Autumn down at the dam

“Drawing and color are not separate at all; in so far as you paint, you draw. The more colour harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes. When the color achieves richness, the form attains its fullness also.”
~ Paul Cézanne

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Another beautiful Autumn day down at the dam not far from where I live.

::

Autumn splendour

“I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air”, said Nathaniel Hawthorne. How well he expresses my sentiments!

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I just can't get enough of Autumn at the moment! It's the loveliest season of them all and the perfect time to be spending outdoors! Until winter hits us in early June I will be making the most of this perfect weather.

::

Silhouettes of Africa

Winsor & Newton watercolour on Visaual 200gsm

The bushveld comes alive at night as the rays fade into dusk, and the smells typical of animal and dust settles. An overwhelming sense of greatness that is our universe overcomes you. A momentous silence follows as night falls.

::

It's Autumn!

Candle wax and W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm

Autumn in South Africa

Autumn, oh autumn! How you enchant me with your wonderful colours and cool days! How you inspire with your falling leaves, your magical diversity of combining the best of all four seasons in just a few weeks! Your changing fall foliage never fails to surprise and delight me, getting us ready for winter in the most beautiful way!

::

Sketching in the Game Reserve

Some sketches I did while visiting the Krugersdorp Game Reserve (Gauteng, South Africa). The herds stay quite close to the road and don't mind cars in the vicinity, making it easy to do some quick sketches. Some watercolour pencils and a bottle of water is all it takes!

::

 

African bushveld scene

“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.” 

Aloe Marlothii and Giraffe watercolour in hand-made sketch-book. 

The fiery aloe in full bloom, the smell of the fragrant wild sage on a dewy morning and one of Africa’s tallest animals in the back-ground – a typical African Bushveld scene that makes one’s spirits soar!

::

Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)

W&N watercolours on Amedeo 200gsm watercolour paper 

The Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is a woodland antelope found throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. Despite occupying such widespread territory, they are sparsely populated in most areas, due to a declining habitat, deforestation and hunting. 

This animal’s true home is stark grey thorn-bush wasted, rocky outcrops and dry desert ridges – It forms the perfect background to display the beauty of this elusive, ghostlike and magnificent antelope of Africa. Bulls are very secretive when they are alone and will stand motionless in bushes and under trees to avoid detection. Then only the most experienced human eye will see them. Just like Hemingway, most hunters experience a passion and a wish to obtain this dream trophy since man is often outwitted by the alertness and fantastic sense of hearing of the greater Kudu.

::

Life is still...

I am thinking of the onion again. … Not self-righteous like the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. No show-off like the banana. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable, questioning, introspective, peeling itself away, or merely radiating halos like ripples. 

- Erica Jong, Fruits and Vegetables, 1971

W&N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm

Fruit in a bowl on my kitchen table 

I really felt like painting but was stumped as to what! My muse seemed to have gone on holiday and I don't really mind, she deserves it. So I scoured the cupboards and the refrigerator for inspiration and all I could come up with was an onion, a rather bedraggled yellow pepper and two apples. Mother Hubbard’s cupboard was rather bare! The bowl belongs to a friend who brought a salad over for a braai (barbecue) we had a while back. 

::

You are...

… beautiful! Your true beauty lies in becoming yourself. 

Watercolour daisies on a textured back-ground by Kim Klassen

::

Black Wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou)

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Often, when travelling on the Sterkfontein road on our way to Lanseria Airport, these Black Wildebeest cross the road, bringing all the traffic to a halt and resulting in everybody hauling out their cameras and binoculars. I always leave early for the airport, never know what you might spot on the road!

::
 

Black Wildebeest, also known as the White Tailed GNU, are endemic to South Africa, found almost exclusively in the Highveld areas of the country in South Africa. It is a very strange and comical looking specie with its black body, erect mane, long whitish tail, forward curving horns and facial crest. They were on the verge of extinction in the 1960’s, but are plentiful today as a result of careful conservation management. They are often found in herds of females and young males, with the older males either being solitary or forming small bachelor herds. 

::