Hello all, I hope you are well?

As we step into autumn here in the UK its time to get cosy and work on with those rainy day projects.

Over the summer my return to regular painting was somewhat hindered by the fact that I had forgotten how to paint and draw.. :D

I thought it was like riding a bike and that once you had learnt you would know how to do it forever.. but now I understand why it is fact called art practice…

So I have been practising with these stylised nature paintings which I cut out and put into various scrap books..

These flowers were a joy to paint and also use some of the knowledge from the colour theory course I am currently doing.

My real life flower gardening did not go so well this year, a combination of drought, high temperatures, slugs and my own incompetence have left much room for improvement.

I do have a few tomatoes to pick though, so all is not lost..

I painted these beetles in an attempt to capture their iridescence in acrylic paint.. its really difficult.

I was inspired to paint them in memory of a colony of golden beetles I found at the bottom of the garden many years ago, like a pot of gold. It was at the time when my garden was very hot and sun baked, it has subsequently become more of a woodland edge habitat.

I always found the gold beetles in the sunniest, hottest areas with the most light. I am currently opening up the canopy a bit to allow more light in so hopefully the gold beetles may return.

It goes to show that you can find gold in unexpected places…

These cute stylised owls always make me smile, I would love to paint more birds in the future so look out for more of these cuties.

I seem to have made friends with some of the birds in the garden, as when I call to them they now answer back.. :)

I also had a very strange encounter with some of them, but I will save that story for another time.

All the best and happy days to you all.

xx