Gardens & Parks, Chocolatte's Garden, GloriaV

We were at my Mom's today in San Jose, most of the day so I didn't get to post earlier.

 

 This will be my last post for Gardens & Parks. This is one garden area outside the back door. I call it Chocolatte's Garden because this is where my little family pet member kicks back and has fun.

 

Not a very good sketch. The bigger trees are meant to be cypress trees and the plants in front of the brown fence are actually all rose trees and the other trees in buckets are also roses. My husband has a thing for roses. We laid brick tiles all around this area and have poppies and other growing between the frost bitten avocado trees. There is lavender growing and little bushes here and there.

 

There is a lemon tree and just picked the lemons and juiced them all. I grated the lemons for lemon zest, bagged it in a baggie, juiced all the lemons and put in little plastic cups about 2/3 ounces each. Put the lid on each tiny container and bagged and froze for later use.

 

 

The days to come will be nice and that means spending time outdoors. Sorry about the messy fence, someone wrote on it. Tee hee.

 

We always have tables outside. Thanks everyone. If I haven't gotten to your latest post I will tomorrow. As I said we have been out of town today.

 

Viva Gardens & Parks. It was a wonderful theme suggested by Ann. Thanks Ann.

 

Chocolatte's Garden



Gardens & Parks, Hepatica, Sirkka Jalava

A wild spring flower is hepatica, which growes in many places in my garden. I have taken photos of them and I have seen them and studied them in  plain air. 

"Saturday Morning", Garden's & Parks, by LynnCohen

 

It's sprinkling here. Not really raining. So I opened the sliding glass door again and sat inside drawing the chair and table outside on my patio. I had full intention of painting this, but I rather like it just in ink. I may leave it alone.

 

Next Friday, April 4, I start

Sketchbook Skool.

First class taught for one week on line by Danny Gregory.

Then followed for five more weeks each taught by another awesome, much admired artist.

I'm excited to see what it will mean for my drawing.

How it might change it, me, my life?

 

If you are interested one can still sign up.

I think its quite reasonably priced for the exposure to so many good artists in

this period of time.

 

Here is the link!

 

[do notice the line of links at the top of this link when opened,

as it is explained in depth including videos about each teacher and class]

 

Have a creative day!

"Single Hollyhock", Gardens & Parks, Lynn Cohen

I took Elisa Choi's challenge to draw first with my paint brush ...

But I could not leave well enough alone ...
I used white gel pen to define the petals of this huge close up photo I took of a hollyhock in our back yard ...
... and black SX ink to outline/define the inner black part of the flower ...

Then I used a bold black calligraphy pen to further define the dark inner part.

None of these photos show the true color of my paint as the flower and my paint is more pink/rose tones not the orange you see here. You can decide which you like best or not. ;-) It was a fun challenge and exercise! Enjoy a creative day!

Gardens & Parks-Across The Street, GloriaV

Manuel working on his plants. A few years back, his sister threw in a lot of poppies and other to cheer his yard up. She doesn't live there but was visiting. That odd looking house is his garage/shed. Manuel doesn't really look like this but as I saw him tending to his garden, he appeared vital and energized and younger than his 80 years in life.

 

 

Have a wonderful day and hopefully we all got some needed rain here in California. Yay for the Gods!

"Across The Street"

Across The Street, PPPP, 2014 glv Ipad-P53



Garden's & Parks, "Hollyhocks" by Lynn Cohen

I just sat and drew these from a photo taken in our garden in the back yard. I once had over fifty blooming hollyhock plants like this blooming at one time. Now I am lucky if I find five a year. But they do keep reseeding themselves and are tall wonders to look at and enjoy in all shades of pinks, burgundy and whites.

Tomorrow morning I will hopefully have time to paint them. If not they will be brought to life at another time. In the meantime hopefully you will enjoy the ink version! I enjoyed drawing them.

My trusty Faber-Castell PITT artist pen black SX did the deed!

GARDENS & PARKS, JEZ EDEN

Watercolour in A4 Sketchbook - Jez

Another page from my Garden Sketchbook from a few years ago in our previous home.  The garden was very old and unkept, and there were hundreds of tiny seedling trees everywhere.  Sad as it was we had to uproot them or they would have turned the garden into a forest.

