The leaves are coming out

I haven't written for a while...., and the summer has arrived at last.  It was quite late.  Many leaves are now growing quickly to catch up and to enjoy the short summer.

The ash tree in our front garden, which has had a massive pruning in April.  It looked very odd and bleak, but now young leaves are thriving from the pruned branches. 

 And,  as usual between the spring and the summer, a couple of blue tit nested in the bird box at the trunk of the ash tree, flying from branch to branch, perching on the roof of the nesting box, looking into through a small whole (Is a mum-to-be already sitting on eggs inside?).  The tiny blue tit is very busy.

Summer is coming!

It's now in May!  After the long chilly spring, the summer is approaching to the South Wales.  At once many flowers have started blooming here and there.  Though, only a few common toad flax's sprouts are coming out of the soil.  In the front garden, now!, early dog violet are blooming, which bloom usually in April.  The plants have delayed their growth schedule a couple of weeks (even a month), but I hope they catch up soon by the summer comes.

By the way, I have taken part in a 2-days brush-up workshop for screen printing over the weekend.  (Hurray, tomorrow is a bank holiday.)  I have learnt screen printing in my student time, many years ago.  But I didn't remember how to do it precisely; perhaps the method might have changed.

But, it hasn't changed much.  As we proceeded the screen print, I was gradually remembered how to do it!  


I brought one of my latest paper cut as a try how to transform it onto screen prints.  We were allowed to make prints up to A3 size.  So I brought an A3 size black paper cut work.  All the flowers I cut out from the paper were grown in my garden.  In fact, it doesn't matter to see this picture up-side-down or from whichever side.

My Summer Garden 2013

(paper cut, black paper, A3)

I tried 2 coloured prints and 1 coloured prints on the second day.  At first I separated the picture into 2 parts with Photoshop.  For the 1st layer yellowish colour was used, fully covered with the colour all over except clouds in the centre.  The 2nd layer was practically the same as the original paper cut, and coral orange was used.

My Summer Garden Orange 2013

(Screen Print from original paper cut, 2 colours, water-based acrylic colour, white cartridge paper, A3)

My Summer Garden Green 2013

(Screen Print from original paper cut, 1 colour, water-based acrylic colour, white cartridge paper, A3)

Without great guide and a lot of useful suggestions by Jude, who led this workshop, I couldn't have enjoyed much.  Thank you so much, Jude!

(The workshop was held at the Printhaus, Cardiff.  Click the name, left, or see the Link List at the bottom of this page.)