Colour from the Season - Muscari blue

These little Muscari (Grape Hyacinths) will soon be carpeting the garden - they have an incredible perfume. Apparently not all are blue - there are lots of varieties, some are yellow and smell of bananas(?) They feel quite 1950's in their style and perfume and I really love them. Drawing them today I realised how the leaves have so much movement, something that I might have otherwise missed...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Cyclamen pink

This little Cyclamen might be low to the ground, but it's colour had a high impact, hard not to spot it. Suddenly things are starting to burst into colour - it's amazing...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - wood pigeon greys

Walking in North Molton woods at the weekend, sadly the first thing on the ground was a dead wood pigeon. It was completely intact and looked as if it could have died flying into a tree?  I saw at least another three dead wood pigeons on the same walk - but the only remains were the feathers - these are some of the greys from them...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - snowdrop white?

Snowdrops are out! - this is a messy little sketch of them that I did a couple of years ago - I seem to remember that it was a freezing cold day and I was experimenting with drawing (outside) using bits of stick.
Very fresh green and orange hidden in the petals...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Rabbit bark orange!

Rabbits eat bark in winter. A few years ago after a snow fall, there were patches of what looked like blood all over the snow, in fact it looked as if there had been a rabbit massacre in the woodland!  Luckily, I found out, that it was just rabbit urine probably coloured by the tree bark they were eating. This (rabbit gnawed) bark that I collected today might be Cherry tree? I 'm not completely sure, but it's a bright fiery orange and seemed a good colour to celebrate the day.

Happy Chinese New Year  2011 - Year of the Rabbit...!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Aubretia Purple/yellow/green

It's been pretty cold here. I'm out because I have to walk Chip and more recently, collecting colours - but these little flowers were out because??... are they mad? - (and isn't it a bit early for Aubretia anyway?)

Hello February!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things - Heart Urchins

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

...finding these white shells, like fine porcelain sculptures on the beach yesterday all along the tide line and discovering that they are the shell remains of Heart Urchins. So fragile that it must have been a very gentle tide that washed them onto the shore.

Colour from the Season - Horse Chestnut leaf red

More Horse Chestnut - the trees here in Devon are stunted by winds and altitude, but in Bath where it is sheltered (and where I grew up), they are comparative giants.  We used to strip the leaves to their skeletons trying to keep the whole palmate of leaves intact. These leaves were on the ground, a couple of days ago and I liked their rich red brown colouring...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook

Colour from the Season - January leaves

Freezing weather again and blue skies - in today's morning light even the dead leaves and seed heads left on the trees suddenly seemed remarkable. All these beautiful subtle colours which perhaps on a duller day I could have easily overlooked...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Primrose pink?

The first primrose is flowering in the garden! In Devon primroses thrive - and soon the banks and hedgerows will be completely carpeted with them. Yes, primroses are usually yellow, but these pink hybrids occur naturally and range from the palest pinks like this one, to quite dark pink. Luckily our garden seems to get the full colour range...

...from my seasonal colour notebook.

Colour from the season - Rosa maigold

More thorny rose stems, this time from the beautiful old english climbing rose Maigold, which flowers in a wild and extravagant manner all through May on the front wall of our house. Interesting slightly ragged flowers and thorny stems, which were the inspiration for my fabric design Rosetta Glory...

 ...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Rose velvet fragrance

At this time of year you notice the stems of roses more than in the summer and often their names would seem inappropriate if you had never seem a rose bloom, this dangerously thorny one is called Velvet Fragrance. Roses always remind me of my mum - in the summer she has a garden full of amazing blooms. Though she had already pruned this one - she was ok about me taking off a bit more and luckily of course I have my new secateurs..x

...from my seasonal colour notebook.

The little things - pocket sized secateurs

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

Mini secateurs - easier to make a quick getaway and much less damaging to the plants, which benefit from a little bit of pruning here and there anyway. I made a little holster for these because they're pretty sharp  - Perfect! 

(They're by Alan Titchmarsh)

Colour from the Season - Sarcococca

Berries turning right through these shades of red and purple to black and acid green leaves - For the January catwalk, this little moth I scouted out the other night, is wearing Sarcococca...

...from my seasonal colour notebook.

Colour from the Season - Horse Chestnut bud red

Hard to believe after the prolonged cold weather - that any new growth would be venturing out of the trees and ground - but this morning I noticed that the Horse Chestnuts were starting to bud and it seemed fitting to start a new year with new growth. The sticky red of the bud alongside the smooth brown and purple of its branch.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - hazelnut and walnut brown

A couple of winter nut cases. The familiar colour of hazelnut brown and less familiar walnut shell brown (walnut is more commonly referenced as the colour of the wood) - here are the colour matches that I've sampled...

...from my seasonal colour notebook.

Colour from the season - Hawthorn leaf brown

The winter leaves have turned shades of silver greys and browns. The understated Hawthorn leaves, which don't look much at first glance, are one of my favourite and were the inspiration for the design 'digital hawthorn (dancing leaves)' in 2009...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things - inaccurate time

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

...don't get me wrong - I love my computer! - I also love old clocks that run a bit slow, instead of the digital, exactly to the second time-keeping. This one only loses about half an hour a week - nothing much really.

Colour from the season - Pampas grass

Pampas grass - the very fashionable  architectural/ornamental grass hugely popular in the 80's -  which I just discovered some interesting facts about, and thought I'd share. 
It's indigenous to South America, is a fantastic animal feed, considered hugely invasive in some climates producing around one million seeds in it's lifetime and ...lastly (!) if you have one in your front garden it's a sign that you're a 'swinger' - oh and it's a lovely colour...














    




































...from my seasonal colour notebook

Colour from the Season - Lichen Greens

I was lucky enough to be in Snowdownia this weekend amidst all the snow and ice there and surrounded by the most inspirational landscape. In this snowy landscape, the lichen looked even more other worldly, frosted onto the branches of the trees and on the ground below, so many different lichen and colour variations, here are just a few...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.