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

Spring is sprung

At last , all around are the signs of spring, the weather for the last week or so has been beautiful, with bright sunshine everyday, although the nights are still chilly with the chance of frost. The apples trees have sudddenly turned from tight buds to green shoots bursting in all directions. The crocus wait there turn for the sun to swing round on to them before they open their petals to its warmth.
Yesterday I saw my first Merlin of the year, Irelands smallest falcon, a female , weaving in front of the car in pursuit of a small bird, which this time escaped her, after which the falcon dropped to the side of the road as if to rest before trying again.

Spring is here...finally

The last few days have seen the return of the cold weather, with temperatures dropping below zero at night, we even had a small amount of snow on Saturday night. The days however have been cold and sunny and the apple trees in my neighbours garden are full of buds. I am going to attempt to follow their progress from buds to fruit with a series of sketches, so look out for further posts.

Hydrangea and one apple ~ Sigrid Frensen

Ok, I know, I'm a bad blogger, sorry for that. But to make it up here's an update. I was so busy these last few weeks to get my Hydrangea finished in time. And guess what... it's FINISHED!!!!! Yay for me :) I sent it to the National Herbarium this week and it went straight to the photographer from there. It will be photographed for the flyer and catalogue or something. Anyway, I managed to scan the big drawing (in 4 parts) and after merging the scans together, here's the result of all the hard labour:

I was so relieved when the drawing was gone I just had to do something fun and easy. So I bought a very nice red apple. Yesterday I sat down and in one afternoon (ok, and part of the evening) I finished the "Braeburn Apple" with coloured pencils. It was so good to do something with a simple shape and such rich, deep colours.

Don't know what I'll do now. Maybe I'll add one or two apples to that first one. It seems a bit lonely on the paper. And doing it was great fun, really....
On the other hand I'd love to do something with my watercolours again too. But whatever it will be, it's going to be small and fun :)