A few short weeks ago, these were texture: tight little heads of green buds; sculptural grey-green leaves like a Grinling Gibbons carving; flat stems rambling over low shrubs.
Now, the garden is in full Summer plumage. The hydrangea is popping out ice-cream coloured flowers. Little red double-headed poppies are out for the day, fluttering in the showery breeze. The wild sweet peas have burst into full Schiaparelli pink.
Each has its challenges for watercolour, particularly working on waste paper. Some need delicate building up and blotting; others, one bold splash of full-strength colour, then another.
My soundtrack: fittingly, the growing community of parakeets, squawking a street away.
Biro, watercolour, fineliner, on waste paper.
See more plumage at:
Leytonstone Arts Trail, 3-11 July, where two of my Dispatches from a Small World sketches are on show at Leytonstone Library.
My Teemill shop, where I’m trying out some of my own plumage: sketches and line drawings from this project, on t-shirts.