Hello from Sunday night

Happy midsummer eve everyone.Isn't it wonderful? I believe most children are out of school now and we're full steam ahead into that tall meadow, firefly evening magic that is summer.With summer comes summer's bounty, and we made a little trip out to the country to check out some organic farms.I couldn't resist this wonderful bundle of the season's first potatoes and garlic scapes.We made some new friends out there and fed them grass and clover.And gave them a scratch behind their ears.We admired some imaginative planting schemes and bought a few sunflower plants for the garden because I forgot to start some this year.When I saw this lovely painting it put me in mind of painting a little, slow grisaille work.Do you know the grisaille technique? Actually, I haven't painted like this for quite some time. It's the way the old masters would paint. Several coats of translucent oils, starting with a greyed layer, building up into eventual colour. The technique makes for a beautiful, ethereal quality to the finished painting.I'm not so sure I'm any good at it anymore, and besides, I never really play by the rules, but thought I'd have some fun with it, so, while I was teaching Chloe some basic silversmithing techniques (evidence on my Instagram), I painted a couple of day lilies and some cow parsley in burnt umber thinned with a glazing medium and let it dry (left).Today I went back and used more burnt umber, the glazing medium and some white to build up and deepen the shadows and lights.(right).Tomorrow I'll go in with some colour glazes. Actually, looking at today's work on this photo, I'm not happy with the blending. Not at all. So I'll leave you with these photos of pretty garden flowers in my vases and go back to my easel and work on those lilies a bit longer.Sharing with Judith and the mosaic bunch. :D