29 Saturday Apr 2017
Posted in My Garden
Tags
Creative corner, Garden feature corner, Golfer garden statue, Mini Stonehenge, Morning sun, Unusual garden features
My mini ‘Stonehenge’ and a cute little golfer bathed in the morning sun
Okay!…maybe I don’t have fairies at the bottom of the garden…. just a lone stone golfer atop my ‘rockery’ 😉
28 Friday Apr 2017
Posted in My Garden
Captured against a typical northern England sky. ..(I even brightened and colour enhanced the picture, which seemingly did little to lift the depressing grey spirited day :-/) Still, Â the first eagerly awaited flowers of my Wisteria, planted the best part of a decade ago!!!! Nature has it’s own set of plans…and my wishing along could change nothing…..
Tiny they may be…BUT, flowers nonetheless YAY!! After waiting for almost nine years since first planting the white flowering Wisteria, it’s the first sign I may have gorgeous long blooms next year and many more years to come……….
17 Wednesday Feb 2016
Posted in My Garden
Silhouette and sunset sensationÂ
Sometimes…….words aren’t needed!
17 Sunday Jan 2016
Posted in My Garden
Look what I found in my playground this morning 😀
YAY!!! I’m going to put my paw prints everywhere
……Starting here, in the back garden 😉
Then……
…on the pristine snow in the front garden….woohoo 🙂
12 Friday Jun 2015
Posted in Art, My Garden, Still life
Tags
Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Crafty creation, Merlin's Magic Musings Oil painting, My garden statue, Oils on canvas Origina, Original art, Original oil painting, Painting from photographs, Still Life Original Art, Unique creations
”Merlin’s magic musings”
– An Original Oil Painting on 14” x 11” canvas panel – Painted from a photograph of my garden statue!
Somehow, within this week, I managed to clean just about every inch of our house and wash anything which wasn’t too big to fit in the washer…in readiness for our family get together planned for tomorrow….as well as…starting and finishing this little oil painting ( I think I did sleep at some point ..??!) 😉 But, feel completely satisfied that both house and picture both got finished in time!!! 😀
Merlin can now sit along with the other drying oil canvasses on my window ledge before finding him a slot too in my Etsy shop 🙂
06 Saturday Jun 2015
Tags
Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Crafty creation, Creative craft, Garden flowers, My garden flowers, Nature, Original art, Original Poppy oil painting, Painting from a photograph, Painting in oils, Photography, Poppies and pincushions, Poppy duo and Pincushion trio, Red poppy art, Still life
‘Poppy duo and pincushion trio’  an Original 14” x 11” Oil painting on canvas panel  Â
Having spent the last couple of days, moving from room to room around the house in order to ”get straight and tidy’ for the family invasion next week – I finally abandoned my mop and bucket and grabbed my paintbrushes for a rest! This little oil painting has been done with the attempt to soften the background almost as if it’s out of focus allowing the main poppies in the foreground to take their place centre stage. I wanted to try and see if I could imitate, somehow, what photographers do by fading out the background and focusing on the main image. To try and do this I have merely blended blobs of colour without any firm shapes graduating the shades back to give a hopefully somewhat diffused perspective and depth to the foliage. Overall it passed a quiet Saturday afternoon, and, I’m happy with the final look and feel of the little still life scene! I must say, my conservatory window ledge is starting to look very colourful as, the now five canvas boards, are lined up to dry  🙂
A Penchant for Poppies! Â – Original 14” x 11” Oil Painting
03 Wednesday Jun 2015
Tags
Art, Art from photographs, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Beautiful red poppies, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Colourful creations, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Garden flowers, Nature, Oils on canvas, Original, Original poppy art, Original poppy painting, Poppies and their buddies, Poppy oil painting, Still life poppies
Poppies and their ‘buddies’
Original Oil Painting on 14” x 11” canvas panel
A little still life of my garden poppies painted from a photograph 🙂
Another little oil painting inspired by beautiful garden flowers!
