Artist's sketches, new and old and beginning.

The last couple of weeks have been beautifully sunny and very warm, sometimes reaching up to the mid 30s. Summer is here at last and the garden is looking amazing this year with all the flowers and our honey bees are doing their magic travelling from colour to colour. After finishing a few commissions this last month, I have had a look back at some of the sketches I have kept in my art draw and decided to draw with pencil and pen and ink to create small pieces of art. First I'll show the older sketches. A sketch for each month for 'Earth Pathways Diary' 2012. This morning I went for a wander through the woodland behind my house, 6am and everything gleaming in the summer dew. A few photos of the woods and garden before I show you the newer sketches. The few new. There is a folklore tale that inspired me to draw 'The Keeper of Special Things'. To cut a long story short, and once upon a time, a young princess was lured into a Kings ancient greek kingdom by the most beautiful bright and shiny jewels of crystal and gold. Not so long after, when her father found out he was so angry at her he changed her into a jackdaw. This is why the jackdaw loves bright and shiny things....but look at where she is now and what she has found. I might make this into a story to write soon.

Celtic Festivals

We are into August already and the berries and fruit trees are ripening early this year. Soon I'll be getting ready to gather as many empty glass jars as I can for jams and pickles to last for the 4 or 6 months ahead.  Already there are black currants, plums, crab apples, tay berries and in a couple of weeks the elderberries.  Last year we make hedgerow jelly with rosehips, haw berries and black berries.  Pear and cider apple chutney, and a few others that I can't remember the wonderful things we put in. The veg garden is growing in abundance and all around us countryside is bursting with wild food for foraging.
Sitting in the garden drinking mint and lemon balm tea from the wild knot of herbs, I wonder what adventures our family blackbirds have had this summer. Always meeting me at dawn with their song and never far away during the day. Their beautiful singing balancing the energies of the new day.

Early last Spring I started painting the Celtic Festivals and have finally finished all 8. I love the colours of the seasons here in the UK. The warm bronze and rusts, golds and earthy browns of Samhain to the gentle yellows, greens and violets of Ostara.  I will soon have all of these ready for prints and I'll be making card sets for the 'Wheel of the Year'.