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Friday 14 November 2014

Phlox, hollyhock and acanthus in a garden corner

Acrylic sketch of a small area of the garden. No copyright please use the image as you wish, click image to enlarge.
This was an early acrylic painting on canvas, done more as an experiment. It was done some years ago and I have just seen it propped up against a wall, so I thought it may be of interest. The white cotton wool clouds are in fact, phlox, a fragrant flower good for cutting.The pale orange, largish flower heads to the left, and the cream coloured flowers are hollyhocks. These have been grown from seeds collected from Warwick Friends Meeting House ( Quakers ) many years ago. Subsequent seeds have been passed on to local Friends' here in Beverley. They are magnificent plants, at the moment we have one at least eight feet tall, mostly gone to seed though one brave flower at the very top is hanging on. You may make out a bunch of bamboo leaning against a green plastic dustbin at the rear. One of my surprises with this little picture is to see an acanthus spiky flower head appearing out from the right. We have not had flowers from them for years so it is a nice reminder. Acanthus can be a bit of a bully in the border and seeing this makes me think about digging up the roots and moving them to our allotment..... to join the daffodils and tulips.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

John, I just love this garden scene! Don't know why you've chosen to ignore it for so long; makes me wonder what other surprises you've got up your sleeve. As ever, your commentary is delightful reading.
On another topic - I just viewed the sample of some Lake District paintings - fantastic - are you going to publish it? You are a local treasure, and your work will be appreciated by many people, commentaries included.


Unknown said...

John, I love this garden painting - don't know why you've kept it hidden all this time. Your commentary adds another dimension as well (as usual). A winner.
On another note - I looked at the sample of the Lake District sketchbook: Lovely. Are you going to publish it? I can imagine it for sale in various Lake District gift and book shops......

John Geekie said...

Hello Susan, I am still getting there, slowly planning this and that. Hope to get a book completed over winter - will let you know about it when I do. Thanks for giving me feedback it is really appreciated.

Unknown said...

I'm glad you like the feedback, John, since you got double feedback on this one - I didn't think the first post went through, so I posted a 2nd time later!