JUST ME :: and a stack of blank pages

:: Living creatively ::

About me

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play. The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is. I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The 4 Seasons - Summer

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”
- James Dent

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Summer in Tarlton - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper 8" x 6" - Maree©

The Summer of 2009/2010 has been amazingly green with an extraordinary amount of rain, replenishing our rivers and ground water supply.

This is one of a series "The 4 Seasons" - next will be Autumn.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Autumn setting in

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”
- William Cullen Bryant

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!
Autumn Setting in - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook - 8" x 5.5" - Maree

Autumn is in full swing and the trees in my garden are slowly starting to change colour - this is actually a friend's garden on their plot here in Tarlton, South Africa, and I just had to capture her Japanese Maple in all its glorious orange splendour amongst her mostly indigenous trees. She commented that she never knew her garden was so beautiful and that she will be looking at it differently now!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Tarlton Vlei

“Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear.”
- wolfdyke

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


"Vlei in Tarlton" watercolour in Moleskine Folio 200gsm - 12" x 8" - Maree©

Still on the subject of rain, all the vleis in Tarlton and surrounding areas are full and turning the landscape into a shimmering play of colours... For the past couple of weeks we've had between 15mm and 70ml rain most days, causing trees to fall over and swollen rivers to burst their banks. It's also great seeing huge flocks of water birds enjoying this abundance so late in the season.

This area, just 3km from us, is usually quite dry, with young boys charging around on their off-road bikes.

Monday, April 12, 2010

I'm on a Seagull mission!

“Why is it,” Jonathan puzzled, “that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”
- From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


"Seagull in flight" - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketch-book 8" x 5.5" - Maree©

After just having read "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" (I know, I'm a late bloomer!), I'm enamoured by seagulls again! It's a passion that has been lying dormant for some time and awakened by this wonderful little book again.

Whenever I go down to the coast, one of the highlights of my visit is feeding the seagulls. They look at one with definite, calculated intention, and they seem to anticipate your next move before you even know what's it's going to be, snatching the food as it leaves your fingers. I also love the way they land right next to you, so close that you can see the pupil in their eye, without any apparent fear, yet poised for instant flight should you make an ominous move.

One time, a seagull landed next to me within touching distance, the plastic ring of some soda can wrapped around its one leg. I reached out slowly to try and catch it, and it lifted into the air, staying just centimeters from my grasping hand, landing again as soon as I retreated. I tried to grab it quickly, and once again it lifted off, staying just inches away from my hand, landing again as soon as it was safe. I fed it some bread and watched with great pain in my heart as it eventually lifted off and took flight over the ocean.

But here's the thing - I travel down to Ballito, on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, a few times during the year, but I have to go to Durban or further North up the coast to find the seagulls - there are no seagulls in Ballito! And yet they are up here in Gauteng, 600km from the coast, a mystery I still intend solving!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Seagulls in Randfontein

“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, ”you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…”
- From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Seagulls in Randfontein - a quick watercolour study in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"

Not far from us, about 22km, lies the gold mining town of Randfontein, about 45 km west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing in 1889, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and floated the Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company. The town was established in 1890 to serve the new mine and was administered by Krugersdorp until it became a municipality in 1929.

(If you click on the "Randfontein" link, you will also see the Hartebeespoort Dam area on the left of the map, my favourite sketching spot, and where it is situated from where I live in Krugersdorp.)



We visited Randfontein yesterday, and what amazes me about this town is the fact that you can find flocks of Seagulls there, 600km from the coast! I've tried to track the history of how these birds could have landed up there, but to no avail - I have now contacted the Randfontein Publicity Association to see if they might have some information.

Friday, April 9, 2010

The Proud little Black Wattle

“A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.”
- Alexander Smith



This young little Black Wattle tree at the bottom of our smallholding is earmarked for eradication, together with a couple of others that have sprung up again since the last clean-up. It's a constant and on-going battle against this alien, Australian species which spreads like wild fire if left unattended, threatening our indigenous trees and grasses. I decided we'll leave the dead one as it's a favourite look-out point for the Fiscal Shrike.

See the previous post about the ongoing battle against Black Wattles

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Quacking and Squawking overhead

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
- Chinese Proverb

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Duck sketches in Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"

As I was filling the bird feeders yesterday morning, I heard a terrible raucous and as I looked up, six ducks came flying over, quacking and chatting, sounding like a busy freeway in the sky. I managed to identify some South African Shell ducks and some Mallards. Peculiar that they were all flying together, but given the Mallard's tendency to mate with anything and anyone, it's probably not that surprising. But there again, what I thought was the Shell ducks might have been female Mallards.


Duck sketches in Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"

This is done in my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook, which, when opened, is too long for the scanner to cover both pages, therefore the two pictures.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Watercolour Workshop 3 - Another Wet-on-wet

“I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.”
- Unknown


Art Class wet-on-wet 31/03/2010 15" x 11"

For the third workshop I attended with Angela Eidelman last week Wednesday, we had to stretch and prepare our paper at home beforehand and this week's practice was wet-in-wet again. We had to draw the outlines of the scene we were going to paint, from pictures Angela supplied, with Cerulean blue and then, paint it wet-on-wet, keeping in mind our composition, light source, focal point, etc., with Angela constantly peeping over our shoulders, giving encouragement and advice. Thoroughly enjoyed this exercise! This is the painting I completed during the workshop.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Mulder's Drift

But the majestic river floated on, Out of the mist and hum of that low land, Into the frosty starlight.
-Arnold, Matthew


"The Mulder's Drift" - ink sketch and watercolour in Moleskine sketch-book 8" x 5.5"

The area of Tarlton is surrounded by a plethora of streams and little rivers, many originating as storm water flow offs from Randfontein, Krugersdorp and Roodepoort or from springs emerging in various vleis (swamp lands) situated all over the Witwatersrand. This little stream, known as the Mulder's Drift, originates somewhere in Strubensvalley, and flows through the sleepy village of Muldersdrift on its way to join the Crocodile River, eventually ending up at Hartebeespoort Dam, from where the overflow joins South Africa's biggest River, the Orange River, which passes the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert and winds through the Namib Desert before draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay, South Africa.

Below you can see where this humble little stream ends up!


The Orange River mouth and wetland on the coast of Namibia. At the mouth of the river are rich alluvial diamond beds. A sandbar at its mouth limits navigation, but the river is used extensively for irrigation.

Friday, April 2, 2010

When can you call yourself an artist?

The true artist paints for himself.
- A. C. Leighton

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Wet-on-wet mountain landscape - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8" - Maree©

For this wet-on-wet scene, after wetting the paper, I sketched the main outlines of my scene using my Rigger and Cerulean Blue, a "trick" I picked up at my watercolour workshop on Wednesday. I'm sure many of you use this technique (I know West Coast artist Marie Theron does), but I've always been somewhat of a sketchy person, using my pencil, going into great detail with a lot of erasing happening. It's only been the past couple of months since I started practicing painting with no sketching beforehand that I feel confident enough to consider doing this.

The other day I was reading the article "When can you call yourself an Artist?" -
- and yesterday morning I felt like an artist! Standing in front of the easel, arm outstretched with the Rigger, creating a beautiful masterpiece!

I didn't use any reference material either, just my imagination.

By the way, to answer the question above, I think the best reply was as follows :

“You are an artist when you make art. Many artists spend their lives not selling their work … One of the first requirements for an artist is to ignore those who would define whether they are artists. The only real measure is the person making the art or, if need be, posterity.” -- Jon