Another desert bloom...

 

Desert garden blooms

Despite the new addition going on, last year Steve had planted the beginnings of a desert bed, on the inside elbow of the 'L'. Things are blooming there and I finally got to draw 2 plants today: the Apache Plume and the Desert Marigold. Started drawing in situ, then came in and had fun. This is what this iPad is all about!

Wood grain stratocumulus

Woke up to amazing fast moving and changing skies and weather. Well needed rain on & off so far.

 

Salmon fishing and inspiration

Just spent the 'damp'-ish afternoon with friend and artist Joy Stein, saw the movie Salmon Fishing in Yemen (what an amazing country... With Ewen McGregor too!) and then spent an hour or two looking at the catalogue from the Hockney show again... Needed to draw, so here is this evenings skies, after the rain and as the sun is going down.

Iridescence and Kelvin-Helmholtz waves

 

West temple and iridescence.

 

Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud with iridescence.

 

Kelvin-Helmholtz waves are highly prized amongst cloud spotters. Today has been an exceptional sky day.

 

East and West

East view

West view

The sky was completely different at the same time. The earth is amazing.

West Temple

This afternoon I transferred the simple silk screen of the West Temple view that I used in my 24 hour Solstice/Equinox pieces onto my iPad. I would like to continue drawing the weather and changes in the scene on a regular basis, this was my first attempt. You really have to think in a particular way. But 'painting with light' is all new, so as ever, it is drawing and a PRACTICE, and life long.

Up canyon

Driving up canyon, beautiful prodded trees starting to bud.

Jet lag rising

The benefits of waking early... The skies are beautiful.

Leaving in a deluge

 

Top drawing: windscreen deluge. Bottom drawing: above the virga clouds, above Greenland.

We left our Hurstpierpoint at 7.30 am GMT, in pouring rain, oh so wet. Upon arrival at Gatwick airport we found out we were delayed due to an emergency 747 incident the previous day.

Leaving 1.5 hours late, the pilot did gain a bit of time on the 10 hour + flight, but we of course missed our St. George Shuttle and finally got home at 10 pm MT, that's 5 am GMT. Having been kindly picked up by our friends Hal and Teresa. Phew a long journey.

Got to do a little bit of drawing, twixt dinner, movie and sleep! There is only so much sitting you can do.

Last view

Neighbors houses are viewed from Clare and Jon's home in Hurstpierpoint. Drawn the day before we left for our home, with a great sky in view. Admittedly now really looking at it the perspective is definitely off, but fun to draw anyway.

Brighton Marathon and the wind

Our daughter Clare ran her first Marathon today... 26 miles in 4 hours 44 minutes, fantastic and well done. Raising over £1200 for Spinal Research and other charities. It was my first experience as a spectator for the Brighton Marathon. Sunny but cold wind, which as the runners zig-zagged across Brighton, having a back wind for only some of the time and a face wind for the rest, the poor things. I empathized completely and know I will never experience that, or want to! But well done to all 18,000 who ran, what an achievement. All I could do was to draw the skies and cheer on.

 

Fog to bright skies

The skies changed a lot today... Out to see friends Pam and Mike in the Sussex fog and leaving in blue skies and sunshine, then to storm sunset...

Hail storm at sunset

Small pieces of sky seen as I wandered around the house, not seeing the sunset itself, but the reflected light everywhere.

An English garden in seasonal transition

Bursting shrub, with Winter tree and evergreen fir. Mum's garden just before the hail storm, thunder and all.

Working in layers and still with SketchBook Pro.

Flaming forsythia

 

The forsythias are in full bloom, yellow and stunning.

I went to the David Hockney exhibit - A Bigger Picture - yesterday and was blown away by the work, the amount of work and the iPad work. I felt like the best art show I had ever seen and am very inspired and raring to get to work, so practice, practice, draw, draw....

Easter egg hunt

Good Friday saw us following many young children, including Gracie and Tullulah picking up Easter eggs left in a ideal English wooded glade. Longest walk I have done since my broken leg! My FES seem to be set up well. This is a rough rendering of the morning!

Driving near the New Forest

On our way to and from Salisbury the gorse bushes on the road side were busting through yellow. The skies were gorgeous and rolling.

Daffodils on the move

Daffodils drawn from memory and fast passing on the road as a passenger... Using 'Brushes' only, definitely more painterly feel about this program. But learning to combine the two apps.

Saw the hospital about my FES machines (electric legs!) yesterday, now reconfigured and starting afresh, but now oh so slowly!

Magnolias and Brushes

 

Just added 'Brushes' app to my iPad palette and it mixes with 'SketchBook Pro'... Oh what fun... Magnolia's seen today using both apps.

Hawthorn blossom

Though cold today... The blue skies and sunshine (!) have encouraged the hawthorn blossom to bloom. Other plants are following.