April I & II

April I & II
watercolours by Teresa Newham

Has anyone else noticed the blossom this year?  From my neighbour's flowering cherry, which always heralds the onset of Spring, to the trees we've seen on our daily walks more recently, the display has been spectacular, and prompted me to get out my paints.

establishing the base and the layout
© Teresa Newham

I started with watercolour washes and salt, soaking up excess colour with kitchen roll to ensure the washes were faint and that the salt didn't dissolve, then I sketched the outline of some primroses and the skeleton of the trees.

the two paintings taking shape
© Teresa Newham

I built each painting up with more layers of Transparent Yellow, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Permanent Sap Green,  allowing some Cobalt Blue sky to show through from the base layer.  I thought I'd finished until I stepped back and took another look.

April I
watercolour by Teresa Newham

I was happy enough with April I, but the tree in April II just looked wrong.  Even a layer of Titanium White didn't cover it, so I dug out some ancient white gouache and coaxed enough from the tube to do the job.  It's definitely an improvement!

April II
watercolour & gouache by Teresa Newham

Second bite of the cherry . . .

Cherry Blossom II
mixed media watercolour by Teresa Newham

The cold weather continued right to the end of March this year, with snow on the ground in the South of England barely a fortnight before Easter.  The few blossoms which had dared to emerge on my neighbour's tree froze in the chilly wind.

this year's blossom
© Teresa Newham

The blossom is fully out now; perhaps not as spectacular as in some years, but still providing a welcome splash of colour as the gardens recover from what one of my friends described as "eternal winter".

the original Cherry Blossom watercolour
© Teresa Newham

That tree has inspired a couple of paintings in its time: last year it was a mixed media watercolour Flowering Cherry, and a couple of years before that a pen and wash called simply Cherry Blossom.

brightening up the background
© Teresa Newham

My favourite painting is always the next one, so when I do look back at my old work, I'm often pleasantly surprised.  Not with Cherry Blossom, however - it's never felt quite right - and once Flowering Cherry was finished, I knew it needed a re-think.

emphasising the foreground
© Teresa Newham

This year I embarked upon whole series of renovated watercolours, of which Cherry Blossom II is the latest: washed off and reinvigorated with Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Sap Green and metallic copper ink, and remounted. And at last I can say I'm happy with it!

revitalised painting in new mount
© Teresa Newham

A walk in the park

January frosts
© Teresa Newham

#HertsOpenStudios is less than four weeks away, and I should be in a frenzy of mounting and framing the various pieces I've made over the last twelve months, ready to exhibit.  Instead, I've been trawling through old photos and collating them for a piece I've called All the year round in Rothamsted Park.

Spring bulbs
© Teresa Newham

The idea began in September 2013, when I found myself wandering through the sun-dappled park at nine in the morning - a time when I would have normally been on the train to work.  Revelling in my newly-retired freedom, I began taking photos in the park whenever I had a spare few minutes.

trees in full Summer
© Teresa Newham

I soon discovered that the park has a regular rhythm of its own - as well as the changing seasons, the view is determined by the time of day - you can be elbow to elbow with joggers and dog walkers one minute, and disconcertingly all on your own the next - at least, it seems that way until the next person appears round the bend or at the top of the hill!

fallen leaves in Autumn
© Teresa Newham

Over the last few years, Rothamsted Park has been the source of several photos for the calendars I make as Christmas presents, various sketches, and one watercolour, which comes close to saying what I felt about the park that September morning without in any way excluding the possibility of making more paintings, perhaps of the park at a different time of year.

mysterious mist
© Teresa Newham

I've enjoyed putting together this montage of the park in all its glory all the year round, and I hope that visitors to my studio will enjoy it, too.  In the meantime, I have work to do.  I've just given myself something extra to frame, after all!

All the year round in Rothamsted Park
© Teresa Newham

#HertsOpenStudios runs from Saturday 9th September - Sunday 1st October 2017.  Full details of participating artists and studio opening times can be found here.

Flowering Cherry

Flowering Cherry
watercolour & printmaking ink
© Teresa Newham

My neighbour's flowering cherry tree is a source of continual delight.  It provides shade in Summer, glorious colour in Autumn, and sculptural interest in Winter.  Birds shelter in it and squirrels climb it. And it heralds the arrival of Spring in a burst of pink blossom which lifts the spirits along with the lengthening days.

source photos & notes
© Teresa Newham

It seemed an ideal subject for another mixed media piece - the early leaves have a bronze cast perfectly suited to metallic printmaking ink - but it was only after I'd taken some photos and sketched out a possible design that it occurred to me I could use inks for the blossoms.

first stages
© Teresa Newham

I considered putting masking fluid on the branches but there were a lot of them and I didn't want to push my luck - so I painstakingly painted the negative spaces with a strong wash of Cerulean Blue.  I could have stopped right there and called it "White Tree" - I was tempted!

now it's getting interesting!
© Teresa Newham

I painted the trunk and branches with  Permanent Sap Green and Permanent Alizarin Crimson, at which point the tree took on an almost unearthly luminous glow.  The leaves were applied next, and finally the blossoms, which brought the whole thing to life.  Spring is definitely here!

the finished piece
© Teresa Newham

Spring is round the corner!

