Colour from the Season - Bamboo Green

This Bamboo (Phyllostachys Nigra) has helped to brighten my Winter! It's simply been the most lively green outside my back door on even the darkest of days. I was adding colour to a drawing of it yesterday and decided it deserved a mention.

When I first tried to draw bamboo, I discovered that it dies quickly when you cut it. I cut a full stem and placed in water to draw, but within a few hours the leaves had rolled in on themselves - hopeless! The only thing to do was to draw it outdoors. So one Spring day, a few years ago, I sat on a low seat in the garden with a drawing board on my lap, a long roll of cartridge paper and starting at the base of the stem, I drew a full stem - not in pencil but directly in ink. I waited for the ink to dry then rolled the paper up, continuing to draw and roll until I reached the top. The following year (!) I decided that this one stem was a bit lonely and so I drew another! The drawings are approximately life size and measure 2.6 metres and 2.4 metres.

I then scanned these images, re-drew them in (Adobe) Illustrator, laser etched the first of them into Cork and exhibited this at 100% Design in London in 2009. For some time I've been thinking of adding colour as I'd like to screen or possibly digitally print them onto fabric. So here as a result, are the fresh colours as I noted them yesterday...

The first ink sketch...

The second...

Laser etched into Cork...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The Selvedge Spring Fair

On Friday and Saturday I shall be exhibiting at The Selvedge Spring Fair. 

In case you haven't heard of Selvedge magazine, it's an inspirational textile magazine, produced in the U.K. and I'm sure that the Selvedge Spring Fair, to be held in the King's Road, London (22nd and 23rd March) is going to be the perfect venue to exhibit my new products.

...So I've been really busy printing this past week or two and now I'm looking forward to getting out of the studio and spending a weekend in London, surrounded by textiles other than my own for a change! Here's a flavour of the local flora and fauna I'll be taking with me...

Pheasant cushion - who you may recognise from an earlier blog post here..!

Rabbit cushion - a personal favourite...

To co-ordinate with your Stag head? - Fawn cushion, a real sweetie!

On the print table...

following last years successful Budgie Love cushion! - Budgies and Chrysanths...

...and the very seasonal Rosetta Table Runner...

Do come and say hello if you're in London - or if you know someone who might be interested please forward/share, thank you!

here's the info...

Colour from the season - Fern green

Sorry colour fans - just green, in fact two greens and two fairly nondescript greens at that. So if this doesn't interest you then no need to look any further at this post! If however, you might like to marvel at the elegant form of a Royal fern (as common as muck here in Devon), as well as the patience it's taken to draw, not once but many times over, then you might want to take a further peek!

I have ambitious plans for these drawings, so I've scanned all stages of their development, from pencil, to ink, to colour, but don't hold your breath, it may take some time...

au naturel...

...and just perfect for the next pattern post (mirrored block repeat)?

(Drawn listening to the excellent album 'Tramp' by Sharon Van Etten -  reflective video of the track Leonard here).

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Oxalis Purpurea purple

I've been waiting patiently throughout the winter to note the colours and fascinating form of this plant. Just as I was planning to draw it last year, it stopped flowering and then went into total hibernation, at which point I thought I'd killed it (my house plants often only thrive if they're near the sink). But then, suddenly, about a month ago it started to re-emerge.

The leaves open and close like an umbrella, reminding me of an inspiring Issey Miyake pleats creation. The young leaves stay concertinaed for the first few days as they emerge, then as they grow fully they open almost inside out during the day and fold closely back together at night. The delicate flowers also open and close, but twisting inwards with a rotational twist - hard to describe, has really to be seen.

The colours change depending on the light, the time of day, the shadows. Pink and fresh green offset the deep purples and reds, exquisite...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours from the Season - Leaf Buds

Printing in the studio - it's exhausting and exhilarating! I wake up in the morning feeling as though I've been lifting weights! Yesterday was the most joyous Springlike day, the buds are coming into leaf on the trees and I felt a skip in my step again...

Coming back to the studio, I looked back over some of the best budding leaves in my notebook pages over the past 3 years and decided to update a few of them and group them together so I could find them more easily. I enjoyed re-visiting them, and thought you might too - so in one big WHOOSH! here they are...

Vibernum - exquisite and sculptural when they first open, look out for them in March...



Rosa Rugosa - starts coming into leaf in February - very very spiky...

Alder - I had no idea what this tree was when I drew it (in March) two years ago - I've learned so much from keeping this notebook...



















































Dahlia, I sat and drew this outside on a very cold April day!



Hydrangea - not budding yet or mine aren't - I drew this one in April...

Yesterday printing new runners (Budgie and Chrysanth)...

today Spring green...

...from my seasonal Colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Song Thrush brown

This week two things a bit out of the ordinary.

For weeks a friend (Pete) has been enjoying the song of a Thrush, then on Thursday, he found it dead  in his garden and was very upset about it. (He thought it was probably chased by a bird of prey causing it to fly into a shed and break its neck). He knew that I would like to draw it, and I did. It was incredible to draw and hold a Song Thrush I can tell you.

I sketched it twice - below some of the sketch developments,  I overworked the (first) sketch, because, well, I think I wanted to do my best, for the Song Thrush as well as for Pete's sake..!

First sketch at different stages ending in above...



































Second sketch, much faster, I liked the detailing in the wing, and preferred the looseness of the drawing, but the first sketch won out for composition.

Then I got an email (Friday) offering me a late stand at the Selvedge Spring Show (A Textile fair in London) - in 3 weeks! - which I've taken them up on - better get printing...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.