31 Sunday May 2015
Tags
Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Garden statue painting, Hidden treasures, Lurking in the bushes Original painting, My garden, Original, Original art, Original oil painting, Quirky art
”Lurking in the bushes” Original Oil painting on 14” x 11” canvas board panel  – a bit of quirky art!
How to turn a boring Sunday into a bit of fun…grab a paintbrush, some oil paints, a small canvas panel..and, pick a subject! Luckily my garden stone statue was extremely good at keeping the pose 😉
29 Friday May 2015
Tags
Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Creating art from a photograph, Dapple Shaded Poppies oil on canvas, Finding inspiration, Garden flowers, My garden, Orange poppies, Original art, Original oil painting, Painting from photographs, Photography, Poppy oil painting, Wild poppies
‘Dapple Shaded Poppies’
It would seem my oil paints and brushes have finally had their dust blown off of them :-)! Two days ago, after clearing and cleaning, like a possessed mad woman, my fabric workspace was eventually reverted back into a painting studio. Rummaging around, I found a dozen oil canvas panels, earmarked for a project a while back, so, I thought instead of that, I would get my rusty painting arm going again on the little 14 x 11 inch boards.
Nature and my garden provided just the right inspiration…nestled right at the foot of our Holly tree! With a little help from the sun through the leaves, in the dappled shade, I captured the pretty scene on camera, four wild orange Poppies in amongst the holly leaves.Â
Now I have to think what can go on the other eleven canvases ??? 😉
My garden poppies made the perfect reason, to get back to oil painting! I had a little request from Mrs. P’s grandson over at craftodessey to show my picture of orange poppies – as he has only ever seen the beautiful red ones – so here they are finished! A couple of weeks should see the oils dry out too, and then, I think it may be destined for My Etsy shop 😉 Better get back out into the garden and see what other treasures I can capture !
23 Saturday May 2015
Posted in My Garden
Tags
Bluebells, Colourful foliage, Flowering shrubs, Garden flowers, Holly flowers, My garden retreat, Nature, Patchwork garden colours, Rhododendrons, Wild flowers, Wild poppies, Workspace with a beautiful view
Okay, this probably only applies if you live in the UK, and are over a certain age (40 ish)- but, does any one remember, if you fit the above criteria, The Smash makes Mash adverts??? (please excuse my washing line prop bottom right – a roofing lath from my devoted dearest – he’s so generous with his thoughtful gifts – all splinters have now been removed, and over time gathered in my hands!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SAbJjktk7E
I took a wander down to the bottom of our back garden this evening with a mind of taking some pictures of how lovely the colours of the foliage and flowers look, when I got back inside and saw this shot on the computer screen, the Variegated Privet (the lime green plant in the centre) just reminded me of one of those little aliens!!! LOL Planted some 25 years ago, to fill a gap, it’s certainly done that…and then some!… it has now also taken on a whole new look 😉 Normally Dearest keeps it in check, though hidden behind, in the slit gap, is a nesting box, housing a new family of Blue Tits, so pruning will have to wait another week or so! Anyways, back to the post….. I have always thought that our garden is a mismatch, but beautiful patchwork of plants, this is the view I look out over every day from my conservatory workspace and May is one of the nicest months to see. The deciduous plants have now gotten almost all their new leaves, the larger shrubs, rhododendrons and Holly are starting to come into flower and the smell from the Lilac tree is quite overpowering on this still calm evening – beautiful!! 🙂
Tiptoeing to the side a bit… a bit more of a promising colourful corner. In the background under the Holly tree, is my lovingly built garden Stonehenge, not that you can see much of it at this time of year, when we let it go Nature’s way – Wild and Free – to do as it pleases, usually it becomes laden with wild poppies and ferns – The little standing stones are for some interest in the winter months! Whilst the Japanese flowering cherry, on the left, has gone through its best, and is getting new foliage, in the foreground a beautiful pink Aquilegia is growing through our little twisted Hazel, with the first of its blooms opening today!
With all those buds, to open still, it should look amazing!
Last, but not least, one of my favourite flowers – Bluebells and a random couple of whitebells too, normally found in wooded areas, but equally happy to flower in my little ‘enchanted shrub wood’ garden! 😀
