From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part One

Painting, Photo Essay, photography, Uncategorized, , , , , ,
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Photinia I 23.05.16

Today’s post is all about learning to find beauty and inspiration in the mundane chore of yard work on a holiday Monday.

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Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada, the perfect time to prune the photinia and clean all of its dried leaves from the studio roof and gutter.

With the concrete cleaned and swept the afternoon was free for painting and photography in the studio with a rescued photinia branch making for the perfect subject…

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and a few of the trimmed branches new tools for drawing with.

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Now all I had to do was put the two together. What could be better than an ink drawing of the photinia created with one of its own branches?

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Well, perhaps some additional watercolor to complete the picture…

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and we’re almost there…

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So ended a very satisfying day turning the hard work of yard work into art work.

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to be continued…

119 comments

  3. Beautiful post Andrew. Loved all the photos and the Theme of yard work (not so fun) into glorious Works of Art! I enjoyed seeing the stages of the painting, drawing, watercolor, completion. I do have to say, when my eyes lit onto the ink sketch – they got quite large. I LOVE that sketch! I know, as much as I love color, but your drawing is so evocative. Sensitive. wow. In the purity of the black and white, with just the lines to do the telling. They do. perfectly.

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    1. Thanks Debi for another great critique; always so much appreciated. I almost left it at the ink drawing but wanted to explore the challenge of colour. Fortunately the black and white drawings always print out so well, so all is not lost. 🙂

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      2. Thanks for this Debi. I must say I do enjoy using ink and find it can be very expressive and often surprising. The texture of the paper is always an additional factor as it changes the way it handles. 🙂

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  11. This is just brilliant! I can’t wait for the rust colored piece. The photo of the leaves in the paper bag is art itself!!! Taking your lead, I am looking at my pile of laundry and trying to see an inspiration for a necklace. I thought it had more possibilities than cleaning the BBQ.

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