Of Bright Star and Bluebells

Drowning, saturated in blue,............. iris blue, hyacinth blue, china blue......

Bluebell BlueThe woods around us are so magnificent, lush emerald greens bursting from every twig, branch, trunk .

I have been painting in the bluebell woods and have become quite intoxicated by all the sights and smells and here it is all spilling out.

I adore cow parsley too, so tall and gracefull with those gorgeous umbels swaying up top, we were married in May for the Cow Parsley lined avenues of our country lanes. There were balls of it outside the church...perfect.




And throughout the singing green and bright blue there are stars, the lushness punctuated with white flashes, so dainty, so right.

So I find myself here shooting madly all these images hoping to capture something of it's essence, so fleeting is this moment.

I have not managed to be organised enough to scan any of my paintings or sketches.

(hmm, sounds like an excuse!)

Anyway you get the idea!

Now for a brief respite from all this.

My lovely Mr. Lane was clearing the overgrown wilderness from the edge of part of our garden when he called me over.

Oh my goodness look at this little fellow he saved from the scythe!

Isn't he tiny and so soft? (no not Mr.Lane!)

I love you Mr.Lane for knowing how much I loved to see this little fieldmouse

Meanwhile back in those bluebell woods I had an inkling that perhaps we could recreate a little magic........

On finding the perfect spot

It's quite hard trying to look as refelctive and absorbed as Fanny whilst surrounded by giggling Mr.Lane and these hairy fools!

We had such a funny time trying to control the curious boys, I am thinking of renaming Mr.Boodle "Keats" what do think?

And here is the original and far superior image courtesy of Jane Campion

I know..."stick to the day job! Sarah-Jane!"

XxX

A butterfly, for three summer days................

I am so excited about the new Jane Campion film Bright Star I just can't contain myself and here I am waxing on about it to all of you! If you have time visit here and click on each of the little scraps and photos to gain an insight into Jane's creative process with her and some of the team that worked on the film.................., lovely!

I really adored The Piano especially the very spare artistic direction and the strange atmosphere that she created and all that supressed passion! I suspect that this will be just as good................

I am crazy about beautiful period costume and set design and from the snippets I have seen they are sublime, locations look wonderful too!

The film is based on the relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. The letters that Keats wrote to Fanny were a source and of course his poem, Bright Star. Fanny kept his letters all her life, thank goodness!

Have a lovely weekend x

post script: There was a lovely article in Telegraph Magazine you might want to check out.

For Silver Pebble! Bright Star is released on November 6th.

"So bright and delicate:Love letters and poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne"

Bright Star is filled with such an enormity of love and feeling, it nearly takes your breath away.

The film's rapturous images and Campion's vision make you long for a world as vivid and true as this one.