Gardening Gossip ~ Is Spring Here?

It certainly felt like it today! We went to Exhibition Park in Newcastle this morning and there were lots of gorgeous crocuses out. Then the sun made an appearance and felt lovely and warm.

Back home I got into the garden and tackled some weeding. The bug-bears I have in my garden are moss (in the lawn and on the soil), hairy bitter cress and the brambles which come through from next door's garden.

Still, these mini narcissi are enough to make you feel spring-like.

Gillian x

Knitting Notes ~ Chunky Jumper

Well I can almost guarantee that the weather will get warmer now because I've finished knitting the first of my chunky jumpers.

This is a Sirdar pattern knitted in their Crofter Chunky. I went down half a needle size to get the right tension and I decided to do extra rows on the round neck to make it into a closer-fitting polo neck than their pattern for the polo neck.

It is super warm and cosy!

Gillian.

Watercolour - Jug of Flowers

Another watercolour painting this week. My mother-in-law brought me these when she was invited for lunch so I thought it was a good opportunity to paint from life. Usually I paint from photographs.

Jug of Flowers

The blooms have been painted quite loosely but I think you can still tell what they are. Or the yellow ones at least!

Thank you for looking and I hope you liked the painting!

7x5 in a 10x8 mount.

Gillian.

Gardening Gossip ~ Shredding

Finally, the weather has held off for long enough, on the right day, for me to tackle the large pile of willow prunings which was sitting in the middle of our lawn.

It was trying very hard to snow, on and off, but I wasn't to be put off! Although I did think someone was against me when we had a power cut after 15 minutes of shredding. At first I had a terrible feeling that I'd tripped our electrics, but lots of house alarms were going off. Then I worried that I'd tripped the whole of the street! But it was a power cut.

Knowing how easily willow takes root, I decided to put the chippings in the bin rather than composting it. I've saved a few wands so I can weave something out of them.

That's what is left of our willow tree and my fab shredder! Instead of getting lots of little things for Christmas, I asked everyone for vouchers to buy the shredder. I love it! The first thing I shredded was our Christmas tree. Then our neighbours at the back of the house cut their Leylandii drastically so we had 6 ft trunks in our garden which got shredded in no time.

All of my woody prunings will get shredded and put in the compost bin so it won't take them as long to rot down.

Happy gardening!
Gillian x

Photo Friday #48

This was from a photo shoot I did of cupcakes for a website. Good enough to eat! Yum.

Gillian Cross Fine Art

Watercolour - Pink Tulips

I've been really busy painting this week! Trying to practise a looser style of painting but realising that I still love my details. This one started off very loose, but I like the fact that I didn't resort to using black to define the details in the flower heads.

Pink Tulips

This painting is 9x6 in a 10x8 cream mount.

Thank you for looking, Gillian.

Gardening Gossip ~ Fed Up of the Weather

I love my garden - working in it, sitting in it and using it for inspiration for my photographs and paintings.

I'm getting mighty fed up of the weather at the moment though. A week or two ago we drastically chopped our willow tree to about head height. It's now just a trunk and all the branches are piled up in the middle of the lawn. It's either been too cold, too snowy or too wet to get rid of the branches. I keep looking out of the window every time I go past it in the hope that it might all have been magically taken away...but it hasn't!

Roll on some dry weather so I can get out there. I even resorted to doing some weeding in the rain yesterday - not pleasant. It's snowing now. I think I might have a cup of tea.

Gillian x

Watercolour - Orange Gerberra

It's been a while since I did a painting so I thought it was high time I picked up my brush again. I had photographed a rather lovely orange gerberra - you may have seen another photo of it on the blog. As usual, I took a few shots that I really loved so I decided to paint one of them.

Orange Gerberra

I love loose watercolour painting and would love to produce paintings in a loose style. This one started out quite loose but I do love doing details as I think it gives clarity to the painting. So this is how it turned out after going through the stages below.

I used Cadmium Red Pale Hue and Cadmium Yellow with a bit of brown and blue left over on my palette. At the very end I also used a bit of Ivory Black as well.

The finished painting is 7x5 in a 10x8 mount.

Thanks for looking, Gillian x

Photo Friday #47

Orange Gerberra Petals

I love abstract shots of flowers. this would look good as a big canvas print.

Gillian Cross Fine Art

Nice or Lovely?

When I was doing English at school, I always remember my teacher telling us to use a more imaginative word than "nice". I have always tried to but in the past few years I've been finding myself using "lovely" a lot. I'm just wondering if "lovely" is becoming the new "nice"?

Gillian.

Photo Friday #46

A lovely fresh, spring bouquet for Photo Friday today...seeing as it's so gloomy outside my window at the moment.

Gillian Cross Fine Art

Film Inspirations ~ The Artist

I love watching films. Not only for the entertainment they give, but for the cinematography. Still images from a moving image, setting scenes and evoking emotions.

I saw "The Artist" at the cinema, on the big screen and I received it for my birthday on DVD. We watched it last weekend and I was reminded of the strong photographic images it had. I'm not sure if it's because it was shot in black and white, and set in the late 20s/early 30s but it reminded me very much of documentary and fashion photography - Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier Bresson.

I jotted down some of my favourite shots from the film, and found a few images of them to show you.

I love this staircase shot for the architectural beauty. Unless you're standing on a gallery opposite, you don't normally see a staircase straight on like this. Whilst searching for the photos, I read that this scene also had an underlying meaning for being on the stairs. Peppy, the young new star is above George on the staircase, highlighting her rising star and his falling star.

These two photos are from a sequence which starts on George and spins round to focus on his reflection in the very shiny table top. I love the reflection and could reproduce it on a grand piano top.





The shot of Peppy with the film reel
wasn't originally on my list, but when I saw the still I loved it. It shows off the curl in her hair and her fabulous hat. I love the horizontal lines of the blinds in the background.
















Altogether a feast for the photographic eyes with a classic, timeless feel.

Thank you for reading.

Gillian x

Photo Friday #45

Mother's Day Anemone

Say Happy Mother's Day with this bright card.

Cards are £2 each and £1.50 p+p from my fine art website or contact me directly.

(p+p is free with orders over £10)