Sketches... painted of my garden during recooperation time.

 

 

Poppy painted on my Nepalese hand made paper.

After trials and errors I now realise

 I have to use more paint and less water.

 

 

This one was painted on hand made paper from Solange in the Provence.

When I was there I visited the paper mill where you could see
the process of how the paper was made. I wish I had bought the sheets of paper,
but I had only just started to paint with water colours then

and I only bought a pack of postcards, but I still have a few left.

 



 

 

Our pool, which I've only been looking at over the past few weeks.

and now I am allowed to swim, we have dull rainy weather

and as I'm a sun worshiper and not a keen swimmer

I need a hot sunny day to tempt me.

 

 

 

 

 

Our new brightly coloured sun brollies for the pool area

 

 

 

 

Where we sit for morning coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 A corner of the garden that has given us plenty of colour,

especially the poppies on the left. which have now been removed

ready for some herbaceous plants to take their place.

The roses on the right where beautiful, until we had a terrific storm

 a few days ago and now they've all been battered .

Hopefully we'll get a second lot to flower over the following weeks.

 

 

This area is work in progress.

However since my back problem it has been put on hold.

The wall was built in the springtime

 and a few cuttings of Buddleia were literally shoved in,

have grown well and now beginning to give us some colour

along with the never ending butterflies that love it.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm now feeling much better so I've been pottering about dead heading,

nothing too energetic for the time being.

 I do start to get carried away and get told off by Mr France

 and made to rest, I must be patient

 

I'll be so happy when I can get my hands in the earth again,.

 

I've sketched a lot over the past few weeks.

So I'll be showing you some more soon.

In the meantime I hope you are enjoying lots of warm sunny days in your gardens.

 

 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Looking back.

It's now early June and I'm resting after my surgery

I've only planted up a few hanging baskets and

I've just had a phone call from 'Le Mairie' ( our local town hall)

It was strange to hear an English voice and also one I recognised,

 informing me that she was now the person in charge of the 'floral committee'

and would I be entering the floral competition as usual this year,

as I had not sent in my application form.

How things have changed since I first arrived to live in my tiny village

 take a look here

 

During the time  I've lived in France I've always had pots of flowers

on the window sills and by the front door, even when we were renovating our house.

 I felt a little sad having to say NO I would not be entering this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you'd like to look back with me at one of my previous posts  

 

here  are some of the flowers which have won me prizes.

Little by little I'm getting better.
I'm still having to rest a lot and not allowed to go out in the car yet.
Fortunately we have glorious sunshine so I've been sitting on our terrace
I've done a little sketching, but really not 100% back into it.
Hopefully I'll get my enthusiasm back soon.

 I hope you'll enjoy seeing some of my older posts.
when the pots & baskets where at their best.


Since I've been absent,  I've gained some new followers
I hope you will come back even though my posting will be sporadic
for a little while.
Also thank you so much to those of you who have sent me get well wishes.

 

 

  

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

Roses & a few paintings from my sketch book

 

Since the treatment I had for my back problem

I haven't been very active on my blog.

and now I finally need to have surgery.

Which has made me turn to my favourite things.
My garden , which as I previously mentioned

 is having to look after itself.

But somehow it's not looking too bad.
 

I've just picked out a few photos I took of the pretty pink rose.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been sketching in my new sketch journals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year these poppies bloom in my daughters garden.

I love the big flower, but unfortunately they don't last very long 

so they were a must to paint .

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Montana Clematis is in full bloom & climbing everywhere, 

 except the ones I planted to grow up onto my pergola.

for some reason they didn't like where I'd put them.

so I took a photo of some in a friends garden .

 

Then quickly sketched this into my garden sketchbook.

 

 

 

 

This was  a sprig of Lilac  which I stole from my daughters garden

I find it doesn't seem to last very long in a vase.
  

 I painted this on the hand made paper I was given

I  struggled at first using this type of paper

but now I think I'm liking the different technique I have to use.

I glued it in my sketch book.

 

 

 

 

I would like to Thank all

 my blogging friends who take the time to look at what I share,
especially those who have sent me get well wishes.
 

I'll be away for awhile.

But I will be reading my favourite blogs

even if I don't make any comments.

 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 



 

Scavenger hunt

organised by

green thumb Made with love

 

Where did the month of April go ??

 

I thought I would have been  organised this time

and

have had all my photos taken

and

 stored ready to show you.

Have

you guessed ?

 I haven't.

Mainly due to still not being fully active after my spell in hospital

and awful weather hindering me to get to the places I wanted to visit,

for what I call my photo shoot days.

 

Well here is my effort for  APRIL

 

 A is for ?

