Skip to main content

Hydrangeas on line clip by The Art Train

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How does your garden grow?

This painting was inspired by the classic children's nursery rhyme, "Mary Mary". I loved this rhyme as a child, my mother was called Mary and I would wonder if she was Mary of the rhyme. She was always out in the garden so it seemed perfectly plausible. I also thought my Aunt was Princess Margaret, I had a colourful imagination or me was just easily confused. I always thought that the rhyme was about Bloody Mary Tudor. I've checked Wikipedia, so bound to be right, and the rhyme could also be about Mary the mother of Jesus or Mary Queen of Scots. The oldest printed version appeared in 1744. Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row. I added the bees and bugs to the painting as our precious ecosystem just wouldn't work without all their hard work pollinating. When I painted this image the catastrophic drop in work d bee populations was all over the media. Ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love and Blue

Love and Blue was the first live Guided Painting class I ran at The Art Train, so I will always be fond of it. The image originates in the whimsical practice of my early career. I used to draw little birds endlessly, they would be on branches, in trees, balancing on top of one another, in birdhouses. My early sketchbooks are filled with drawings of these little birds, which have so much character. The slightest change in the shape or position of a beak, eye, tail or wing can alter the personality radically. Little birds and leaves were imagery I used constantly in my embroidery work too.  I ran this class in 2014 and was so nervous. Fortunately, the students were lovely and they all did a fabulous job. I painted the image simultaneously while teaching the class, which was a disaster. However, by the time this class ran, I had trialled "Hydrangeas" with two students, realised written instructions with step by step progress photos were the way to go. So this class ran with...
Post a Comment
Read more