Borage Watercolour

Watercolour 6" x 4"

I found a beautiful prickly blue plant on my morning walk and had to ask Jean to identify it. Now I know it's Borage and can be eaten and drunk with great benefits to one's health. This little piece is still happily flowering in a vase on my desk after three days. I'm going to see if I can relocate some to our garden.

Instead of doing so many small paintings in my sketchbooks, I'm now experimenting with postcard size pieces of watercolour paper. The better ones can then be framed, posted, sold or given away without destroying a sketchbook. The bad ones also won't destroy a sketchbook! It's a lovely format. Trouble is I mistook a piece of printmaking paper for HP watercolour paper so it was too absorbant and the watercolour (above) doesn't have it's usual sparkle. What I'd really love is some Arches HP paper which I can't find here.

Since the good weather has arrived, instead of staying in bed with my laptop, I'm now out the door at 7.30am and totally enchanted by these beautiful mornings in the Tuscan countryside.

Poppies in the Olive Groves

La Collegiata

Watercolour Poppy

The poppy I painted for my darling daughter's birthday.

Today I posted Lindsay's Flying Pictures Sketchbook on to Casey. Below is a peep at what I got up to.

You can follow the adventures of all seven traveling sketchbooks here.


Editors Note: Since a lot of people seem to have the idea that I came up with this clever collage concept in Lindsay's book I had better explain.

You will see from my previous post that all congratulations are due to Lindsay. She created the collage of the little canoes traveling along a mountain river and then left me half a page with some river, a sun and half a canoe. As a transition to the two pages I was adding, I simply added a Tuscan flavour with a couple of pieces of paper Lindsay had left over.

Poppy Field

Watercolour - Cartiera Magnani 9" x 4.5" 140lb block

In this week's lesson, Gabriele demonstrated his way of capturing a field of poppies in watercolour. I haven't nailed it yet but I think come Spring I will at least be game try a poppy landscape.

Gabriele prefers subtle colour. He discourages pure greens - or pure anything really. It's a bit of a struggle for me, particularly after recently being so influenced by Shirley Trevena's Vibrant Watercolours!

Working wet on wet on this paper gives a very furry blotting paper effect. Not exactly what I was after.

Everything's Coming Up Poppies

Yes, I know I should have painted this instead of photographing, but it was a quick stop at the side of the road.

Yesterday was Art Group and my second session with oil paints. I have stopped whining, the 'grease' is beginning to look like a painting. Delightful group of artists so I am really feeling blessed.

Natura Morta con Muffa

NATURA MORTA CON MUFFA (Still Life with Mildew)

Since I can't beat it, I figured I could find beauty in it! Thick stone walls combined with central heating can cause some interesting things to grow on one's walls. Come Spring we hope to get the painters in and then, maybe, I'll look back fondly on our Muffa. And in the Spring the dry pods can be replaced with new poppies. Maybe then this watercolour will have a companion.

Sketching with Coloured Pencils

Since I am in the middle of a struggle with a watercolour portrait - and the watercolour is winning - I thought I would cheer myself up with a coloured pencil sketch. I love the stylish little bottles that Sanbitter comes in. Can't bring myself to throw them away. Fortunately I don't drink too much Sanbitter! This one holds the remains of last Spring's poppies on a little shelf in our extremely rustic WC. The WC is reminiscent of the head on an old tramp steamer. This is watercolour pencil in my Moleskine sketchbook.