Art journal – Foxgloves and Bumblebees

We haven’t had too many days this winter that have been cheerless and grey, with rain and wind, the sort of day when all you want to do is stay inside and hibernate. More often the days have been calm and still, with some frosty mornings that are always followed by glorious sunshine, and it is on those days that I love to spend time in the garden, enjoying the beautiful winter colours.

Calendulas among the carrots, brightening up the veggie patch.

Lovely lavender.

Orange and grapefruit trees laden with fruit.

Pots of dianthus.

The beautiful camellia in the abandoned garden next door.

The Peace Lily in our living room, illuminated by early morning sunshine.

Simply magical…

For this page in my art journal, I collaged on some scraps of paper and teabags, applied texture with gesso, stencils, and lace, and painted the background in wintery hues. I then painted the colours of my garden: the starkness of the maple tree without its leaves, the red berries on the holly tree, the bright orange citrus, and the beautiful winter flowers. Lastly I added a few pressed flowers of the pansies and violas that flower throughout the winter.

As we near the end of autumn, I thought I would make a page in my art journal celebrating the season using pressed leaves from our garden and from my parents’ garden. There are so many pretty colours from the different trees, creepers and shrubs.

For the background I used some of the free artist papers from Somerset Studio magazine. I glued on the leaves, then applied a coat of mod podge to the top of the leaves to seal and protect them as they are very brittle once dried. The photos are from recent walks, and I added an autumn poem that I wrote several years ago.

Floating, falling, drifting, swirling,
downward, sideways, high and low.
Spirited, lively, playful, carefree,
crisp and breezy, to and fro.
Amber, auburn, chestnut, copper,
old gold, russet, nut brown, mocha.
A colourful carpet of leaves everywhere;
farewell summer,
autumn is here!

We were surprised, on a recent walk, to see a mother duck with ten little ducklings swimming down the stream. It is the wrong time of year for ducks to be breeding and we can only assume it is a result of a very mild autumn, and hope that they all survived.