SUMMERTIME BLUES

 

Candle lit sandcastle by the sea, source unknown.

 

Summer is a riot of flowers. This year on clothes as well as in the garden, and every year we are reminded how well Lord Leighton captured the heat of summer in his Flaming June.

But for me water flows through the season and paints it from the blue, green and shimmering palette of the rivers, brooks and seas.

From Here:

Faded blue & green chest of drawers

An Art Nouveau brooch from my collection



Rich blue fringed velvet curtains



Magical shimmering sequinned fishes by Lainey Whitworth Art on Etsy
I had to have one.
Her Etsy shop is Here:



Buckled sparkly shoes from Top Shop



Raw silk embroidered bag from the magical Medieval Muse on Etsy
Medieval Muse Etsy shop Here:

Silver and copper dusted, sea glass, the mermaid's tears, glowing in the sand. Surprising golden, violet or indigo skies. Always.

Strange Tempests gather. Inevitably Mermaids enter my thoughts.

shells & tealights in mercury glass 

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne
 

Penelope Tree

A superb John William Waterhouse Mermaid

Dolce & Gabbana, 2014

The Sirens - Edward Burne-Jones
 

Evening Dress, Mad Carpentier, 1940s

But there is also that Midsummer Night's meeting. Water links summer themes, as does that other element, Air.



Air, elemental leather mask
From Fairy Magic on Etsy

Heady scents and potions (and sometimes a spell or two) gently incline all to sleep.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Chad Gowey 

William Morris & Co, The Brook tapestry
Here:

Titania by Arthur Rackham

Of Pirates and Pan

Peter Pan and the pirate ship, James Coleman

Johnny Depp, Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
The Curse of the Black Pearl



Galleon topped thatched cottage, image by me

 

Clothes by Magnolia Pearl

Alice, drowsily beside the Thames, her dreams conjuring a tale from Mr Carroll.

"In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die;

 

Ever drifting down the stream--

Lingering in the golden gleam--

Life, what is it but a dream?"  

 

Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family
image by Lewis Carroll



Bickleigh Cottage reflected in the river 



Alice illustration by Amber Alexander

Swallows gathering mud for their nests



Alice's Cottage, the pale blues

My Cheshire cat apothecary bottle
 

And when she is grown,
will Alice remember?

Meanwhile, Ophelia is gathering flowers for her watery grave.

Spring collection Dries Van Noten

Ophelia by Kirsty Mitchell

Ophelia, Theodore von der Beek 

Somewhere a woman waits, while a Tempest brews.



Miranda, John William waterhouse

The French Lieutenant's Woman

From  The witch's curse by W. S. Gilbert.
 illustrations by William Russell Flint. Published 1912 

 

Marikka Nakk Velvet Princess Coat

Colours of a tempest by Fired Earth

Shhhh! We must be still now, Faerie Revels and sweet potions have overpowered all and they lie sleeping.



Arthur Rackham

Potent potions in tiny Czech apothecary bottles

 

 

 

Velvet robe by Toast

 

Sleeping Beauty, Henry Meynell Rheam



Titania Sleeps, by Frank Cadogan  Cowper

Alice Liddell asleep by Lewis Carroll

Undine, Arthur Rackham

CREDITS** 

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

I have tried to find the source of any images I have used but some remain unknown. I will be pleased to credit should someone tell me.

BLACKTHORN AT BELTAINE

Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.
(Puck of Pook’s Hill, by Rudyard Kipling, 1906)



Munchkin our Main Coon avoiding getting the snow in his furry paws

Trees in the wood just beginning to have leaf

Trees are late to come to bud and some parts of England remain snow dusted. It has been a hard fight here to shake off the icy arms of Winter from round the neck of Spring. Cold winds pull us back into our woollens. The bramble and the thorn have thrived while we all slept. 

 

 

 

Arthur Rackham

I really adore the work of Lionel Percy Smythe. His gentle use of colour and light is exquisite. Here  'Spring' is cloaked in pale clothes with her green mantle lined in violet. The Blackbird held close. They are one of the first to nest, as early as January.



Caught in the arms of icy Spring
Lionel Percy Smythe, 1918

The woods are silent but for a few bird songs, but the hedges are strewn with Blackthorn blossom, those tiny flowers dropped during Faerie revelries. 

People are sometimes confused or even frightened by the idea of Beltaine. You may worry that it goes against the church, or that it is a witches celebration. But neither is true. These seasonal celebrations are very old stretching back to the beginnings of man, but they are not un-Christian at all they just existed before Christianity, and carried on well after. I like to keep things simple. For me Beltaine is just literally the celebration and acknowledgement that Spring is here. I am grateful for the changing seasons, the new life after winter. Even as the old season dies the new one brings us Hope. I often think that eternal life must be like Spring.

