Spring Flowers

It is not quite March yet after a very mild winter it feels like spring is definitely on its way. Today the sun is shining with real warmth, the birds are singing and flowers are beginning to appear everywhere. Our first daffodil has opened, there are primroses opening everywhere and the hedgerow is full of catkins.
Inspired by these pretty flowers I am now painting a collection of spring flower hares.

 Yesterday I painted a primrose hare and posted a message on my facebook page asking people what their favourite spring flower was (once I have painted the set I will choose a winner from this list and they will receive a print of their suggested flower painting). Snowdrops and daffodils are very popular, so here is today's hare.... "Pretty Daffodils". This is a 7 x 5 inch painting. £25 including postage and packing.

Here are some of the signs of spring in my garden....

Pretty Snowdrops

Lovely Primroses 

Amazing hazel catkins, I have never seen this many over such a small tree. 

Celendines are one of my favourite spring flowers. They are so bright they almost look unreal. 

This is a primrose that grows in our garden, it has tiny bright pink buds which open out to little flowers held quite high over the leaves. 

Thankfully the stream at the bottom of the garden has returned to its usual winter flow.  

These crocuses have been a surprise. They were not there last year, I am not sure how they arrived but they are extremely pretty.  

And here is the first daffodil to open in our garden

Lots of New Colourful Paintings

Just A quick update today with several of my new paintings..... each of these below are available for sale. Please contact me via my website or facebook if you are interested in purchasing.

Horse Commissions

I was recently contacted by a customer in Norway to paint three of her beautiful horses. She sent me photographs to work from and specified the colours for each horse. After sending over scans of the finished paintings I received this message on my Facebook page.

 "I just got a message with photos of my horse paintings by Peppermint Art. They are absolutely fantastic, 2 of the 3 are above and beyond what I had hoped for as she has really captured the horses soles in the paintings, I didn't expect them to be this good!
I hope she shares them with you all, I'm over the moon " 

Two new Moon Hare paintings

I have always loved images of hares and moons, there is something very magical and at the same time peaceful. Maybe it is the image of the beautiful full moon or maybe it is the beautiful blues and images of the stars. I usually use pthalo blue for my moon hare paintings, it is a beautiful blue. the colour of a dark velvet summer's night sky. Peaceful, calming and magical.

Here are two paintings I have recently completed, they are both acrylics on stretched canvas each measuring 7 x 5 inches. No extra framing is needed as the sides are painted so they can be hung straight on the wall.

Winter colour

We went for a walk at the weekend to the local nature reserve. After all the recent grey weather it was good to take advantage for the first sun we have seen for ages and although it was still cold the sky was beautifully blue. The ground underfoot was extremely wet and squidgy with muddy puddles everywhere- much to my children's delight. All around the birds were singing and chirping, the unexpected sun making them feel that spring is suddenly on its way.

The trees are still bare and will be for many months but the colours and textures of the bark is fantastic

In a clearing in the woodland there was a gorse bush in full flower, the sunshine on the beautiful yellow flowers with the blue sky beyond could almost be summer!

Despite all the rain the stream was surprisingly calm and clear

The highlight of the walk was finding several clumps of snowdrops, a sure sign that spring is on its way.