It should have been brush to paper, but I didn’t get that far.
Scamp was out to meet Annette this morning, but for tea, not coffee because Calders has the reputation of serving the worst coffee in the world, so tea is a safer option. I had the morning to myself and started on a sketch I’d been meaning to get down on paper for months. It’s just a house and garden and it should have been easy, but in the past I just couldn’t get the perspective right. Today was no exception, at least until I tried using a grid. It’s a trick that I’ve seen others use and have scoffed at. I actually taught it as a means of scaling up a drawing for a while. Now I taught myself how to use it, and it worked. Admittedly, now I have the grid lines to cover up, so the painting that I anticipated being a watercolour may turn out to be an acrylic. Today, I’m just happy with the sketch.
After I ‘finished’ the sketch – you never really finish a drawing or a painting, you just reach a point where, as Whistler is alleged to have said, “I do not intend to do any more to it”. When I reached that point, I left the sketch unfinished for the day and decided to do something useful instead, so I cleaned the shower. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. That’s probably a quote too. I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere before! With my good deed done for the day I waited to see if Scamp was coming home today, or perhaps waiting until tomorrow. She arrived bearing rolls! And not just any rolls, ‘Well Fired Rolls’. Crisp, crunchy rolls. I forgave her late arrival.
After lunch which was filled rolls for two, we went for a walk to the shops. We needed milk. We didn’t need Chocolate Cookies or a Bakewell Tart, but we got them anyway. When we got home I saw the red Californian Poppies that nod their head in the border looking bright and cheerful in the sunshine. The first shot went a bit bonkers because the camera decided that 1/800th of a second was a reasonable shutter speed rather than the 1/125th I’d asked it to use. That turned the bright red poppy into a dull dark red blob … however, maybe if I did a bit of jiggery pokery in Lightroom … ?
So that’s what I did. A bit of jiggery pokery in Lightroom, then in ON1 2022 and then back in Lightroom again for a final sprucing up and I had a PoD!
While I was engrossed in the post processing, Scamp was having a field day, digging up plants. Unfortunately she dug up what must be a long time favourite of mine whose real name is Astilbe but my mum always called it Spirea, because the man who gave her the first plant called it that. Strangely, one name for it is False Spirea. Thank you Mr Nelson. Anyway they are now all dug up although Scamp did spare one plant which is now in a pot. Yes, I know they were invasive. Every year we cut them back, only for them to return the next year, but they had pretty pink flowers. I’m sure they will come back again … twice as strong.
The uprooting caused a bit of an argument and I went out for a walk to cool down. When I returned I got stuck in to making the dinner which was Haddock & Prawns with Fennel. It’s meant to be Cod, not Haddock, but it tastes equally good with either. One of the best ones I’ve made. It must have been the anger that concentrated the taste.
Later we agreed to differ on the Astilbe question and watched The Hotel and were amazed at the mess people leave in their hotel rooms We were equally shocked at the hours the staff work. It might make me more forgiving when we go on holiday and don’t get five star service in a four star hotel.
No plans for tomorrow. No painting and no digging plants up.