". Arranged Words: Amaryllis
Showing posts with label Amaryllis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amaryllis. Show all posts

26 Jan 2021

Changes

                                                           Looks like Indigo back there.
 Hi Everyone,

 What I miss most in the winter, besides the birds singing are clouds, but so far this year has been surprisingly mild and most days have been cloudy and awash with varies colours to brighten up a monochrome world.  

                                                                             Sunrise 
                                                           What a change...a  minute or so later.

                                                                                   * * * 
From the Drawing Board...

An oldie from the botanical blues series.



I haven't painted with watercolour for awhile, so I'll be transposing these peonies to watercolour paper to see what I can come up with.
 

Unison pastels-a gorgeous gift from my son, Jesse. I have broken them in half and have used them a couple of times. I don't think I am the only one that stares at new pastels a long time before they have the heart to break them though.      


Only one Amaryllis bulb in the house this year. I am not sure how that happened.  It cost $5.00 so I wasn't expecting much. It turned out to be a winner! It had thirteen blooms and there's one left as I type. I'll put it outside this summer to see if I can
plump up the bulb for another year.



'Til next time...

Cultivate Your Dreams


Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. Thank you, ladies, for hosting.




2 Jan 2018

Here's to 2018!

Hi there,

Another post but in a brand New Year. It will be 5 years in April that I've been blogging. (I must find something special to do to celebrate...perhaps a give-a-way.) I find that extremely encouraging since I gone back and forth about blogging, especially last year. But thanks to a few lovely people, (you know who you are-many thanks xx) I am still here in Blog land and happy to begin the New Year, but not without a quick look back.

Before the year ended, I re-visited a few of my watercolour paintings and decided to enhance the colour. When painting sometimes the subject seems colourful enough, but a re-visit may change your mind.  For me, painting is like writing... it does help to put it away for awhile.

The Pretty Pair


Sweet violets. They are one of the first spring wildflowers..so delightful.

The show...:)The story goes like this... I put this orchid outside for the summer. Because I thought the sun might burn the leaves, I put it under a table. In the fall heavy rains and cold nights took over before I remembered the poor thing. Since it was soaked, I debated whether I should keep it or not. I am glad I kept it.  I may even get another bloom.

Since this Amaryllis is rather small, I am sharpening up my pencils so I can draw it and the orchid flower.

* * *
A special thank you for supporting my tictail shop last year. It means a lot to me!
 In the New Year, I hope to add cards and other items to my new etsy shop. Once it gets running, I may close tictail, although I do like tictail's platform.

* * *
Happy New Year! May it be for all of you and your families, a wonderful year filled with health and happiness, creation and peace, with a good measure of prosperity thrown in.

Cultivate your dreams.

 'Til next time...

12 Dec 2017

Just Popping in To Say. . .

 Hello everyone,

Time has been flying by and Christmas will soon be here. I can't believe it! 
Because we put the tree up early this year, everything else seems to be falling into place with relative ease. I've sent out the cards and parcels, and most of the wrapping has been done.  Next week  more cleaning and a bit of baking and that should round things out.

In the meantime, I've been enjoying a few Amaryllis blooms and all that glitters both at home, in the malls and the snowy neighborhood.






A cute snowman. I find some of them rather creepy, so he's the only one I have.

A ship conjures up thoughts of home.


Paperwhites on the grow.

Backup beauty ~ on the way.



So...basically I just popped in to say have a Merry Christmas Day! 

If you do not celebrate Christmas, enjoy the holidays.

And my very Best Wishes to all of you for the New Year too!

28 Nov 2017

Wonderous Things

Hello lovely people,

I hope my U.S. friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I always wonder how you do it, with Thanksgiving so close to Christmas. Both times require a lot of preparation, so my hat goes off to you all.

Earlier this year, I made my way to Toronto and I thought I'd share a few pics. I saw a painting by Rubens that the AGO recently acquired for 150 million dollars.  I was vastly overwhelmed by the subject matter, so I didn't take a picture of it. However, with that said, it was amazing, vivid and looked like it had been painted yesterday.

"The Lady of Shallot" by Tennyson a favourite poem of mine has, thankfully, been painted so beautifully by John William Waterhouse. I am not sure how many he painted in that series, but they are all wonderful.

'I am Half-Sick of Shadows,' said the Lay of Shallot.

Click here to see a clearer version.

"On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
       To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
       The island of Shalott."
Tennyson
 
Loreena McKennitt's song "The Lady of Shallot." You can listen here.

 Monet


Lady with Soup. Picasso ~ Blue Period

* * * 

I absolutely love Greek sculptures.

A favourite of mine. From the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar ll. c 600BC.
I love to imagine what the palace was like.


A wondrous totem pole. Taken at the ROM

Georgia O'Keeffe.

 I made it to the O'Keefee exhibit with only a day or two to spare before the closing date. Pictures were prohibited.  However, this wonderful photo covered the wall at the end of the show.  And people were lining up to have their picture taken with Georgia.

* * *


My orchid has been blooming for more than two months!

In keeping with my usual winter habits, I've planted a few Amaryllis bulbs. I should have one in bloom next week.

* * *
"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I never let that stop me from a single thing I wanted to do."
Georgia O'Keeffe
Cultivate your dreams. 

'Til next time. . .

