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I think that this will be my last painting of this year.
And what a way to go… I don’t know why painting an already dying cyclamen occured to me as a good idea.
Nor why putting a pink cyclamen in front of a background pattern that’s the same colour would make for an easy time of painting.
Boy was that pink-that’s-red-with-violet hard to mix and match.
But the prints were fun to paint, especially the Liberty fabric.
© Claire Leggett Christmas Cyclamen
You can keep the rain and the cold – Autumn colours are the only thing to love about the season so far !
I saw these chrysanthemums at a grocers shop – or rather I should say that they saw me and shouted ‘Oi! Buy me, paint me!!’
I was helpless to refuse and very happy to comply. Am I the only one that can hear plants talking?
I braved the weather conditions this weekend to fight fallen leaves into the garden refuse bin.
One down side of living opposite a wood is the constant fall of leaves at this time of year. Our back garden has looked like a natural disaster took place with the sudden drop of leaves. And out the front, every time the front door is opened a small pile of leaves blows in.
Anyhow they are beautiful and it won’t last forever and the biggest bonus is being able to watch the trees change colour and shape from the warm comfort of my bed which overlooks the woods opposite.
It’s done! All 84 x 59 cm of it. That’s a lot of paint. And time. And patience…
It’s been a gargantuan task – there is lots I love about it and some things I’d change but for now c’est finito (do you like my grasp of languages!)
Thanks for all your lovely comments about the New Leaf show – you guys are great at cheering me on – don’t ever stop! Especially as I have more good news to share later in the week 
I have continued to work away at this all week and it is shaping up nicely. This lime green is very yummy.
I have added in some Spring themed objects from my collection of useful things.
Although I’m nervous about painting a feather – they can be surprisingly hard to capture and make wispy.
But I’m still along way off worry about that yet. This painting is huge!
And so the weekend is upon us and this is where I’ve got to. I like the composition so far and I’m relieved that most of the fiddley painting-around-tulips- is done.
Have a great weekend. We have a Birmingham half-marathon running man to cheer on this Sunday. See you next week.
Back in May I painted three of the tulips I had grown in the garden. They were unexpectedly beautiful and I wanted to capture them before they died – and I didn’t have much time. So I bit the bullet and painted them but not in my usual fashion. I was right out of my comfort zone for many reasons. I like to build a still life and see how everything is going to work together before I begin. I like to paint from the back towards the front not the other way around and I don’t often paint anything as large as this which is A1.
It began well enough and has sat on the easel since May looking at me across the room and asking ‘Are you brave enough yet to finish me?’ And the answer has been no… until now.
I am finding it really difficult though!
I have built a set up around the same vase but with three (of the most awfully tacky) pretend roses in it to help the composition. But it’s just not the same as the living thing. And because I wanted this piece of be about Spring I am having to use some faux Forsythia.
The painting around is driving me to distraction – I have coated the tulips in matt acrylic varnish to protect them but even so I have drawn it out, painted over it to wash the background and am concentrating so hard on not losing the pencil lines or paint on the tulips that I think I might just blow a gasket soon!
Well enough of the grumbles and lets get back to plodding along! Hope you’re having a good week.
It feels incredible to me that it is only four short weeks since I embarked on a full-time career in painting. I am loving every minute of it and getting a ton of work done. My week has found its own rhythm of design work on the computer (with the radio thumping away to stir the creative spirit) and days of painting (with audiobooks playing to dis-engage that left brain thinking.)
This painting presented itself (more-or-less) on the kitchen table, as I had cut down some left-over Pinks and had lit the pink candle for dinnertime. With the introduction of some crochet and silver it has become a study in pink and grey.
I tried to quickly catch the rambling rose in our garden before it faded away.
I had to pin it up to be able to paint it as it naturally wants to droop down – poor thing!
Have yourselves a nice weekend. Claire x
latartinegourmande.com
I am still enjoying the Tartine Gourmande website and not just for recipes but for still-life ideas as she has a special eye for food photography.
I had seen the above images before and must have had them catalogued in my memory because I seized upon a bag of reduced pea-pods in the supermarket aisle as if I already knew what I was going to do.
I think my age is beginning to defie these bird-eye views because of the neck ache it causes but I’m sure someone said something about suffering for your art!
Pea Pods © Claire Leggett
One of my very lovely commenters tipped me off to this lovely website - www.tarteletteblog.com
Apart from being full of things I’d like to cook, I love the styling of the food and this one in particular gave me an idea for a still-life.
I love the colour of apricots but those gentle furry skins are hard to paint and contain every shade from red to palest yellow. Now that they are finished with it’s back to tartelette to find something to cook with them. Yum
© Claire Leggett Apricots
