Colour from the season - Stinking Iris purple

Seasonal colours don't stay around for too many weeks, I'm concentrating on the plants I like the idea of drawing as well as the colour interest - well, theres such a blooming abundance at the moment!

Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima)... I documented the berry pods in January in a preserved salt air dried state when I came upon them at the coast, now here's the flower. It's a quiet sort of flower, easy to miss, but absorbing to draw. We inherited them with our garden and usually I forget about them until the structured pods open up in the Autumn revealing loud shiny orange berries. Named so because of the smell of roast beef when its leaves are crushed..?!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things - night and day

Earlier this year I drew about forty butterflies and moths as a starting point for my next fabric collection and also for a Silver Jubilee exhibition at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen who have a wonderful contemporary Crafts gallery in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

Some of the drawings ...

Chose twenty-five for the final exhibition piece, these were to be printed as individual small canvasses which would hang together as one wall piece. The first one that I sample printed was a little spotty Wood Leopard Moth...

One down 25 to go..!





















All twenty-five eventually printed (phew) and twenty-one of these, selected for the final mounted pieces. These make up one large statement wall piece of twelve butterflies and nine moths (photographed on my print table before they went off last week).


Designed to fly together but every one an individual..!

The exhibition 'A Silver Thread' opens at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey, Devon on 2nd July and will be on until 4th September.

Colour from the season Woody Nightshade purple

Green highly glossy poisonous berries, purple and yellow flowers, these are the colours of the Woody Nightshade. Brother to the deadly, uncle to the potato and unlikely cousin to the tomato (amongst it's numerous family members). Beware..!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Blackberry flower pink

Blackberry's are starting to flower here in Devon. As a child, blackberry picking was part of our late summer weekend outings and I still have memories of my scratched hands and arms and the purple stains on our hands and mouths which went along with this! Not only did my mum and dad make blackberry wine, but also blackberry jam, various bramble jellies not to mention the stewed blackberry and apple puddings (which I loathed). The slim thorns which are angled downwards to do maximum damage are vicious. Here are a few of the colours I discovered in the stems yesterday...

..from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Rose Warm Wishes Pink

I drew this rose while watching Mission Impossible. Not the kind of multi-tasking that I normally do - drawing and watching films, but it came about because of a shortage of time. Quite tricky, but I had someone at hand to translate the more complex parts of the film and I pretty well got the gist of it! I wonder if my sketch picked up an essence of the film? It was an amazing rose - It had dropped all it's petals the following morning - possibly the after shock..!

some of the incredible colours sampled from it - really summery and uplifting. Blooming in my mum's garden and mine too.

Warm wishes!


...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things - studio opening

I'm opening my studio this weekend and next, during the
North Devon Festival for Art Trek 2011. It was with some trepidation I decided to do this back in February, as my studio was in complete dis-array and my dad was very ill.
But… I decided that there's nothing more galvanising than
a deadline to work towards, and especially if it involves a commitment to other people. So… I asked a few friends who are very good designers and makers to join me…
and here I am, a few days before the deadline, painting and generally giving the studio a bit of a face lift, with new work (still) in the making!

If you happen to be in South Molton, North Devon either this weekend (Friday 10th - Sunday 12th or next ( Friday 17th - Sunday 19th) then please call in - you will be very welcome and we will be here..!

The Venue...in North Street, South Molton, EX36 3AN - on the North boundary of St Mary Magdalene Church.
The sky will be blue!

Sam Pickard - Textile/Surface designer maker...

below:Vibernum print with snail...

also...
David Cleverly celebrated sculptural ceramics.
below - Two dog's meet...

Paula Slater MA (RCA)- lighting design creative.
below: laser cut paper lights...

Glen Marsdon MA (RCA)- Print maker extraordinaire.
below St. Pauls. Cyanotype and copy transfer original print.

Colour from the Season - Foxglove purple

Common (wild) foxgloves are invading the banks and hedgerows at the moment. This one was collected from an area of cleared woodland where I spotted masses of them, humming with bumblebees.
Digitalis is used to make medicines for the treatment of heart conditions but it is also a deadly poison. All parts of the plant are highly toxic. It's slightly unnerving to handle plants which are this poisonous, especially when (as usual) I only discover the full degree of their toxicity after I've already drawn and dissected the plant.

















































the bumblebee who came into the kitchen to gather pollen from the foxglove while I was drawing.

(off to wash my hands again!)

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...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.