HELLEBORES

 

 

I've been so inspired this last couple of weeks by the new growth in the garden that I haven't done much drawing in the portrait book.

Here is the latest picture of the Hellebores in my garden given to me about 10 years ago by Justine and still going strong.

 

 

I can see the clump from my kitchen window lit by the morning sun when it passes through the cut down hydrangea branches.  The white flowers glow like lanterns against the dark soil and leaves.

 

 

I picked a sprig to draw from another clump elsewhere in the garden as I didn't want to spoil my display near the house and drew it in grey pen and watercolours.

 

 

Then it was time to get out the fabrics and start cutting.  I had found some non-woven fabrics at the local shop and I attached a layer of bondaweb to several of the colours so that I could build up a background on a piece of yellow cotton.  Then I stitched around the dark leaves as a simple under layer for the flowers.

 

 

Then it was just a case of gathering together some green and white fabrics and yellow ribbons for the stems and stitching them onto the background.  I love the abstract fuzzy background, what do you think?  The picture is already in a frame and hanging in the bedroom!

 

 

 

Next I decided to tackle the tiny daffodils that have opened in a big clump in the herb garden.

First a sketch to get used to the shapes of the trumpets and angles of the petals.

 

 

 

Then another background using the non-woven fabrics to which I added a few solid and spotty leaves.

 

I had already coloured a length of lace with some yellow acrylic paints so I used it to shape the trumpets for the flowers.  I used some narrow green ribbon for the stems and added a pink bow and a few more leaves.

This is going to be mounted on pink card for my mother in law on Mothering Sunday in a few week's time.