December. Christmas

 I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The days are getting longer in the northern hemisphere, congratulations on the approach of spring!

 

 

Christmas at my home

Modest Beauty of the Winter Garden

There were sunny days at the beginning of December and of course I wanted to look at the garden and take photos. I wrote in the title that the beauty of the garden is modest. This is true. There are no bright colors of flowering plants, daisies and cosmos do not bend in the wind, roses do not smell when they open their buds. There is a lot that can be listed about what is not in the garden in December. But...

When I arrived at the garden, the sun was shining brightly. The sky was blue, without clouds. It was so wonderful after the long and gray days. There was a little snow, so I quickly cleared the paths.

 

The plants looked pretty against the blue sky. At the entrance, just beyond the gate, on a trellis, Parthenocissus showed its black, dried berries. In spring and summer when it blooms, many bees, wasps, bumblebees and flies feast on its nectar. There is a constant hum from the movement of many wings.

 

The Symphoricarpos albus bush is all covered with its berries, white and dense. I noticed that birds do not peck these beautiful berries. So they hang all winter until spring. In spring, the berries dry out and small and inconspicuous pink flowers appear, which also attract insects.

 

The white and lilac Asters novae-angliae have lost their beauty, dried out and their dry trunks and dried leaves are visible in the rays of the low winter sun. 

 

These are the photos I took on a sunny December day in the garden. What does your garden look like at this time of year?

My new video. The park of rhododendrons, it was June 2023:

 

 

 

Watercolors. Autumn 2023

 

Autumn field

In the park

 

In the park

Cold day

In the park

These watercolors were painted in October. I hung them on a stand and corrected them, added to them... in general, I tried to bring them to the point where I could show them to you. And then I scanned and edited the size of the paintings by cutting off the edges of the white paper.

 

 

Lonely maple  

These watercolors capture my impression of the fall colors; I am always amazed at how brightly colored the leaves of the trees are in October, and how the color of the water and sky changes on a cold day.

 

October day

 

The October days were quite cold +4C, I made sketches in the park or photographed the landscape. When I got home, I started painting. 

I want to say that I bought new paints in tubes. They are made on the basis of gum arabic, which gives them greater brightness and they do not dry out on the palette for a long time.  

You might like some of my new works, I'm still learning and grasping the intricacies of watercolor technique.