Blackthorn is one of my favourite harbingers of Spring. The thorn, with it's black stems,  is associated with darker nature, being the branch which made the crown of thorns for Christ. Yet it also reminds us that after darkness comes the light. I love the William Morris fabric with the thorn blossoms bright against the dark green background, the sweet violets and the fritillaries, and the thorns long and sharp, clearly visible. When we bought our cottage a small built in wardrobe was completely papered in this wallpaper. It is beautiful dense paper with a raised design. I found curtains in the same fabric at a flea market. I enjoy having a seasonal home. We call this small bedroom 'The Winter Room', decorated in dark and icy blues, smokey green, grey and silver with a nod to Narnia. The  Blackthorn reminds us that the White Witch will be gone soon.  

 

I have long been obsessed with tangled woods, briar roses and the thorn. But even I grow weary of Winter after awhile. I feel like a long sleep is passing, the Prince has come with May.

Thorn Rose, 1975 by Errol Le Cain

There is a feeling of magic in the air as Nature comes to life again and the flora and fauna which slept or hid through Winter come out into our view. It is not the full blown heady feeling of Midsummer, which is dreamy and sleepy - this is a joyous awakening and a celebration of life following another Winter.

The perfect May Queen
Rapturously beautiful Evelyn Nesbit
Age 16, by Gertrude Käsebier

It is easy to understand why it was that our ancestors danced and crowned a May Queen. As the Blackthorn blossom begins to fade the Haythorn leaves open and the blooms, sweetly scented, follow. It was thought bad luck to bring May Blossom into the house before May. And in truth you rarely see it before mid May anyway. Do you know the difference? Blackthorn blooms before it's leaves, hence the startling beauty of the white delicate blossoms against the dark stem and thorns - whilst Hawthorn has leaves before it blooms.

 

Queen Guinevere's Maying by John Collier

The chill remains upon us but sun shines brightly, and birds are nesting. House Martins have returned to tend their little homes on our cottage, always a welcome sight each year. The Snow Drops and Daffodils are now faded and the Bluebells are just coming into blossom with our Apple Trees, soon the Blackthorn flowers will turn to Berry.

Blackthorn Sloes

A lovely vintage Blackberry brooch by Exquisite

There is definitely a bustle in the hedgerow, as Robert Plant once sang. Things are afoot all over the place.  Hopefully if the predicted cold spell does not materialise this weekend we will celebrate May Day with a bluebell walk. We should acknowledge the turning of the seasons, as our ancestors did. But if you stray into the woods remember the Rules of Faerie, do not stray from the path and do not eat or drink anything!

Some of my favourite images of this time of year.

By Arthur Rackham, from
Hans Christian Anderson's The Elf Mound



Marc Bolan of T Rex
Ride a white swan like the people of the Beltaine .....

The remarkable looking Palmate Newt larvae, from
the magical Heligan Gardens.
Here:

 

Abigail Edwards The Bramblewood plate
Here:

Read more about Beltaine and Spring Here:





PAPIER-MACHE EASTER EGGS

Beautiful Easter shoot by Green Wedding Shoes.
See their work Here:

I like papier-mâché and used to have a collection of Easter egg boxes. I've no idea how or why I began to collect them, like so many things I have, they just happened. And then they just disappeared, probably during one of many moves in either a pre clear out, or a mislaid box. I used to give and receive them filled with chocolates, and tied with a ribbon. I don't miss them, but I wish I would have owned a camera and photographed them, and I hope that wherever that they are, they found a good home.



A charming Easter egg box

Papier-mâché boxes and eggs always remind me of both Easter and Alice in Wonderland.  Our cottage is adorned with several Alice vignettes. One of my Grandmothers was named Alice and I was given the name as one of mine too, after her.



Mad March Hare from Graham & Green Here: 
Alice cloth ornament from Alice's Shop in Oxford. Here:

Although the Easter egg boxes are gone, I have a small collection of hand painted papier-mâché boxes from Kashmir in which I keep pieces of jewellery on my dressing table.



This box is quite large and the lid is painted in
an exquisite pattern of  mille fleurs.

I keep another collection in it - Miracle jewellery.

This little papier-mâché rabbit came from a shop in one of the
fairy tale cottages in Carmel by the Sea, 20 years ago.
I love the cat shaped box, adorned with bright flowers.

As March ends you would expect Spring to be in full bloom, but it is not so here. I have seen no Deer in the woods, and few Hares, being mad or not. We have had very high winds (we do live on a hill) and rain with hail. It is a bitter biting wind as if the Snow Queen has grabbed hold of you with icy fingers and a sharp nail has pierced your skin.

 

Kelly McMorris, Snow Queen book cover,
for Stephen Player's Fantasy Illustration class

Published: February 02, 2013
Her website: Here:

 

This weekend is a Bank Holiday in England. The church school behind our cottage is very quiet without the children, and the cats have been playing in the wild woods of the church amongst the daffodils and primroses.  This time of year I like to wander in the gardens of English Country houses and ruined abbeys where you feel as if you may at any moment come upon a Mad Tea Party or you could have your own. Alas, I think that the Easter Bunny may even need to don a long tweed coat and a rain hat prior to bringing children their treats.

