Taking as Long as the Bayeux Tapestry!

This painting feels as if it’s taking as long to paint as the Bayeux Tapestry took to embroider, and with the tapestry measuring nearly 70m that is quite long! (An estimated 10 years) .  What started out as an attempt to get rid of the thousands of different greens in my pastel collection has turned into a brain busting lesson in colour and composition. I have never spent so much time contemplating hues, texture, values and how the eye is led into a painting. 

The other problem is that finally summer temperatures have arrived and standing at the easel isn’t as tempting as heading out to look for inspiration! 

Today I went out to explore the Botanical gardens in Oldenburg, to check new motifs or even do a bit of sketching. 

Some fabulous plants were to be seen but with temperatures at about 27C too hot for sitting in the sunlight to sketch but what about this for a gorgeous example of greenery! 

This fabulous plant was in the tropical greenhouse, 

Outside again, I really loved the Alpine garden with fabulous colours and this lovely hut!  How to travel from the tropics to the Alps in a couple of footsteps. 

Speaking of holidays and the Bayeux Tapestry, my mum once taught me a valuable lesson about complaining about being bored. The school hols had just started, the weather was iffy and I was moaning ''boring, booooorrrriiiing!'' Mum never could stand ''idle hands'', she had discovered a National Geographic magazine with photographs of the complete Bayeux Tapestry and was unfortunately in possession of a huge box of oil pastels. Before I knew where I was, I was seated with a huge roll of wallpaper lining paper and told to get on with it, not sure mum realised that the complete thing was over 70 yards long but she was determined I was going to paint it from start to finish. Lesson learned, I didn’t complete it because even mum got bored looking at it after about 9 yards but I never mentioned being bored in the school hols again.