The poem at the top left of the page is one of my favourites -"Home Thoughts From Abroad" by Robert Browning.  "Oh to be in England, now that April's here ……".   Having been brought up in the countryside it sums up my love for England, especially in the spring.

Thank you for allowing me some past sketches - we're off to two hospitals today, but for Dev not me.  My check-up went fine, just yet another blood test and CT scan to be sure.  Thank you for your good wishes.

Garden's & Parks, "Lavender" Lynn Cohen

 

This lavendar plant grows profusely in our back yard. It's deep purple buds are velvet-like to the touch.

It's not in bloom at the moment, so I drew it from a photo I took of it last summer.

A quick sketch this morning before rushing off to work and anticipation of meeting oldest grand daughter and her beau for lunch at Tacos Jalisco, as they travel through town from Oregon!
I'll paint the flower later to bring it to life!

Have a creative day!

 

Farber-Castell Pen SX

GARDENS AND PARKS - "ANTICIPATING WATERLILLIES" by FRAN

My husband does not grow flowers, he prefers growing tomatoes.  But there is one exception.  He likes waterlilies.  For several years we had a large pond built of stacked garden timbers lined with plastic. However, with time the timbers rotted and it began to leak.  Now we have one fish and some buckets for the waterlilies, not nearly as spectacular, but easier to maintain.

This digital painting was made from a photo I took of the lilies in the big pond.  They are still resting under water right now.  They will not bloom until later in the summer.

Gardens and Parks, Terra Cotta Pots and Plants, Penny StewArt

Terra Cotta Pots and Plants from my yard.

Another ATC card.  Mixed Media, Acrylic and Pen, 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

I love making these little paintings, and some of you have asked about them.  I made a blog post that gives more information, and answers questions like "What is the difference between ATC and ACEO cards?" Also, I am giving away 9 of my hand painted cards and a kit to get you started making your own.  Just comment on the blog post and you are entered!  Thanks.  

Penny StewArt

Parks and Gardens, by Marla Eklund

Every year I plant sunflowers with the idea of making a memorial wall of flowers in honor of all my loved ones that have passed away.  I plant tons of seeds, most of which are eaten by squirrels or dug up by my dog, Carley.  I do get some flowers and they are always amazingly stunning.  It's very cold here in Rochester this morning and I was day dreaming away about this years sunflower wall so I painted a bit in my sketch book.

GARDENS AND PARKS by FRAN "School"

My Grand Daughter's School

This is a picture that my five year old grand daughter and I drew together.
 (I apologize to those of you who may have seen this before, but I am just so darned proud). 

She described what her school looked like and the playground and I drew it.
Then she colored it and added some windows, the sun and that gorgeous rainbow.
We had fun.

Parks and Gardens, Marla Eklund, "a little crate garden on it's way"

I love crate gardening because it is easier for me to contain it since it is, quite literally, in a wooden container.  I often try to fasten some of the shallower crates vertically thinking that I can plant vine like plants and they will naturally hang down.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Here is a little drawing I did on an index card of some vines planted in a crate that was hung from my screened in porch.  It worked beautifully last year!

Gardens and Parks, Having A Look,GloriaV

HAVING A LOOK

This isn't our garden but it definitely is similar to what we have. The "person" is probably meant to be my husband who is dedicated to the gardens/yard. Perhaps he is just standing around feeling mesmerized with the beauty of growth. We have no hills in our backyard but I threw them in. I love to imagine things that make me happy.

Trees galore, plants thriving, fish are happy and life is good. To me, the old saying, "Home is where the heart is" is definitely what I believe in.

It's a little messy and quickly sketched on the Ipad, BUT it's here so you can see. Right now besides the garden, I'm working on another project but I know where you are and I will make it a point to be here from time to time. Thanks for hosting Lynn and you too Ann for providing info needed.

HAPPY DAY TO ALL.

Having A Look

Having A Look, PPPP, glv-2014

GARDENS AND PARKS, JEZ EDEN

I am being very brave here.  Normally a painting like this would be hidden away from view in the sketchbook, never to be seen again.  It wouldn't be too bad except for that silly toy-like train!  I usually like to focus in on smaller scale painting and drawing, but ……. pushing myself out of the comfort zone is what I am here for.

