Deborah’s garden

My friend Deborah has an incredible garden — swathes of perennials, apple trees, carefully tended shrubs, exotic lilies and colourful annuals flowering in containers of different sizes. I think late July or early August is the best time to visit.

When I visited her last week I had a bit of time to paint in the garden, with Alice happily sleeping by my side. I chose to sit on a low stool and look right into the flower beds. Instead of focussing on one section of the painting, I tried to convey the beautiful pattern of daylilies (at my eye level) and daisies (a little above me).

I’ve been trying out some new stock: Millford watercolour paper from St. Cuthberts Mill in the UK. I bought a block a few weeks ago and have used it (and enjoyed it) a couple of times. You can read about the features of the paper in my link, but basically it is sized so that the paper stays wetter longer. As with all cotton papers from that mill, this is really nice to work on and it does indeed stay wetter longer even on a warm summer day.