 

 Apple
 as it takes me back to school days,
how we learnt the
A.B.C.

 

We had  been to a new restaurant  recently opened near to where we live.

In years gone by it was the railway station .

The table decoration caught my eye
on each table they had placed

a  RED APPLE in a glass.

 

 

 

 

11 a.m.

 

Coffee time in our household.

Always HOT and made by my Mr France for ME.

 

 

 

 

SMOOTH

 

This was taken on a still day last summer.

 

 

Scale

Out come the dratted scales.

 

It's that time of the year again, the weather is getting warmer we stop layering up to keep warm . Look through our wardrobe and find we can't squeeze into those favourite trousers we wore last year.



Tile

 

 

It's difficult to find just a tile.

As where I live all the roofs look like this.

But I loved the look of the many different shades of terracotta

on this roof as I peeped through the widow at my daughters house.

 

 

 

 



 

 

LOGO 

 

 

This was taken at a vintage car rally.

 

 



SCRAP 

It was a wood burner in the house before renovation.
Now it's used to warm us up outside on a chilly evening
that we never want to end.
I think it needs emptying !!
 

 

 

 

 

 

MATCH

A group of local boys playing rugby.

My grandson is in there somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

PATH

 

My pathway to heaven.

 

Taken a few years ago on our visit to the PROVENCE.

 

 

Layers

 

We often see these layers  overhead .

I call it sky painting.

 

 

 

 

Carry

Boys always love to do this.

 

Truck



 

This is a Lego master piece

 which my grandson made a couple of years ago.

 

 



 

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my choice for Aprils



Scavenger Hunt

  http://suzzie43.blogspot.co.uk/p/scaerngera.html

 

 

So until next time keep your camera handy at all times and join in.

Scavenger Hunt

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 

Having fun with watercolour / aquarelle painting .

Before I went into hospital, I knew there would be times 

when I would be twiddling my thumbs,

so got myself some new sketching books,

and a few brightly coloured Faber Castell Pitt artist pens.

Then selected  a few of my Micron pigma pens 

 along with my Daler - Rowney Artists pencils.

I thought I'd try something new and what fun I had.

 

 

 

 

 

My friends have just come back from a trip to India

and brought me a lovely gift, a sketch book of handmade paper.

It has lots of raised little bits of wood and was certainly a challenge.

 

This is the lovely book.

It folds together with both curved edges just touching

 fastened with hand rolled silky cord and lovely buttons.

I love the way the paper easily tears from the binding.

 I'm sure I'll be finding lots of new ideas to use this paper .

 

 

 

On the way to the hospital we drove down an avenue of trees

 full of beautiful pink blossom. I knew I would love to paint this.

I didn't have my camera as I had other things on my mind !

But I didn't need it, it was imprinted in my mind,

just the thing for the hand made paper.

 

I wasn't sure how to tackle this quite flimsy paper,

so I tore a page out and jumped in with both feet.  

I kept it loose with not too much water

and was greatly surprised at my first attempt.

 

Here it is finished which later I carefully  stuck in my sketch book.

 



Recently I signed up to follow Polka dot April challenge 

 

 



 

This was my funky effort.

 I had great fun doing it.

But I haven't had the courage to send it !

 

 

One of the many blogs I follow is

Sharon Chapman at Wildflowerhouse

She has just become the proud owner of two of the most gorgeous

 fluffy cream coloured pups you could ever see.

 

   Pop over and have a look.

Her posts are varied and she paints lovely flower sketches.

 Recently she showed

 

Just Fun Doodles 

 

Which really inspired me to try something completely different.

 I'm always doodling when I talk on the phone.

so thought this would be fun and it was.

 

At first I didn't know where to start

and then all of a sudden I found I'd run out of paper.

I'll certainly do some more.

 

 

Also I've been wanting to start a sketchbook journal for ages

and  read that lots of  people  who keep journals

 always recommend to buy one of good quality.

Naturally  : Moleskine 

so I treated myself to a 21x13 cm. Carnet aquarelle .

Which are not available locally where I live in France.

What would we do without Amazon. 

Also  Stillman and Birn Beta series seemed to be popular.

I thought that while I was dropping things into my Amazon basket

I'd get one of each.

 

This is the front page in the Stillman and Birn journal.

I'll show you some of the inside pages later.

 

 

 

I think I'll be using the Moleskine more for landscapes.

 

Hope you like the very varied sketches I achieved

in between my treatment while I was in hospital.

Now I'm back home still unable to do any gardening.

So I'm painting like mad.

 

I've also done some  Annie Sloan Chalk painting.

 

That's for later too.

 

So for now I'll say

 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian