Ranunkel, Ranunkel, let down your hair...

One of my favorite spring flowers is Persian buttercup.

The red Persian buttercups are something between red poppies and red roses. They have the pasionate look and the velvet touch of red roses. However, their stems and buds are slightly hairy and the beautifully sharp contrast between their blood-red petals and midnight-black pistils remind me of red poppies in summer.

The German name of Persian buttercup is Ranunkel. It sound quite similar to "Rapunzel" to me. Have you ever heard of "Rapunzel", a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, telling a story of a young, beautiful woman with very long, golden hair, who is imprisoned in a tower in the middle of the woods? Since my little girl is a fairy of red Persian buttercups, she doesn't have golden, but black hair, which goes better with the color red.

Ranunkel, Ranunkel, let down your hair...

This is how the drawing was made step-by-step:

And ta-da, the final outcome! 

The first signs of Spring

Spring is coming back, I saw the first signs of this return several days ago. 

Snowdrops (Galanthus) are now found at every corner in the garden, and as usual they are modest, but lovely in their appearance. 

This drawing is very small, only 8 x 10,5 cm, done by me with watercolor and colored pencils, my favorite artistic media to celebrate this happy event. 

Language of flowers: Phlox

Language of flowers: Phlox - "Our souls are united."

"A garden without a phlox is not only a mistake, but also a sin against summer." - Karl Foerster, gardener and garden writer

A phlox may not have a stunning beauty, but its gentle scent is just lovely. I love to receive flowers and actually receive them currently quite often. "What a lucky girl!" is what I talk about myself now. I have thought about creating a series of botanical drawings of the flowers I received. Each flower in the drawings will carry with it a common symbolic definition according to Western Culture.
Over the years I will have a great collection of drawings of flowers or plants people gave me, which is likewise a hand-made dictionary of the language of flowers, a nearly forgotten way of communication, and a treasure chest filled with warm memories of loving and being loved.

  “I must have flowers, always, and always.”- Claude Monet

Happiness is a butterfly

Two close friends of mine wrote on their card, sent to me on my birthday, a beautiful quote of Nathaniel Hawthorne- an American short-story writer and novelist:
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you”.
The quote is just so lovely. I was very touched and inspired at the same time. It immediately made me feel like drawing again. Thank you so much, my dear friends!

 

 

First hand-embroidered bag

Life is too long to do just one thing.
That's why I sometimes put my drawings on hold to try something new. This time I learned how to doodle with embroidery.
The idea for a cloth shopping bag mostly came from the book "Doodle Stitching- The motif collection" of Aimee Ray. I changed some details and floss colors which suit my taste and tried not to repeat the same colors too many times, since boredom is a foe of human happiness. :)

My shopping bag looks organic and ecofriendly, doesn't it?

Another entry also about hand craft:
Japanese tsumami kanzashi

My stage is my garden.

This spring break was not enjoyable at all. Too many things at home were broken at the same time. Too many things happened. I was tired and couldn't create any drawings for two weeks.

Two days ago, I dug up some old sketches to look for new inspirations and found a poor sketch of a ballerina. I completely forgot, when and for which purpose I made this sketch. What a waste, if I would throw it away.
I gave the fragile ballerina a pair of purple butterfly wings and turned her into a small fairy dancing elegantly on a flower in a summer garden.

Flora's new scarf

Although it's still cold, spring items are arranged in shopping malls. I bought a scarf with butterfly print yesterday. It inspired me to create this drawing.
Flora is a lovely name for girls. It always reminds me of the goddess of Spring in Botticelli's painting "Primavera". Although Venus stands at the center of  painting, Flora attracts me more. The dress she wears is just gorgeous.
My Flora is covered by different flowers, such as snowdrop, cosmos, camellia, rose, pansy, checkered lily, poppy, mistletoe, coneflowers, etc. Colorful butterflies are flying around her slim, young neck, as if they were a scarf of hers.

Bottle postcards (3)

Let's see, what Grandma has in her garden: Strawberries, snow peas, daisies, yellow pansies and lavender. :)
The strawberries look yummy. Such a shame, because of an allergy, I cannot enjoy their tasty flavor.