Magaliesberg Mountains 4

"Magaliesburg Mountains 4" - Watercolour on X-pressit Aqua 300gsm

- 12" x 8" - Maree©

“The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a mountain -- he is inspired by it. The persistent winner is not discouraged by a problem -- he is challenged by it. Mountains are created to be conquered; adversities are designed to be defeated; problems are sent to be solved. It is better to master one mountain than a thousand foothills.”
- William Arthur Ward

This 30 000-hectare mountain preserve in the North-West Province of South Africa is almost entirely the property of agricultural, mining or industrial landowners. But legislation ensures that no more quarries, factories or unacceptable developments can take place that would threaten the integrity of the natural area. There is a fragile and secret world in the kloofs of the Magaliesberg, with places where you can see vultures soaring on updrafts, swim in clear mountain pools - and perhaps even catch sight of a pangolin, a brown hyena or a leopard.

For this wet-on-wet scene of the mountain, 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 in April this year. I'm sure many of you use this technique, 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.

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