. I printed it in one main colour over different colour blocks for the jug, petals and flower centres.

                                                             'Em's Flowers in a Jug'
                                                          

Then I printed the design in one colour on calico and thought that they would make a great cushion covers.

Here's the cushion cover in the planning stage- deciding which way round the stripes should go- I settled for the horizontal....

The prints and cushions will be on show and for sale in the wagon during Somerset Arts Week  

20th Sept.- 4thOct. The brochures are out published and are out and about soon- find me at venue 143!

Butterflies and Moths

Tuesday, 8th July. 

We haven't cut our hayfields yet so when you walk through them clouds of butterflies fly out of the grass - so far, apart from the meadow browns, I've spotted small orange skippers, ringlets and the beautiful marbled white. My father was a keen butterfly spotter and I think I caught some of his enthusiasm when I was small! Moths can be just as beautiful in a more subtle way though not as brightly coloured. I took the image of a moth for a collograph idea......

This collograph print was made by sticking textures - string, hessian, feathers etc on to card cut as a moth shape - ink is pressed in, wiped off and the card rolled through the etching press on to watercolour or smooth paper. 

I did the same for the great green grasshopper except that it is set on a hessian background-

And a stag beetle with a leaf......

These prints will be on show in the wagon during Somerset Open Studios '14.

Meanwhile work cotinues apace on the wagon! - glass going into the windows and the chestnut shingles applied to the outside...