AN ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE - THOUGHT OF THE SEASON SPRING 2020
Meteorologically speaking Spring has already sprung as of 1st March, and there are distinct signs of that being the case, despite the awful wet and windy weather we’ve had in the UK over the last few weeks, the storms and terrible flooding in many parts of the country, gale force winds and sleet and snow.
I’m writing this in the early morning of 4th March, looking out the window at a beautiful sunrise over the North Sea on the Northumberland coast, the sky a deep blue streaked with red and gold, the rooftops below my window (I live on a hill) sparkling with a heavy frost, turned golden pink by the rays of the rising sun as they brush lightly through the bare, skeletal branches of the trees - hmmm now there’s a colour for my artist’s palette ‘Rose gold’, a colour to work on mixing later today!
I can hear the honking of geese flying overhead, always an atmospheric sound, and can see a gloriously colourful male pheasant strutting across the crispy whiteness of the lawn in our back garden - a regular visitor from the farmland around us, showing off the iridescent colours of his plumage as the sun’s rays catch his back. A variety of birds are singing and tweeting to welcome the dawn - a pair of bluetits are continuing to build their nest in the nesting box in the ivy at the bottom of the garden between the greenhouse and the summerhouse. And there’s a robin darting quickly out of the conifer hedge to snatch some bird food off the nearby bird table, a flash of red breast as it zooms back to the safety of the hedge with its beak full. Two tiny soft brown field mice scurrying up the still-bare branches of the lilac tree outside the window to sit inside the wire bird feeder and nibble on the fat balls - no wonder they’re disappearing so quickly, and the feeder having to be replenished sometimes twice per day!
And buds! Glorious fresh green buds starting to show on the shrubs and trees around the garden - and big fat lime green buds on my Camellia bush, with the promise of abundant, stunning pink blooms to come in the next few weeks. Golden yellow daffodils, rich purple crocuses, the pyracantha bushes still heavy with red, orange and yellow berries, at the moment with a white frosting, the Red Robin shrub (now almost a tree) showing off its glossy dark green and burnished red foliage.
And this is just the garden - all around there are signs of springtime bursting forth, in the countryside, riverbanks, coast, towns and cities.....colour all around us to feast our eyes on, and to enrich our lives. A time for everyone to ‘feel the sap rising’, to hope for freshness, renewed energy and new beginnings - I always think that Springtime is the real new year, rather than a dark, cold and dismal January!
And now I’ve talked myself into full artistic mode, with all those bright and fresh colours beckoning me to my art room! Who knows what will emerge later!
👩🏻🎨🎨☀️🐣🌱🌷🌼🌸❄️