Monday 10 March 2014

Spring Has Sprung!

What a fantastic day today was! It truly was the first real day of Spring. I was moving studios - from my conservatory to my custom-built one at the top of the garden - and whilst traipsing up and down the winding path lugging all my gear, there were lots of butterflies flitting about, sipping nectar from the few flowers in bloom and taking their first flights after their long hibernation in garden sheds and woodpiles. I saw four different species (these are all my photos, apart from the Brimstone and the bees, taken last year):
Commas, above
and here's the underside, showing the distinctive white punctuation,
Small tortoiseshells,
Peacocks
and male Brimstones, the males a particularly bright lemon yellow.
Queen Buff and Red-Tailed Bumble Bees too were stumbling and buzzing about, looking for suitable nesting sites. And of course, the real harbinger of Spring, the Ice Cream Van was in full voice in the village! Here's my tribute to him in a painting I did last year:
I love Winter, but when the first signs of new life, or at least awoken life show themselves, it really is a special time, a glimpse of things to come, like the greenery and Cow Parsley in my painting.

5 comments:

  1. Peter, your paintings are amazing. Good luck with your new studio. I`ve got an 8x6 shed. All the best Peter.
    Vic.

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    1. Thanks Vic. I'm loving the new studio, but could still do with an even bigger one. Seems no matter how big the space is, you fill it!

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  2. Peter is the ice cream van painting available?

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    1. Hi Glynn, yes, 'Country Ice Cream' is available, and will be in the Patchings 'Artist and Leisure Painter' exhibition from 5th June - 20th July. I will be demonstrating all four days at Patchings Festival, so you can kill two birds with one stone - see the painting 'in the flesh' at the exhibition, and see and touch the real me, ha ha! If it doesn't sell there, it will be available at my own new gallery, to open at the end of July in Uppingham.

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  3. Peter is there anyway to email you about purchasing it please.

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