three monties in the garden

fresh

been too busy writing over past couple of weeks to do either drawing or photography.... here's one from the garden, though
Late afternoon always a good time to photograph flowers and plants

wet

blooming

Rug (1 + 1)

Reds

garden/ scraps

Digital drawing

Vanity, thy name

Quickly in the garden

I've had a completely obsessive time in the garden: the work of gardening is at least 70 per cent about tidying up and clearing away... the growth rewards the slog. The moralisation of work? You bet!  As this sketchbook nears completion, it gets fatter with the buckling of pages and the pages spring open, making it much harder to scan - hence the centre of these spreads are all blurred. 

Indian ink wash and brush marker in Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook. 

Hidden

Browns

Cool weather, but definitely spring - I've been working like crazy in the garden lately - I mean the really heavy stuff of digging out established shrubs that died over the harsh winter, carrying compost, clearing away so many dead branches, pruning radically. I really don't know very much about gardening, but it's good exercise, and a great activity for seeing outcomes!

Brown and black indian ink (new paintbrushes) and brush markers in Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook.

Crows and their feet

Brush markers and watercolour in Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook.

Cherries

Very busy and unusually sociable weekend and more visitors through next week. R. brought huge, firm, delicious cherries.

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Summer garden

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Bit of a bore

I know I'm a bit of a bore with this garden, but I find the changeover of blooms over the summer, first one  then another – and with each waxing and waning a different overall palette – quite overwhelmingly lovely. And no, I wasn't a clever planner: all happenstance, really.

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook. 

Cuddle

Brush markers and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


Possum adores my friend Fátima (also a doggy person), who came to visit from Lisbon. It was dog on lap and ton sur ton of sunkissed hair on sunkissed fur. I messed up the scrawly sketch of Fátima's face, so got a bit of help from the camera!

Digger

The surface of our drive has been bending and buckling for some unknown reason, and after very annoying procrastination, the man who did the ground works for our house arrived with his digger and his fantastic young labrador companion, who, of course, answers to the name of Digger. We met him last time there was a problem with our drains and drive. Digger went absolutely crazy in the garden. As ever, you have to work really quickly to capture a being in full motion, so my rendition of canine anatomy is not quite perfect (and that's an excuse - I couldn't get it perfectly correct anyhow!)

Brush markers and ink pen in Windsor and Newton sketchbook, and in the last drawing, ink wash as well.

Garden again

Brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook.

The garden, changing all the time. I couldn't draw the campanulas because our resident rabbits ate off all their heads. 

Blot on the landscape

Indian ink and brush marker in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


The plums are just beginning to form, green with a slight blush. Possum under the tree looked like a blot, so I thought I'd render her in indian ink. It had dried up a bit in my aquaflo brush pen, so I made a mess of the tree, but the dog looks, um, like a blot!

About to turn

Brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook.

There is a tangle of leaves at the water's edge, bottom of the garden. We call this a stream, though ditch might describe it better.