Zen drawing

I did this drawing of a fuchsia flower in response to a very interesting post on heartful blogger
about zen drawing, really seeing and feeling what you're drawing.
I totally agree with the concept, but putting it into practice is a lot harder.
Even though I enjoyed drawing the fuchsia and appreciated it's delicacy and shell like shapes, my result is very heavy handed and doesn't portray the beautiful lightness of the ballerina flower.
Nevertheless even though my fuchsia bell is more like a barbell, I bet when I try it in watercolour it will be a lot easier now that I'm so familiar with the shapes and structure of the flower.
Well we'll see, maybe, ya but no but ya but...

Moonlight hunter

"Moon" is this weeks Illustration Friday's topic.
I'm being lazy and posting one I did earlier this year. But in fairness it's pretty suitable for the topic, don't you think?

Gardening, a learning curve

When I planted this flower bed last spring I thought I'd do it Mother Nature style.
In other words I got lazy after planting the lily bulbs and simply scattered a lot of different seeds willynilly. Then covered them lightly with compost, watered and left them to it.
The result is the chaos you see in the photo, not too bad but because I had no idea what was what when they were growing (being a bit of a beginner at this gardening lark) I didn't do any thinning out.
So the poor things were totally overcrowded and all grew very tall and spindly trying to get enough light I suppose.
Well I'll know better next year and give them a little more breathing space!

Thriving garden.

Just an update on my gardening.
Back in April I tried creating a border and at the time I wasn't too sure if it would flourish or flounder.



Well I'm delighted with the results.Everything thrived, some rather more enthusiastically than I'd imagined or left room for!
That large jungle like plant on the left for example, I love it but it is taking over a bit. In fact there's a poor little hydrangea engulfed there in the front, you can't even see it.



And here's a side view. I tried to keep it all cool and blue on this side of the garden and I love the combination of the arum lilies against the Irises.

Seabird, poetry in motion

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Poem.
So I wrote a poem for an acrylic painting I had already done!
I don't actually write poetry, but this is my second attempt and I really enjoyed doing it.

flight from the night
subdued sunset
casts
bruised hues
on a white breast
agile wings
beat
winds of chaos
before the clash
of sea and sky
ashore
lonesome cry
fly storm bird fly

Sculptures by Ron Mueck

I've just discovered Ron Mueck.
He's a London based Australian artist, who started out as a model-maker and puppeteer for children's T.V shows in Australia. He also worked with Jim Henson.
His work has been labeled as Hyper-realism and I can see why, it's incredibly true to life down to each eyelash individually placed.
If you didn't have the viewers in the photos to give the true scale you'd think they were casts of real people, if not actual people!
I haven't seen one in the flesh so I don't know how they'd effect me emotionally but from the photos alone I am in awe of his skill and expertise.
There's a video of the making of the pregnant lady here
It's a bit long winded and the voice over is as annoying as the terrible background music, but, if you can bear with all that, it's quite interesting to see the process.
And below is even more of his work !



There are critics out there that think its not art just model making.
Jonathan Jones of the Guardian thinks "it's blank, empty and brainless" His entire article can be read here
Personally I don't agree with him, I think Mueck is an amazing artist who captures the emotional state of his subject with delicacy and honesty.
I'd love to know what you think though.

Daemons and The golden compass

For those of you who haven't read Philip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials" your Daemon is the physical manifestation of your soul in the form of an animal who never leaves your side and who can chat away with you.
Excellent concept.
As a kid I always wanted a parrot or a monkey who'd sit on my shoulder and talk to me.
Eventually I got a puppy, an Old English Sheepdog, so it wasn't long before putting him on my shoulder wasn't such a good idea!
Anyway just click on my Daemon if you'd like to find out what your own would be.
You can also see a trailer of the movie "The Golden Compass"
I first heard the news of the movie on bookbabies
blog and not realising it was the first book of the trilogy which was called "Northern Lights" I have been pestering my local library to order in The Golden Compass for me, delighted that I had the treat of a new Philip Pullman in store.
Apparently the same book was released as "The Golden Compass" in North America, a bit confusing. But all was made clear to me thanks to fossforous

Oh well at least I have the film to look forward to.

Wonderful Weeds

Even though I've a garden full of flowers, I found myself and my camera drawn to these old friends.



I don't know the botanical name for these but as kids we used them to play "soldiers", where you'd hold out your poor "soldier" horizontally while your opponent tried to whip off it's head using their "soldier", one go at a time.
The beauty of such destruction was that these "soldiers", being weeds, were unwanted and plentiful!
The equivalent these days would be Cannon Fodder on your PC.




I've always liked Dandelions.
I think it was initially their name captured my imagination, a dandy lion, so I thought because of the golden mane of the flower!
I know , I know, you just have to imagine the lions head.
Well I just googled them and the name comes from the old french Dent-de-lion, the lions tooth because of the shape of the leaves.
Another childhood game was telling the time with their fairy clocks.
I don't think I need to explain that one.

Weeds are just plants in the wrong place or in my case all over the place!

Discovery

Illustration Friday.Discovery
She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew instinctively that it didn't belong there.
There was a feeling of desolation about it. It sent a shiver through her tail and not wanting to be there alone she swam off to tell the others about her discovery.

This was done with a mixture of watercolour to start with and then digitally enhanced in photoshop.

Illustration Friday Twist

Lucy was trying to teach Tony how to do the twist but somehow they got a bit tangled up. Love was definitely in the air.
"Forget about the twist" said Tony "this is much nicer, how about a smooch insted, I'll lead?"
Lucy giggled "Oh you smooth talker, you, lead away"