Happy Easter with Hares and Flowers

The Easter holiday weekend came in like a lamb and is going out like a roaring lion!

Good Friday was a glorious Spring day and reminded us how lovely a sunny day in the garden can be. I worked hard clearing dead plant stems and weeding flower beds . . . with a little help from my under-gardener Ivy! 

Then in the afternoon I went for a walk along my new favourite route, I was joined by one of my Twitter followers and her family, she'd asked if I might let them join me to see hares  . . . luckily the hares obliged so everyone was happy!

The weather has been changeable, I hope you managed to dodge the showers! 

On Saturday we went to Southend-on-sea, the main reason was to see 'Out of the City', landscape paintings of East Anglia by the East London Group – and almost forgotten group of talented artists for the 1920s and 30s. Their work appeared on some of the iconic Shell posters of the time, I like the graphic, pared down quality of their landscapes. If you're in the area it's worth a visit.

It wasn't 'sea-side weather', it would have been madness to brave a walk on the pier! we had fish and chops in a characterful 'caff' and managed to walk back to the car park without getting blown off our feet.

Twitter is amazing for discovering things that are right on your own doorstep but somehow you've missed . . . and this was just what happened when I saw a tweeted photo of a beautiful field of flowers and discovered it was just off my route when I visit my Mum. So on Sunday we went to see the National Collection of Hyacinths . . .

It's in a field in the Fens near the Cambridge-Ely railway line. Behind the farm buildings are row upon row of perfumed hyacinths growing out of the black fen soil.

Delicate species varieties and rich deep coloured named varieties . . . 

We timed our visit between the heavy showers and when the dark clouds loomed again on the horizon we quickly made our way back to the car . . . getting out of the car park in a neighbouring grass field was an interesting wheel spinning and very muddy challenge!

We joined my Mum watching the Boat Race on TV. Well done Cambridge! and well done to the Cambridge girls for bravely carrying on rowing while almost sinking.

So, as Storm Katie still rages outside, stay safe and dry and enjoy the rest of Bank Holiday Monday.

Celia

xx

On the trail of the lonesome pine . . . my illustration for March's Gardens Illustrated

Until the email arrives, I have no idea what Frank Ronan is going to write about for his Gardens Illustrated column 'The Writer's Plot'. And as he lives in California for most of the year, I can't rely on familiar seasonal plants making an appearance.

But even for Frank, the March article was something different . . . a road trip!

Over lunch one day when Cliff was at home, we sat down and followed Frank's route on Google Maps. If you have the magazine and read the article, Frank writes: 'I made a road trip the other day...' with a casualness of saying he popped down to the supermarket; BUT let me explain, Cliff and I have driven from Portland to San Francisco, we've also driven from LA to San Francisco, taking the coastal route in both cases, and each of those trips took us over a week! At our pace I think we'd need 6 weeks to do Frank's trip! So I suspect he took more than just 'a day'! 

As you can imagine, the landscape and the conifers change dramatically along the route from gnarled coastal trees, then mile on mile of uniform forest and on to the Avenue of Giants back in California. Not to mention the wide pastures of Montana and the beauty of the Lolo National Forest (somewhere I hadn't heard of and is now on my 'must see' list!)

I admit to floundering about not knowing what to draw. My sketchbook is evidence of this!

Frank's writing is always full of passing cultural and literary references, some I'm familiar with others have me turning to google (who's Smokey Bear?) ... I learn a lot. The key that unlocked my ideas for this linocut was this sentence: "spectacular mountains give way to the sort of cowboy landscape I'd dreamed of seeing since the first reading of My Friend Flicka" . . . I remember that book, it's one of my Mum's favourites and she recommended it to me when I was young. I was more taken by the black and white illustrations by Charles Tunnicliffe and noticed he'd also illustrated some of my favourite Ladybird nature and wildlife books. I think this was when the seed was sown in my mind that drawing pictures could be a real job.

So slightly inspired by Tunnicliffe and My Friend Flicka, together with my own memories of huge landscape views in Oregon and California and some unspecific conifers – here is my finished illustration in the March edition of Gardens Illustrated.

To my surprise I've managed to get my work schedules back on track, it's amazing how fast I can carve lino when I have to!!! I can take the Easter weekend off, knowing I just have to print and scan the linocut for May's Gardens Illustrated to meet the deadline next week. Phew!

Wishing all of you a very happy and peaceful Easter weekend. I hope the sun shines, but if not finding somewhere cosy is good option.

Celia

xx

Illustration for the Telegraph Gardening section

to paraphrase Jane Austen . . .

It is a truth universally acknowledged that nice commissions come along when you are already up to your neck in work!

It was late on Tuesday after that I got the email from the Daily Telegraph's creative director, there was no time to dither the deadline was the following Wednesday afternoon. Yes or No? Overload or miss a juicy commission?

I said yes.

The brief was to illustrate an article about growing edible plants in a shady garden. It was for the front page of the Gardening section of the Saturday Daily Telegraph. I found a previous week's copy and stuck a print out of the designer's layout on the front. The design could break out of the top and slightly overlap the header, I also noticed the bottom of the illustration wouldn't be visible when the paper is folded in half.

I then researched the plants mentioned in the article and did sketches. By Wednesday evening I'd come up with a design - this was a relief as I wouldn't be in my studio on Thursday. However after sleeping on it, I awoke the next morning with an alternative idea! So after frenzied scribbling while eating my porridge I supplied an alternative design as well. And this was the one the creative director liked best. (Moral: always sleep on a design before submitting it!)

Thursday evening . . . I drew a more detailed version of the design and traced it onto the lino ready for cutting on Friday.

Friday was spent carving the lino! I was determined to get it done by 6pm as we were going out for supper and then to a Katherine Ryan gig. Gosh I was tired! but the laughing was a great distraction.

Saturday . . . I printed the lino. A few tweaks and once I had one good impression that was it - hung up to dry.

Sunday was Mothering Sunday - my Mum came to lunch and tea and I did lots of cooking (and eating)

Monday . . . now for more colours . . . the brief was to emphasise the shadiness of the garden by using dramatic blocks of colour. I scanned the printed image (thank goodness for my new studio toy - an A3 scanner) and settled down to work in Photoshop.

Each colour is on a separate layer and is set to 'multiply' with the other layers. The result is just like printing layers of transluscant ink over the scanned linocut. Radio 4 on iPlayer and a mug of tea are also essential.

And there it was finished. 'Just' the last "flight-checks" and the image whizzed by email to the newspaper on Monday evening.


And here it is in this morning's paper . . .

I was pleased with the colours, they looked so zingy on the screen but printed on newsprint they are muted but still bright enough. And the folded paper shows the shady garden and then turn over to see the small sunny area utilised to grow salads in a raised bed and herbs in pots (great idea)

And opened out, here's the illustration in full . . .

If you can't get to read the paper, Lia Leendertz's article is in the online Telegraph (my illustration is only in the print edition) and it's full of interesting ideas for growing edible plants in a shady garden.


Now, what was I doing before I was interrupted! A commission for a music festival programme, a local landscape print and May's Gardens Illustrated magazine illustration. I'll need a holiday in April!

And I haven't yet blogged about the March Garden's illustrated linocut . . . that was an interesting challenge! I'll tell you about that in my next blog post.

Before I finish . . .
on my website I've updated the news and events page, there are some new stockists and in the online shop my Gardens Illustrated linocuts are now available as prints and cards (more are being added over the coming weeks/months).

In my shop you can use the discount code MADMARCH16 to get 15% off your purchases of prints and cards (offer ends midnight on 31 March)

Celia
xx