Conkers

More Autumn. Lovely walk on Sunday, came back with some nice shiny conkers, or as my daughter Evy put it, icky nature stuff in my bag.

 I think these aren't awful depictions of conkers, but it doen't really excite as a picture. It's probably too much of an attempt at realism, but I'm finding it  hard to do detailed stuff without going into detail. If that makes sense.

More leaves

I'm doing a fine impression of a bit of a nutcase , wandering around the garden, picking up, examining and discarding leaves.

I'm not at all sure why I put the least interesting leaf out front. Ah well. I prefer yesterdays attempt.

Feeling autumnal.

The last few morning walks have been beautiful, with that lovely low autumn light turning even the most mundane scene into a thing of beauty. Much though I'd love to,I'm not at all brave enough to venture outside and paint. These few leaves, picked off the grass in the garden, will have to be my little autumn attempt.

I enjoyed doing this. It was quite different, especially not really having any highlights to rely on to try and bring it to life.I might try and look for more strongly coloured  or more crumpled leaves and try again.

Weary flower

I had flowers in coloured glass vases on the table for our curry night. The flowers, like me, are tired and droopy.

I wanted to loosen up and paint in a more lively way, I think things have tightened up lately. The problem with loosening up is that it is way too easy to get things wrong. Hence the wonky vase. I think that balance between correct but loose is crucial but very tricky.

Getting ready for curry night.

The ingredients are beginning to look lovely, I love a fridge full of fresh green healthy looking stuff.

I'm much happier with these chillies, especially the two at the back which I think work with fairly few brushstrokes. This is my first time painting a leaf. I really enjoyed doing this, there was a lovely scent of lime, and things went okay.

 

 

Chillies for curry

We seem to have gone from a vague notion we ought to have people around sometime, to having about 15 coming for curry on Saturday. Oops.  Many chillies purchased. Much beer bought.

This is okay from across the room, quite far across, with a squint! Some bits worked, but I got a bit bogged down in colours and reflections, and faffed too much with the shadows, and the second chilli on the left is a bit horrid!

Rosehips to the rescue

After a miserable morning painting where I managed to make a chrisp white china jug look like an invading alien smudge monster, I didn't want to give up defeated. I should have gone in and got some serious studying done, but instead I went and  found some pretty rosehips in the garden

That went better, nearly well enough to offset study guilt. Ther was a much nicer reflection going on in the shadows than I managed to capture.