Pitt Pen and Watercolour in A4 Sketchbook - Jez

This morning looked bright in spite of the forecast of cold winds and rain, so we quickly drove to Martin Mere wildfowl centre with sketchbooks and our tiny watercolour field boxes.  It was certainly cold so we went into one of the hides, surrounded by avid birdwatchers who were searching out a Ruff in full breeding plumage.  

The view from this hide looks across our very flat landscape, and you can see I had problems with perspective and distance - I think I would have needed an A3 book to get it right.  As I reached one-third down the page a diesel train rushed from left to right in the distance.  "Ooh good, I'll include that!"  When I looked at the finished drawing it looked rather silly.  That apart I was really quite pleased to have made myself draw a panorama and slosh on some paint.  There were hundreds of geese and ducks in and around this part of the Mere but I included only few to simplify the picture.

Gardens and Parks by Fran

CATS IN THE CORNFLOWERS

 

An imaginary garden.  I don't have corn flowers and I don't have black and white cats.

But the two make a nice combination

I used some stencils and dropped colored ink on the paper.  

Of course the ink bled under the stencil destroying my mental image of nice sharp white cats. 

So I colored the cats with watercolor pencil and prismacolor pencils.

It makes some nice patterns I think.

Also linking to

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/2014/03/blue-monday-happy-spring.html 

Gardens & Parks, Seeds, Sirkka Jalava

I notice, that I write so much of weather. But the weather is always so important when you live near the nature. So to day I can say, THE SUN IS SHINING! It is +6 C in shadow. The spring is here again!! I believe it is. No snow now more on the way down to the beach:)  To cheer up my self I bought a bouquet tulips a few days ago:

A sketch in the sketchbook of it. At same time I must think on the summers plants, I have not sawn yet seeds for summer flowers, not even tomatoes or else. I must do it now, elseway it will be too late. But first a sketch of some seed bags and plants I have put in water to get roots.

Have a nice day all of you! Now I will get to work and have a nice day in that way..

"Mom's Garden Rack with Loved Things" Gardens & Parks Lynn Cohen

 

On Tuesday I came home for lunch and once again sat in my family room looking out the open back door and drew this steel rack where I put garden things. The rack was my moms when she was alive.

The things on the top shelf are all gifts. A bird house from my dear friend, Jeri in Idaho; a bird house my friend Sam in Oregon built for me, and a flower pot with a succulent plant that was a cut off from my aunt Mimi's huge jade plant.

The second shelf has a metal tray with Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy surrounded by flowers on it, but they are in the center and I could not see them to draw them. It came from a flea market. The metal chicken I got new at Big Lots a long time ago. The plastic weather thermometer doesn't work well anymore. Not sure where it came from.

Bottom shelf has a bird house Cris and Con made for us (no, we never did put it on a pole), and a stack of ceramic dishes for catching water under plants.

I enjoy looking at all of these things!

 

Prismacolor 03 black ink pen

Koi Watercolors

Nature Sketch book 6" X 12" Vertical

Gardens and Parks "Inside Out" by Elisa Choi

Happy Spring to my friends here! Wooohooo! :)

We have long been experiencing the torching hot of summer. I'm sitting inside painting the outside because I'm feeling blah. Majority of our garden plants are these. I forgot their names but I really like how their leaves shine whenever the sun hits them.

Our Angel Sitting Area, Gardens and Parks,GloriaV

 

 

 

This is one garden area in our backyard outside the back door. In front of this area is my studio, the garage . I'm looking south. We built a trellis a few years back, it's painted white and there are David Austin beautifully scented roses growing on it. None right now, but soon. Around the perimeter of this area are lots of rose bushes, various types and color. There is an angel statue in the middle, I couldn't draw it and also had a difficult time with the lay of the land.

 

My family pet member Chocolatte and I sit there where the two chairs and table are at, also we have breakfast out there when everything is in bloom.  Our yard is a football field size so it goes way back and we have lot of different gardens.  My favorite is my cactus garden, way out back. Well you know how I did this-took my Ipad outside, sat and doodled while Chocolatte snacked on one of her snacks.

 

Tomorrow it's time for me to put my herbs in larger containers. Looking forward to that. Sorry if  this drawing is a little dilapidated, but until I learn the lay of the land, your stuck with my nonsense. tee hee.

 

Our Angel Sitting Area

Our Angel Sitting Area-PPPP, glv 2014

 

HAVE A GREAT DAY!