31 Jan 2017

Changes


 Hi there,

As you can see, I've made a few changes. Call it a blog lift. It's scary. There's hardly any blue left in sight! (If you are new here, I readily admit to being crazy about blue.)  I don't even like to use a black pen, and will walk a mile to find a blue one. Although for easy reading, I usually type with black/grey ink in blog land. I occasionally draw with a black pen but it's difficult for me. In loving blue,  I am not alone. Survey says: blue is the favourite colour. Period! What a slap in the face to one's concept of uniqueness, but, then again, we are all kindred spirits at heart.  It seems my original blue scheme lost the plot next the snowscape pic, so red lettering it is until spring arrives, or until I have a change of heart.
Speaking of colour, I've been craving it. So here we go...



                             Standard January fare...tulips and daffodils. Puts a spring in my step.

 I always hope for a cool spring so that I can stroll by the neighborhood gardens to stare at the tulips.  If it's too warm, they fizzle. Stunted and struggling, they take on that sad this is it look.

* Tip of the day. For cut tulips, drop in a few ice cubes into the vase now and then to cool down their  toes. They love it!

Back in the day, (And a very long day ago it was--say early 17th century.) you could trade the farm, furniture, implements, and your animals for a tulip bulb. (Think Jack and the Bean stock.) Wouldn't the wife and family be pleased? Fortunes were made and lost. It sounds a bit more romantic than  pork belly futures, and once the craze hit, it hit. M-A-N-I-A! "Step right up, secure your future, buy a tulip bulb!" It's a good thing that I was not alive at that time. She did what, son? Yes, mother you heard it right. She sold the farm for a tulip bulb. Rack and ruin! 
That wifee though, she doth protest:  But, but, BUT I must have beauty!!!

 The movie, Tulip Fever will be released next month. I'll be watching.

  Here in Canada, Maple Leaf Tulips will be popping up all over this spring
               in honour of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation.  (Top row second and third from left on the link page are prime examples.) They are so pretty and were, of course, bred to resemble the flag.

             


  Yet another reason I'm looking very forward to the Tulip Festival in Ottawa ~ Gatineau in May.
                                     
                                           Not until May, you say? Pity!                                                               



  "Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul." Luther Burbank



                           Purple for royalty. That's how it used to be. Purple cloth was too expensive
                           for mere mortals way back when the dye was cast from sea shells. 
Amaryllis.  A never fail winter favourite of mine. They are easy and fun to grow. Every 
year I hope to find different colours. 
Besides being beautiful.  They also hold the keys. 💗
                              I love old keys, and have recently started a collection.  I sometimes wonder 
who carried them, which clocks were wound nightly and by whom, or which house doors they 
locked and unlocked.  I'm not certain the skeleton key on the right is old though, but a keeper it is.

                                        

After Christmas, I try to catch the Amaryllis sales. I can't resist.

Such a lovely blooms and what a colour. (Looks like I may have nailed the colour 
on the breast of the little bird below. Who knew? Serendipity!)
*
"Flowers don't worry about how they are going to bloom.
They just open up and turn toward the light.
And that makes them beautiful." Jim Carrey

 I started this little painting on the wrong side of a bit of scrap paper. It's difficult to tell which
 side is the right side if it's not marked, but I didn't have a plan...simply the time and the will
 to create something.
 
                    "With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy."

                                                                  Oscar Wilde  
                                                          Did he mention birds?


A line drawing in basic black and white with a touch of red thrown in.
Arches scrap paper--frayed edges and all.

                                           "I must have flowers, always and always."

Claude Monet

Truly a man after my heart.

'Til next time...

13 Jan 2016

Favourite Things

 
So far the winter has been mild and with the light increasing each day my thoughts, as they usually do this time of year, turn to flowers, seeds and all that grows and, of course, all that chirps too.
In the city last week, I noticed some tulips and I couldn't resist buying them. Besides, they make great reference material for drawing.

 O, yes, and a few pink carnations.  I tend to overlook these beauties, however, they are pretty and they last a long time.

I've been drawing Amaryllis flowers and using dividers to measure them.  To me, they are even larger than they look!

A Jacamar
He probably looks familiar because last time you saw his head, but the second time around I've changed things a little.
Jarcmars live in South and Central America. Sometimes, if the mood strikes, they will  fly up to Mexico. 
The birdie in the photo is not quite as colourful as it really is. 

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy the week! 


5 Jan 2016

Pretty to Look At



On Sunday, after almost a full day spent painting, I decided it was time for a treat.
These French macarons look so good, no? Wished I could say, yes. They are a too sweet for me but, my, they are pretty.  I do, however, love French butter cakes or Madeleines and even though I made some for Christmas, to appease the sweet tooth, I reckon I will whip up another batch.

Taken last summer. The fan was a gift that I received a couple of years ago from you know who. Thanks again.  I've always wanted one.

 Next week my red Amaryllis will bloom, I hope.

A sample of what's on my desk. He's not quite they way I wanted him, so I have another one on the board, waiting for his watercolour bird bath.
* * *

I was happy to watch the first episode of the last series of Downton Abbey.  I've heard that Mr. Fellowes is considering making a Downton movie for television. I hope he does! 
In case you don't know, he's also writing another historical drama named Belgravia. It begins in April, but apparently it will be on an app., weekly with eleven enhanced episodes. You can either read or listen. Sounds neat.

'Til Next Time...