Last of the summer photos and some recycled illustrations

Pink'nfrilly

Gorgeous flowers en masse at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

I've gathered together the last photos from my summer holiday and made some more montages. I decided to accompany these with some sketchbook bits and pieces, some of which I've shown before, but most of which have had something new added for the occasion!

'Sweetpeas' watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Sorry that the quality of this image isn't very good. I wanted to include it as sweetpeas are such lovely frilly flowers! It's taken from a larger watercolour painting behind glass. I painted this many years ago - the flowers were from my Mum's garden ... I can smell that heavenly scent now! I've added a couple of lines from a poem by John Keats and a digital pastel colour detail.

'Tango' watercolour with collage©Caroline Soer

These roses from a beautiful bouquet were quickly rendered in watercolour in my sketchbook. Later, for an Illustration Friday project, I teamed them with a pair of my little folded butterflies. Today I added a coordinating border made from digital colour swatches.

Just feast your eyes on these luscious summer berries! Click if you want more!

Cherries - watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Sometimes paintings just don't go according to plan! This illustration is something salvaged from one such occasion! I decoupaged the image of cherries onto another piece of watercolour paper and added a border digitally from colour swatches.

'Cherry pairs' watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Cherries from a sketchbook I used on holiday in Provence couple of years ago.

Part 2 to follow later!

Gifts in the post

Bird Lady ©Cathy Connolley

I've had some lovely things dropping in my mailbox lately !

Cathy of One Pink Goose recently had a giveaway and I was a very lucky winner of her print of 'Bird Lady'! Thanks so much Cathy - she's lovely! I've been reading Cathy's blog for a while now and look forward to her posts where she shares her own and other artists' work each week. If you haven't already visited her, do pop over to her blog and visit her website which is a treat too - I love Cathy's stylised black and white drawings .

cards by Laurel Gaylord

I've been pampered by the wonderfully caring Laurel of Studio Lolo! She sent me lots of goodies - Poppy napkins -because she knows how much I love those flowers - and a set of her beautiful cards - my favourite is the Magpie! Multi-talented Laurel has these available in her shop here!

Many of you will have met Yoon See of Greener Pastures in Malaysia - she's such a thoughtful person! She very kindly sent me a package of goodies of prints of her colourful art work and two cute little kitties she made herself, to cheer me up after my recent operation. Thank you very much Yoon See - the kitties and you are very sweet!

♥Thank you very much Ladies ♥