 

The Mad Tea Party Alice illustration by John Tenniel.
The March Hare is wearing straw in his ears, a sign of madness!

 

Even in this weather, and whatever that we believe,  this is a time for rejoicing in the life that is beginning all around us, and giving thanks for each day we are here to see it.

 

I think I will wrap up warm and venture out to see if I can find some March Hares and then curl up by the fire with a book and the cats. Oh, and chocolate. That diet will just have to wait for a few more weeks until the sun comes back.

 

I love this painting, but do not know who created it.
Please leave me a comment if you do!

THE FIRST BUDS OF SPRING



The First Buds of Spring
watercolour, 25 x 16 inches, signed and dated 1885
Lionel Percy Smythe 

It is still very cold here but the first buds of Spring are opening bringing us hope that soon winter really will pass. It has been a mild Winter overall, with snow only coming in small amounts in January and February.

Countryside Info website

 

I've been in the Cotswolds for a week with friends. Driving through the villages and up Cleeve Hill the hedgerows were dotted underneath with the pale creamy blooms of wild primroses. I love seeing this wild flower and much prefer them to the more vibrantly coloured hybrids which people put in baskets. According to the excellent website, 'Countryside Info', "The Primrose (Primula vulgaris) is native to Britain and Europe. It  is a small plant, typically no more than 10 cm (4") high. It produces flowers which generally vary in colour from pale cream to deep yellow." There is also a pale pink variation which is rarer than the yellow. 

Blackbirds are everywhere gathering food for their young, when we drove at dusk we slowed right down for them because they fly very low from hedge to hedge across the road.

Before our holiday I visited one of my favourite art galleries and came across a catalogue from 2000 which caught my eye. The cover had the most exquisite watercolour on it, of a young girl in a wood with a blackbird in the bush beside her. The composition is soft and luminous and somehow conveys an air of melancholy. I found it quite poignant, the young girl perched on the brink of womanhood, and the Spring, both poised to bloom.

I'd been shopping all day and my bags and baskets were full but I had to have this. It was only a few pounds. I set off weighted down with my captures of the day towards the car.

Royal Albert Primrose Hill teacup

Once home and fortified by a cup of tea in a pretty cup I looked more closely at the catalogue and read the entry about this watercolour. The painting is called, 'The First Buds of Spring' and is by Lionel Percy Smythe (1839-1918). Lionel was the son of the 6th Viscount Stratford. He spent his early years in France before his family returned to settle in London in 1843. He trained in London and some of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863. Smythe and his wife made their home in Normandy, first at Wimereux (where the artist had spent his summer holidays as a child) and, from 1882 onwards, at the Château d’Honvault, between Wimereux and Boulogne. 

 

Lionel was a student of nature and he often portrayed the woods and fields of the countryside where he lived. His work was popular with a small following of collectors in England and became associated with 'The Idyllists',  a group of Victorian artists and illustrators which included Frederick Walker and John William North.  His work is represented in the collections of the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

 

This piece is one of a series which Smythe painted using the woodlands around his home as a backdrop to a young girl pushing through a thicket in Spring time. The model was his daughter Norah, known as Noe. One of the compositions, 'A Wood Nymph' was exhibited in 1884. I have been unable to find an image of that painting, with that name, but the catalogues states that it is, 'surely close in composition to the present picture with its 'silver velvety bud of the willow palm' and 'a blackbird preening itself'. I wondered if this could have also been named 'Springtime', as this painting is so similar to the description and Noe is also the model here.

 

Lionel Percy Smythe
 'Springtime',
possibly also known as 'A Wood Nymph'

And there is one other painting which I located, entitled 'Bramble' which has the same composition but the girl is dark haired.

Lionel Percy Smyth
Bramble

His paintings of farm and seashore workers and children picking flowers and playing have magic about them although they often portray quite common circumstance. Stephen Ogden Fine Art sums this up in their bio entry of the artist when they say that, writing in 1910, one scholar noted of the artist that ‘Mr. Smythe proves plainly that a man may be as realist and still retain his poetic sense; that he may record the life about him faithfully and convincingly and yet miss none of its poetry, none of its imaginative suggestion, and none, certainly, of the beauty it may happen to possess.’

 

The Chris Beetles catalogue entry ends thus, "Its suggestion of melancholy is given poignant emphasis by the knowledge that Noe developed pleurisy in 1897, and died of tuberculosis a year later, before her 13th birthday'.

I have fallen in love with his work, and with this beautiful girl who lit up his paintings.  I hope to see some of his pieces in galleries when I am feeling better and can travel again.

Lionel Percy Smythe
Playmates
(love the flower collar on the dog)

Credits :

Stephen Ongpin Fine Art HERE:

Chris Beetles Art Gallery

Royal Albert China