Backyard Memories

Hello,

Recently our two oldest granddaughters came for a sleepover with their Mimi and Papa.  The girls love to go into Mimi's studio and "do art" but this particular evening was a pleasant one and we decided to take our drawing activities into the backyard.  Each child had a clipboard with paper attached and a pencil to capture whatever they saw in the yard that appealed to them.

Sketches from backyard finds.

The oldest (7) is extremely talented for her age and also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to her art work. Of course she picks the hardest object to draw in the yard, a stone pedestal with a lovely conch shell on top, it sits in the back corner of our yard in the dense foliage.  The younger(5), is a free spirit and she is just happy to be here and she skips around the yard and draws whatever catches her eye. She draws with childlike abandonment.  No worries there.

Flamingos in the Fish Tail Palm

 Meanwhile sister is deeply concentrating on every nuance of the shell, pedestal and did I mention the pedestal has vines wrapped around it?  She was intrigued by the vines so that is mainly what she wanted to draw along with the shell on top.

In between drawings they hunted for flowers in bloom which is another favorite activity at our house, along with finding shells or sticks, berries, rocks, etc.   This particular night they found lovely flowers, tiny white flowers with dark green leaves that we believe are faux orange blossoms.  Also, some hibiscus and fern-like leaves they collected for a "bouquet" that we put into a vase that sits on the ledge of the kitchen window.

The flowers have long since died but the little piece of green fern was left in that vase unnoticed until yesterday when the sun was shining in the window and the lighting on the leaves caught my attention. With new growth on the stems in a luscious limey green against the aqua vase, the lighting was perfect to capture in watercolor. Late last night I painted from the image in my head and journeled about our backyard adventure.  This little sketch will be a precious reminder of our time together.

Keep Sketching!

Suzy