Artemis and the girls

Ink sketch and W&N watercolours on a coffee back-ground – Nescafé instant, strong! – Bockingford 300gsm

As I sat on the lawn the other morning, enjoying our gorgeous summer weather (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa), I decided to do a quick sketch of Artemis keeping a watchful eye on the girls as they scratch for titbits on the lawn. As long as they are happy, he won’t move, so he makes a perfect subject.

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See nature with understanding

Coffee back-ground (Nescafé instant) and colour wash on Bockingford 300gsm

I was actually trying for an abstract here, but it seems nature surfaces every time I put brush to paper...

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Morning cup of coffee

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. 

 ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Over the Teacups,” 1891

Ink sketch on Visual 200gsm watercolour paper, using a Pilot Calligraphy Lettering pen (Black) and a Pilot black Fineliner for finer work. 

Sketching has always been one of my great passions, but of late I’ve been neglecting it in favour of doing mostly watercolours. I’ve decided to go back to basics and sketch a lot more.

Sketching forces you to look in more detail, and ask yourself what you actually see. You’ll end up seeing a lot more than you would otherwise. There’s something about holding a pen or pencil in your hand that gets your creative juices flowing in a much different way than holding a brush. When you get used to sketching, the movements of your hand become much more fluid and it becomes really easy and natural. The more you practice, the better you will become at sketching.

Here I’ve sketched one of my pet hates – tea or coffee in THICK hospital-like cups! (Sketched at the Krugersdorp Private Hospital, Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa).

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The nameless, the hopeless...

“To name oneself is the first act of both the poet and the revolutionary. When we take away the right to an individual name, we symbolically take away the right to be an individual. Immigration officials did this to refugees; husbands routinely do it to wives.” 

- Erica Jong (American writer and feminist, 1942) 

Coffee and watercolour on tea-stained Bockingford 300gsm – 11″ × 8″ 

For the lost, hopeless and nameless, it might be a good idea to start talking about where you’re going instead of about where you are, and where you’ve been. Because, as you talk about where you are, or about where you’ve been, that’s the signal that you offer—and that’s the signal that everything Universally is responding to. That’s why it feels sometimes like you’re stuck on this spot. You’re not stuck because things are always changing. But if it feels like you’re stuck, it’s because they’re changing to the same thing over and over again.

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Painted Dog

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”
- George Orwell

I did this painting with coffee on a tea-stained back-ground (Nescafé instant, black, and VERY strong!) – Bockingford 300gsm – 12″ × 8″

The Painted dog or African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus), is a medium-sized canid found only in Africa, especially in savannahs and other lightly wooded areas. It is also called the Painted Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog, the Cape Hunting Dog, the Spotted Dog, the Ornate Wolf or the Painted Wolf in English, Wildehond in Afrikaans, and Mbwa mwitu in Swahili. It is the only extant species in the genus Lycaon, with one species, L. sekowei, being extinct.

There were once approximately 500,000 African Wild Dogs in 39 countries, and packs of 100 or more were not uncommon. Now there are only about 3,000-5,500 in fewer than 25 countries or less. They are primarily found in Eastern and Southern Africa, mostly in the two remaining large populations associated with the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and the population centered in northern Botswana and Eastern Namibia.

Whilst the largest population resides in the Kruger National Park (South Africa), some wild dogs have been released into Madikwe, Pilanesberg and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, South Africa.

A Forest Path

Mixed Media - Coffee and W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm

The sound
Of silence

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Multiple
Shades
Of green
And other hue

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An
Approaching mist
Above a forest path
- Liam ó Comáin

Coffee with a conscience

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

W&N watercolours on Visual 200gsm

The next time you're ordering your favourite morning cuppaccino, spare a thought for the planet. Here's why.

Most of us are aware of climate change, but don’t always understand its far-reaching effects. Woolworths set out to change this when it undertook an expedition to Kilimanjaro in January.

"Climate change is one of the four pillars of our Good Business Journey," explains Woolworths Good Business Journey manager, Justin Smith. "Global warming results in increasing average air and ocean temperatures, and melting snow and ice. In Africa, Kilimanjaro’s melting ice cap is one of the most visible indicators of global warming."

The aim of the expedition, which was led and filmed by respected guide Sean Wisedale, was to raise awareness of climate change and its effect on coffee farmers in Tanzania – the farmers who grow the organic coffee Woolworths sells in its cafés.

Smith explains: "Kilimanjaro's melting ice cap is directly threatening Tanzania's coffee farmers, who are reliant on the glacier melt for water. These organic farmers grow their coffee under the shady forest canopies on the slopes of the mountain, which means that once the ice disappears, there will be less water for their crops."

Climatologist and 50:50 presenter Simon Gear joined the expedition, along with South African Champion Barista, Ishan Natalie, and a team of passionate coffee and environmental enthusiasts. When the team reached the summit, they used water from the melting glacier to make a symbolic iced coffee drink.

The drink – minus the glacier water – was launched in Woolworths Cafés on 18 January 2011. It costs R16.
Taken from "Woolworths TasteMag"

A mystery wrapped in brown,
A fragile enigma,
Enveloping the senses,
With the earthy steam
Of a bean.
The mind wrapped in warmth,
The essence of dark roast,
Heating from within,
The senses thrill,
With every lingering
Sniff of the aroma
In the mug
- by Drew K.

