Poppy

[Matt2584]

Hi folks,

I expect some of you are missing my art.

Well it's partly because of the weather. Where it has been hot I don't feel like drawing much and also where it has cooled down I have had my mind on other things.

I get out the house a lot more now so I don't have a load of time on my hands indoors and the times I am free I either forget about the art or I am tired.

But then again, like all artists, I probably need a good break here and there :).

I originally drew this picture for a staff member at my Headway and I am thinking of getting it printed onto a greetings card which I shall pass on to a friend.

This friend had a stroke last year, it was his 3rd stroke and it has really messed him up in a bad way, it is sad to see him the way he is now.

I think this card will cheer him up and he used to be in the army too.

[sospan]

Another fantastic piece of art.

Is this a new style for you ? haven't seen many in colour and this has a retro 50's/60's feel about it.

Glad your out and about a bit more

All the best

[Matt2584 in reply to sospan]

Thank you Sospan :).

Well it’s not really a new style for me cos I drew more graphite pictures but now and again threw in a colour picture as well.

I didn’t do so many colour pictures because colour pencils can be hard to use, especially if you want the colour shading to look smooth, you have to apply more pressure.

Last year I exhibited some of my work to the public and I had e big display boards to mount my work on.

Each board had 3x A4 sized graphite drawings and 1 coloured drawing.

I liked displaying them in this way and so I want to do similar for next year’s gallery with other drawings.

So I’ve done a few colour drawings lately and I’m quite enjoying it.

I like to use colours if I am drawings flowers or if I draw cars :).

[1949liz]

Hi Matt, it’s amazing and speaks volumes about life. Well done 👍 Love Liz x🌹

[Matt2584 in reply to 1949liz]

Thank you Liz :).

[RecoveringH]

Inspirational Matt, Glad you are out and about more, you sound good : ) All the Best.

[Matt2584 in reply to RecoveringH]

Thank you H :).

[Hidden]

This one was worth waiting for, Matt.

Good to see that you are going well. It’s a fact that all Artists need regular breaks to stay fresh. Claire

[Matt2584 in reply to Hidden]

Aww thank you Claire :).

[cat3]

That's beautiful Matt ; I have some red poppies in my garden which only flower for 2-3 weeks in late spring...…….but they're SO appreciated whilst they last.

As Claire mentioned - well worth waiting for !

And the lovely sentiment of using it as a greeting card for a troubled friend tells us all we need to know about you as a person. I'm sure he'll be very touched by the thoughtfulness behind it and I hope there'll be better days ahead for him.

Love Cat x

[Matt2584 in reply to cat3]

Aww thank you Cat :).

This picture of the poppy was from a photo I took as they were growing in my garden this year.

Volunteer poppies as well. I never planted them.

In fact, I had a few plants that sprung up from nowhere that I didn’t actually plant.

I had a good season this year... well, my cucumbers didn’t fruit as much as I had hoped but it seems like it wasn’t a year for them this year.

I’ve got a few volunteer sunflower plants too. It’s funny, I say “a few”, one has flowered, it has about 9-10 flowers on it. I got another 4 or 5 plants growing but not one of them has flowered yet.

I’m hoping to get some sunflower seeds off the flowers which I could sow next season and maybe eat some but my mum is saying that the rain we have had might saturate them :(.

[cat3 in reply to Matt2584]

Yes, my poppies were self seeded many years ago ………...probably blown on the wind or from bird dropping, and the clump has grown & grown. It virtually disappears during winter then reappears stronger every spring. I'm going to split them soon so I can have an extra couple of clumps elsewhere.

I just have ONE sunflower (I stopped planting them as, every year, the birds and squirrels climb up to eat the seeds and the heads breaks off). But this one seeded into a sheltered area near my kitchen window and I see how it's been reaching for the sun 'til it's now over 8ft tall with one tiny head, not yet opened. At least, being slightly hidden, it might escape being eaten !

I buy millet, niger and sunflower seed for the bird feeders, and nuts for the squirrels and larger birds so they probably see the sunflowers as more of the same......😏

Hope yours survive the weird weather Matt. xx

[Matt2584 in reply to cat3]

Well thanks to my magnificent mum she has tied the bunch of sunflowers together, loosely, and has tied them to a nearby tree in hope that the terrible winds we have had don’t blow them over.

It seems to be working so far.

And me or my mum haven’t seen any animals trying to eat my sunflower seeds just yet... give it time though :).

We usually get a robin come into our garden every now and then.

They say the robin flys south for the winter but seems to appear all year round in our garden :).

Anyhow, it perches on the arm of our garden chair and me and my mum wave to it while eating breakfast.

I even fed the robin some of my chia seeds and my mum gave hime some bacon trimmings which he seemed to wolf down :).

[cat3 in reply to Matt2584]

I was lucky enough to have a robin's nest in a Laurel bush this year and it was a joy to have the male & female waiting inches away for worms as I dug the soil and toing & froing to feed the chicks. I just missed getting the classic photo of one sitting on the spade handle. 😑

I did the same as your mum and tied my sunflower loosely to the nearby trellis to save it from the winds...………..fingers crossed for us both ! xx