Going Nuts?

 Hazel Nuts

Study

Working on New Subjects.

In my workshops I often explain how I walk my dog daily and always find one "treasure" to carry home to my studio to paint. It will usually be something very small that has caught my attention. I strive to make each weeks "finds" subjects that are really fascinating to me,  to push my own creative process and art journey. In the country hedgerow, tiny hazel nuts are beginning to appear. In the past I have always waited for them to ripen so that their colours are more interesting. Unfortunately by that point  the local squirrel "mafia"  have stolen them all. The ground in the lanes are then covered with cracked empty shells instead.

So this year I have started early, by carrying home a green cluster of hazel nuts daily. This morning I  quietly studied their form and colouring. I must confess  I love the above study. It is leading me into some charming unexpected ideas for future compositions.

 Hazel nuts laying on watercolour paper and the early stages of a first painting. In this study you can see how I have found the subject within a first wash by making a negative edge around the nut I am painting. Leaving the surrounding greenery with soft and hard edges,these are blending into the hard shell.

Here is the real subject against the painting as it develops. 

A sense of sunlight is playing beautifully on sections at this stage.

It is incredible how something so mall can excite an artists creative spirit and gain them a new impetus on working. A walk, finding new treasure and allowing myself time to enjoy creating just for the fun of it has led me to so many ideas for the rest of my weeks studio time. I am re-energised on so many levels!

Artist Tip for the Day: Get outside as much as possible and find something  new to paint from life that you may never have considered as a subject before. Your results may surprise you in more ways than one!

**********************