Close up in brown tones

My parents bought me a proper camera and close up lens (60mm Macro lens) so I've been enjoying getting up close to with around the house. So keen for warm weather and garden delights to get amongst though I'll still need my trusty old compact for wider angle shots.

The cloud breaks + shop promotion

Most of these cushions/throw pillows are from photos I took in LA 2008, some combined with older patterns from my archives. They really express what living in Venice felt like to me creatively, it was a whole new world of colour and light and pattern. Memories of that sunlight and Ocean living really perked me up this week when we were mired under low grey cloud and cold fog for 8 days.  
Somewhat bad timing because the front Cherry Blossom, Prunus Cerasifera 'Nigra', had opened during the previous week and was doing it's best to cheer up the view in the absence of sunshine (taken when things lightened up enough to actually get a photo)...

The Forsythia can always be relied upon to brighten even the darkest day...

Luckily the cloud and fog have lifted this weekend and we finally had a sunset...

Today I finally got my fix of some much needed sunshine and Cherry Blossom in the garden. Hard to photograph though because the sun returned with it's near constant companion these days - strong wind! It's been so hard to photograph anything in the garden in the last 3 years because it is nearly always jiving around like 50's teenager...

In a very brief moment of stillness and extremely bright sun I spotted this little ladybird exploring the flowers of Pieris 'Debutante' which have been really abundant this year. It's a very compact little Pieris and it's leaves keep a fairly consistent green in all seasons, good for small spaces and places where you don't want any unexpected colour clashes from changing leaf colour...

And finally the deeper toned flowers of the larger and more seasonally varied Pieris 'Mountain Flame'...

Pale Cherry Blossom

Every year is different when it comes to the Cherry Blossom. This year the dark leaved cherries seem to be coming out at the same time as their leaves, long before the more floriferous pink ones which open up before their green leaves arrive.

I'm always happy when they stagger their opening times like that so that when one passes there is still the joy of more to come. Ours are still at the early stages of opening but the one above had the advantage of a few extra degrees of heat in the City so it was fully open and begging me to let it pose for the camera yesterday.

Update: This photo now available as a Giclée Print here, printed on archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks.

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California Colours

A little mix here of older college patterns with newer California pieces based on photos I took when my lovely wee Brother treated me to a trip back to LA  in 2008 to visit all the places we lived and hung out at. That place really did have the biggest influence on me colour wise, year round sunshine was not something I was used to in Scotland and although yellow had been my favourite colour as a child (taken over by aquas and most greeny blues by my mid teens) it was a primary yellow, daffodil yellow. I'm sure the other yellows were around but I hadn't noticed them.

Moving to LA opened my eyes to a whole new world of yellows. They seemed to change constantly depending where you were and I think I was as much influenced by the feeling of them as their actual colour. I don't know if there really were sharp the yellows by the ocean in Venice where there was no smog, but it certainly felt that way in comparison to the tainted yellows of Downtown LA and the warm and ever changing orangey yellows of the hot desert areas outside LA. And of course there were those Pacific sunsets.

The pieces above from the California collection (top row 1-3, 2nd row 3,) represent that Oceanside feeling of heading down to Venice beach and seeing how everything looked crisper, with the blues and yellows heightened by the cool clean breeze coming off the Ocean, always so refreshing in the heatwave that was the 80s.

FREE worldwide shipping and $5 off items in my S6 shop until March 9, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time! 
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