BANANAS ON TENERIFE

Every spare bit of land in the cooler north and west of Tenerife is covered with banana plantations.

CAMPSITE COWSLIPS

 

April is a lovely month to be in England, the countryside is filled with wild flowers, bluebells fill the woods and primroses, violets, wood anenomes and cowslips are everywhere, especially on our campsite only a short distance from the junction of two major motorways!

BALTIC DRAGONFLIES

 

I've been designing a birthday card for my daughter and this is my preliminary sketch in coloured pencils. I used some of my photos taken in Sweden a couple of years ago as my inspiration as well as a real dragonfly that stowed away in our camper car and now carefully stored in a plastic box.  I have started on a watercolour version but I need to work on it for a few days before I decide if it's good enough!

Memories of warmer days

 

I've been busy this week making my sister's birthday card.  As she loves nature as much as I do I thought I'd draw these butterflies I had photographed in the summer on a fresh sprig of ivy I picked from the garden last Sunday. I used tracings of the insects to position them over the outline of the plant before I started with my coloured pencils. I've double mounted the drawing on red card with a narrow band of lime green round the image which brings out the colour of the flowers.

Green woodpeckers in the garden

 

We have a family of green woodpeckers in the garden who love to feed on the ants in the lawn. They often make quite large holes in their search for food but they are welcome to eat as many as they can as I don't really want the ants invading the house.  The youngsters are slowly learning to copy their parents but this one has a habit of sitting in the sycamore tree and squawking for attention! On a rainy morning he sat there looking so sorry for himself sheltering under the leaves I just had to draw him alongside a feather I found on the drive.

The beach in winter

I took a walk to the beach today and had it practically to myself in the rather cold wind.  Undeterred I went down on the sand to get close to the sea and found these peculiar jellies, all along the waterline.  They're in different sizes from about 3 to 9 cms across with lovely reddish centres.  In the small ones I could see 4 quarter sections but the larger ones looked rather like those clear glass paperweights with patterns in the base.  I picked one up and looked at the underside and it was almost as smooth as the top.  I wished I had put my sketchbook in my pocket as I had to draw these from memory.  Does anyone know what they are?  I'm fascinated as I've never seen such creatures before!

Autumn Hydrangeas

In this part of Brittany we get very few autumnal colours on the trees, mainly because the leaves get burnt by the salty air and dry and die before they get a chance to go golden.  However we are blessed with a multitude of hydrangeas all turning from their bright summer pinks and blues to deep reds and pale greens and all shades in between.  I've recently drawn this one as a birthday card for my Mother in law who loves the autumn colours.

Hydrangeas

Here in Perros Guirec, the city of Hortensias, the hydrangeas have never been so beautiful.  The colours this year are richer than ever before, I wonder if the upside down weather we've had this year has anything to do with it?  This lacecap is one of my favourites with lovely blue flowers peeping shyly out from her big green leaves!

Apple Picking Time

Quick Apple sketch with coloured pencils.

Copyright Paula Kuitenbrouwer, photo Thomas Kluck

Yesterday there were many apples scattered on the lawn.

It was time to collect them.

Mmmm…the apples tasted sweet and fresh.

Apples from your own garden look so much different from the ones in supermarkets. Our apples look damaged by the sun and they have bumps or scars from sweeping branches. They wear no varnish. They aren’t polished nor sprayed with paint. They look natural.

Without an apple tree in your garden you would almost forget how a natural an apple looks (and tastes).

Paula Kuitenbrouwer (Belgium) at Mindful-Drawing