Monday, June 11, 2007

Fiddleheads & crabapple tea


I took the day off work, having worked two weekends in a row. I know I'll likely pay the price tomorrow with shovel fulls of work waiting for me, but for the day, I've ignored that possibility and settled down to some drawing, as well as the usual things that occupy my day to day life.

I want to do some more coloured pencil work and have started with the line drawing of 'Crabapple Tea' which I transfered to a piece of Somerset Velvet paper that my daughter sent to me. The image is from Diana Ponting and is in the reference library in WetCanvas.

I added a little colour with prismas to the paper and am not sure if I like the result or not yet. I may end up transferring the drawing to a piece of Stonehenge instead. The Somerset Velvet is gorgeous paper with a soft texture, often used for printmaking and sometimes pastels. Similar in some ways to Stonehenge but softer. It may take a little experimentation. As a result the coloured pencil sinks into the tooth and little bits of the paper have more heavily pigmented areas. I'll play with it a little more and see what happens.

I wandered around the property today looking for inspiration for drawings and paintings. I am never disappointed with choice it seems. The road leading off into the woods is always inviting with shadow and light playing on it.

Ferns, unfurling look very prehistoric, as they should and amaze me at their complexity. I haven't figured out if these ferns are the 'fiddleheads' that can be eaten or not. I'm not going to experiment just in case. I can buy fiddleheads in the shops for a short period of time in late spring, but I've never actually bought some and cooked them. The fiddlehead fern, which tastes like a cross between asparagus, green bean and okra, is an annual industry worth $2 million in New Brunswick.

The sunlight was shining through the trees in the woods. There is something fascinating yet a little eerie about the woods. I love the shapes and colours of the trees and how the light moves around them, but being in the midst of them, its so quiet, it kind of creeps me out a little. That or the thought of a moose or something appearing more like!

6 comments:

"JeanneG" said...

I lived in Oregon for 4 years with timber on the mountain in my back yard. And bears that came down at night to eat the apples from the trees behind the house (we could see their eyes at night). Being from the city, we had a few mishaps, and the landlady was afraid we would never make it out alive.

I think we are afraid of the unknown.

Elise said...

I used to collect and eat fiddleheads as a kid - they are quite tasty. We used to go to the same patches every year so we knew they were the right kind, I don't actually know how to identify them so I haven't had any as an adult.

Terry Banderas said...

I always enjoy the photographs you post from your part of the world.

Jeanette Jobson said...

I haven't come across a bear yet Jeanne, but moose pop up now and then and scare me!

I'll have to try some soon Elise, I don't know a lot about the differences in types either, so some reading up on them is in order.

Thanks Terry, I imagine my landscape is rather different than yours.

Making A Mark said...

I love it when you post photos - so nice to see other parts of the world

How about a macro fiddlehead for O'Keeffe month?

Jeanette Jobson said...

You read my mind Katherine! I was thinking on the way to work how neat it would be to draw them.