Colour from the season - New Zealand flax pink

Not seasonal perhaps, but as the brighter colours in the garden are starting to fade - the simple muted palette and structural form of this New Zealand flax (Phormium) adds sophistication. Some people might find these muted colours too drab - to me they are reminiscent of Art Nouveau, of the poster illustrations of artists from that period such as Alphonse Mucha and Henri J. Detouche - subtle and organic. I find I respond to some subjects infinitely more than others and I really enjoyed drawing these...

Poster 1899 by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)

Poster 1896 by Henri J. Detouche (1854-1913)

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...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things...exposed

The little things in life that make the difference...

...something we always planned since we found our lovely old garage/workshop in North Devon ten years ago, is at last happening and we are opening it up as a print facility, where we plan to run workshops, ourselves as well as with guest practitioners, offer print services, hold exhibitions and discuss all things relating to print (and dye). The first blog post went up today showing the logo being printed - you can follow us and see what we're up to over the coming months at exposed.

Colour from the Season - Fatsia green

Fatsia are strange plants - palmate leaves like outstretched hands which fall short of being attractive or so I always thought until last year in November, when almost everything else had started to fade and I noticed their flowers which had exploded like extra-ordinary pod forms with a sense of 1950's style about them, made me smile!

Fresh colours which aren't at all autumnal, and seem to fit the elegant forms of these odd umbrels...
























































...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Stinking Iris orange

Stinking Irises (Iris Foetidissima) have very quirky looking seedpods. Drawing these yesterday, it was difficult to see how the berries were still attached to the pods - they were hanging on at the very edges for dear life! The leaves seemed almost to be waving to me as I was drawing (or perhaps I'm just a bit over tired lately!).
I documented the delicate colours of the flowers when I drew them in June, also the pod colours in January when I came across them in an salt air dried state on a wintery walk at the beach. These vintage looking November colours from this garden specimen are as sampled below.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Spindle pod pink

Finally a spare moment in between printing to post the colours (again) of the Spindle tree. So named because its wood was traditionally used to make the spindles for spinning.
Spindly by nature as well as name, its a bit on the shabby side and not much to look at, until its structured four sided pods develop into a deeply vivid shade of pink, splitting wide open to reveal within shiny deep orange seeds - quite astonishing...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.