Acer bud
© Teresa Newham

It might seem over-optimistic to start thinking about Spring in January, particularly when snow is forecast!  But the days are now a whole hour longer than they were at the start of the month, and things are starting to happen in the garden:

Sedum just starting to show
© Teresa Newham

A recent sunny morning beckoned me outside with my camera, and almost at once I found signs that Spring will soon be here, whether it was plants pushing up through the earth, or buds starting to show on the shrubs and trees!

forsythia with buds
© Teresa Newham

Last Autumn I hastily shoved a whole host of Spring bulbs haphazardly into a couple of tubs, in the hope that they'd overwinter.  And here they are, promising to bloom in the fullness of time:

Spring bulbs peeping through
© Teresa Newham

The rose bushes are also waking up, highlighted here by the wintry sun.  And that sun has a different quality about it now, compared to a few weeks ago:

rose stems showing signs of life
© Teresa Newham

This hyacinth looks as though it's almost ready to burst forth, in the way that hyacinths do.  In the middle of winter it's good to remember that Spring will always come!

imminent hyacinth
© Teresa Newham

a walk round the corner - May, June, July

We're now on the final lap of the countryside diary I started to keep in August 2013.  When I last posted in this series in April, we were just seeing the first signs of Spring, so by May things had moved on quite a bit. In the first field what I had originally assumed to be grass was becoming a proper crop:

the first field - May
© Teresa Newham

And on the oak at the edge of the field, the first leaves were unfurling!

the old oak - May
© Teresa Newham

In the second field, and along Mud Lane, things were looking green:

the second field - May
© Teresa Newham

And the hedgerows were full of cow parsley.  It was everywhere!

cow parsley - May
© Teresa Newham

By June, the crop in the first field was springing up:

the first field - June
© Teresa Newham

The old oak was fully in leaf:

the old oak - June
© Teresa Newham

Ferns were now growing at the entrance to the second field:

the second field - June
© Teresa Newham

And wild honeysuckle was beginning to bloom in the hedges:

honeysuckle - June
© Teresa Newham

July, and the wheat in the first field now has ears.  It's definitely Summer and the sun is out!

the first field - July
© Teresa Newham

The cow parsley in the hedges under the old oak is far taller than I am:

the old oak - July
© Teresa Newham

Wheat is also in evidence in the second field.

the second field - July
© Teresa Newham

The hedgerows are full of this pink flower.  It looks a bit like phlox but I think it's called rosebay willowherb!

rosebay willowherb? - July
© Teresa Newham

Well, that brings the year full circle.  We'll definitely continue our walks - I'm keen to see how that wheat ripens up - so watch out for an update here from time to time!

A walk round the corner - February, March, April

It's time to update the photo diary of our countryside walks, last posted on this blog back in January.  For a while I thought we might not get outside in February at all, what with the weather being so bad, but some sunshine did eventually arrive, and we duly made our way across the mud in the first field:

the first field - February
© Teresa Newham

The storms had removed the last of the old leaves from the trees but everything was still looking pretty bare - at least the sky was blue!

the old oak - February
© Teresa Newham

At the entrance to the second field the catkins had gone - the farmer had been out managing his hedges.  I imagine that left untrimmed they would look a right mess! We have discovered that this little track is called Mud Lane, and it was certainly living up to its name:

the second field - February
© Teresa Newham

The only sign of life in the hedgerows at this point was some gorse making a welcome splash of colour along the railway line:

flowering gorse - February
© Teresa Newham

By March things had dried out a bit, but at first glance everything seemed still disappointingly dormant:

the first field - March
© Teresa Newham

Some of the hedges near the old oak had sprung into life but the tree itself wasn't showing visible signs of life yet, at least, not from the ground . . . .

the old oak - March
© Teresa Newham

. . .  and not much to see in the second field either.  At least the track was dry, so we were able to go along it without getting our feet wet.  No more wellies!

the second field - March
© Teresa Newham

However life was stirring in the hedgerows, as this blossom shows!

hedgerow in bloom - March
© Teresa Newham

On our most recent walk everything looked much fresher and greener, especially along the railway line:

the first field - April
© Teresa Newham

The old oak itself still looks leafless against the light, but the hedgerows are starting to fill out!

the old oak - April
© Teresa Newham

At the entrance to the second field, all the trees along Mud Lane and the edge of the field are coming into leaf:

the second field - April
© Teresa Newham

And to my delight there are bluebells growing in the hedgerows.  Spring is finally here!

bluebells in the hedgerow - April
© Teresa Newham