One of my dear friends had an accident some time ago and still is in a bad shape. She feels depressed about it all. She lives in England so I can't go and visit her or help her out but I decided to make her a drawing. Something to look at and to know people think about her and care. My drawings are all a small part of me and giving it to someone is the most personal gift possible. I think all artists will agree with me on that.
I have now lots of seedheads of Arum italicum in my garden. They start with green, shiny berries which start (at the top) to turn into bright orange ones. From a distance they look like orange gnome hats in the shadow under the trees. The common name of this plant is Lords-and-Ladies. A really wonderful name, like so many other English plant names.
They make me happy. I really don't like orange flowers and am not crazy about orange berries either but somehow these bright drumsticks make me smile. Perhaps it is that gnome-thing or maybe it's the memory of the sweet Flower Fairies paintings by Cicely M. Barker.
They just have something magical about them. So I picked a few from the garden and started to draw. It's not finished yet. I'm currently working on another big project as well so this takes a bit longer. My son told me I should do it in coloured pencil because it has been too long since I did a coloured pencil drawing. Who am I to disobey. Here's what I did so far. I'll post the finished one soon.
.
