Colour from the season - Celandine Yellow

When the sun shines Celandine open their petals almost backwards to face it, I feel like this about Spring sunshine too so I have a fond affinity for Celandine and pleased to discover that it was also Wordsworth's favourite flower.

In Spring much of our garden is a spectacular carpet of this scruffy little yellow flower which is 100% uncontaminated yellow (matched to my eye) in my printed CMYK book...

After spending hours creating a design with Beech, Gorse and Heather (not at all bad), I discarded the idea and instead have given the Beech a solo focus as a large panel.

Printing in late afternoon yesterday, the sun streaming in and a Spring green colourway.

Printing the outline, and cleaning the squeegee before lifting the screen.

To satisfy an urge for some pattern in this print, today I added the repeat design created from notebook drawings (in brass). The Beech collection (cushions, runners and large wall panel) will be for sale in my shop fairly soon!

Happy first day of Spring..!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Aerial Field Patterns

I've been away on a fabulous holiday to Crete. I didn't take a sketchbook or even a pen as I decided I should practice doing other things occasionally!

There's not much to recommend budget air travel except perhaps the incredible view of the land below and fields laid out like a vast patchwork quilt spread over the earth. On the return flight at a point somewhere between the Swiss Alps and France the view below looked like this! In between other work I've started making a note of these field patterns.

Rough patch...

The full picture...

a few miles later...

(It's not exact!)

Highlights of Crete included visiting Heraklion Archaeological museum (which houses the most extensive collection of Minoan Art in the world); The island of Spinalonga (read Victoria Hislop's account of the former leper colony on Spinalonga here); The remarkable guide who showed us around Knossos and brought the palace and Minoan culture to life; and last but not least the  hospitality and generosity of the Cretan/Greek people.

Back down to earth - welcome October! (belatedly).

Natural Pattern - Dock Green

I happen to like Docks - not only because they are such a great remedy for Nettle stings, but also for the delicate skeletal patterns on the humble Dock leaf as it starts to decompose -

For anyone who may not have fully appreciated them yet - I thought I'd highlight four of North Devon's finest...

Dock shadows...

and bolder - alongside stripes of Dock green, brown, deep pink and shades in between...

p.s. outline pen and ink - infil the leaf itself - stripes experimental - colours CMYK
First day of September and there's a definite chill in the air!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.