Grabbing the Muse by the Throat

 

Exciting news - my book is born!!

 

 

 

It will be a week or two yet before it is available online at The Book Depository, Amazon and other online stores.

Everyone who leaves a comment on this post in the next week will go into a draw to win a free copy of my book!!

All of the violas in this photo have since disappeared but I have some others still  flowering happily. Today I used this photo for reference for the watercolour and pen sketch below. I can see now that the colour I used for the leaves makes them look a bit anaemic, but I'm very happy with it overall.

 

 

I did the one below a couple of days ago from life. I have always known these violas by the common name of Johnny Jump-ups and they are favourites of mine. If my memory serves me right, I once read that they also have another common name which is the longest in the English language - "Meet her in the entry, kiss her in the buttery" How rustically divine is that!?

 

 

 

Egg-beater

                                                              Pen and watercolour

This is the first sketch I've done for a while so I felt a bit rusty when I got out my sketch book this evening. I went straight in with the ink pen and made quite a few false starts with the perspective. But it's amazing what can be covered up with some strategically placed rendering. This egg-beater is battered but beloved, and hails from my childhood.

I have finally finished writing the book I have been working on for nearly three years!!! I can hardly believe it as it seemed I would never get to the end of it. In recent months, every ounce of my creative energy has been devoted to working on it. The editing process has been incredibly intense and time-consuming; hence my absence from painting and blogging lately. The official publishing date is the 20th July so hopefully it will feature in my next post.

 As much as I've enjoyed many aspects of writing the book, I will be very glad to be free to move onto other projects. Getting a book over the last hurdles is all-consuming and I've really missed having a life outside of it these past couple of months.

I've barely had a moment to spend in the garden other than to pluck rogue snails from my miniature garden and re-locate them to hopefully tastier and more robust parts of the garden. They've eaten the miniature "lawn" to the roots. I hate to kill them but I may need to harden my heart. The snails I pluck afresh are beginning to look familiar. I think they are able to move much more quickly than they let on!

 

 

 

Thankfully, the snails don't like to eat moss so that is looking very lush. And just look at these  exquisite little pink flowers!(you may need to click onto the photo to get a good look!)

 

I'm looking forward to revealing all with my book very soon!!!