Vintage Coffee Roses

Oh, my love’s like a red, red rose,
That ’s newly sprung in June;
Oh, my love’s like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
- Robert Burns

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


Coffee and watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Some more painting with coffee, this time with a bit of Cadmium Red added - the rose on the left is from my garden and the one on the right is done from an inverted image of one of Elizabeth Kendall's roses on FaceBook.

Painted Dog

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”
- George Orwell

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


'Wild Dog' - Coffee on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8" - Maree©

The Painted dog or *African Wild Dog* (Lycaon pictus), is a medium-sized canid found only in Africa, especially in Savannahs and other lightly wooded areas. It is also called the *Painted Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog,* the *Cape Hunting Dog,* the *Spotted Dog,* the *Ornate Wolf* or the *Painted Wolf* in English, *Wildehond* in Afrikaans, and *Mbwa mwitu* in Swahili. It is the only extant species in the genus _Lycaon_, with one species, L. sekowei, being extinct.

There were once approximately 500,000 African Wild Dogs in 39 countries, and packs of 100 or more were not uncommon. Now there are only about 3,000-5,500 in fewer than 25 countries ore less. They are primarily found in Eastern and Southern Africa, mostly in the two remaining large populations associated with the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and the population centered in northern Botswana and Eastern Namibia.

Whilst the largest population resides in the Kruger National Park (South Africa), some wild dogs have been released into Madikwe, Pilanesberg and Hluhluwe-Mfolozi, South Africa.

I did this painting with coffee on tea-stained (Five roses, black, and VERY strong!) Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8"

The Simple Beauty

Unfurl your cloak of silken white
Reveal your secret wand upraised at length
And not unlike a star you shine serene
To exalt the autumn-tide with silver cups.
Shall we drink sweet nectar as we praise
The simple beauty revealed now in truth?
Or shall we simply sit and idly gaze
Into the eyes of love I have for you?
Calla lily soft and silken white
With open heart I pledge my love this night.
- Author unknown

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



Arum lilies done one the back of a sheet of Photo printing paper, using coffee (Nescafé Instant, very strong, very black!) - for the back-ground. This paper is actually very thin, and ever so slightly glossy, so it was a completely different feel painting on this in stead of my normal heavy-weight watercolour paper I'm used to. It's also not conducive to allowing the paint, or coffee, to freely flow and mix. I also gave the back-ground a slight salt treatment, which then promptly refused to budge once the painting was dry! I had to scrub it off with a nail brush! I used fine table salt, maybe that could be the reason... But it has somehow imparted a raw quality to the painting.

Zantedeschia is native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The Zantedeschia species are poisonous due to the presence of calcium oxalate. *All parts of the plant are toxic,* and produce irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, acute vomiting and diarrhoea.

Did you know that the striking arum lily "flower" is actually many tiny flowers arranged in a complex spiral pattern on the central column (spadix)? The tiny flowers are arranged in male and female zones on the spadix. The top 7 cm are male flowers and the lower 1.8 cm are female. If you look through a hand-lens you may see the stringy pollen emerging from the male flowers which consist largely of anthers. The female flowers have an ovary with a short stalk above it, which is the style (where the pollen is received). The spadix is surrounded by the white or coloured spathe. According to Marloth, the whiteness of the spathe is not caused by pigmentation, but is an optical effect produced by numerous airspaces beneath the epidermis.


To buy a Greeting card or other fine art print of this image, go to My Redbubble

Coffee Trees - Flow-ers of energy

From the Non-physical, you created you, and now from the physical, you continue to create, and we are nothing if we are not Flow-ers of Energy. We must have objects of attention, that are ringing our bells, in order to feel the fullness of who we are, flowing through us, for the continuation of All-That-Is. That is what puts the eternalness in eternity.
- Abraham-Hicks

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


"Trees - Flow-ers of Energy - Coffee on Bockingford 300gsm

Some more painting with coffee, this is totally exciting! The back-ground was stained with tea first (black and very strong!) you can see it peeping through in the three corners) continuing with coffee when the tea was totally dry. Unlike the coffee, the tea is staining, so doesn't lift easily and takes over-painting and layering like a dream.

This was done exclusively with no sketching beforehand - I just followed the flow of the colours and, trees, being one of my favourite subjects, always seem to appear before my eyes! I also added a bit of Cadmium Red for interest and some Intense Green for a couple of leaves. The dark parts are where the coffee dried to a rich, glossy sheen on the original, but doesn't show up on the scan.

Done on a thick Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - 12" x 8"

Coffee Charred Landscape

"Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure. We leave our homes for work, acting and even believing that we will reach our destinations with no unusual event startling us out of our set expectations. The truth is we know nothing, not where our cars will fail or when our buses will stall, whether our places of employment will be there when we arrive, or whether, in fact, we ourselves will arrive whole and alive at the end of our journeys. Life is pure adventure and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed."
~ Maya Angelou - 'Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now'

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


"Charred Landscape" - Coffee and watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper
- 12" x 8"

Another exploration into the world of painting with coffee - I really love the natural, earthy colour it imparts and here I used it for the tree and all of the fore-ground, and got a bit bolder, using watercolour for the sky and mountains. The very dark parts on the tree and the trunks is achieved by dipping my brush into the very strong residue at the bottom of the glass and it actually dried to a rich, thick sheen, not visible on the scan. For the white areas I used art masking fluid, removing it afterwards (I just *love* peeling that stuff from the paper and my fingers!) and softening the stark white with a bit of coffee.

This is a depiction of our South African landscapes after the ravages of all the veld fires we have during winter.

Coffee Daisies

"Good Art comes from good Inspiration!"
- Maree

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


"Coffee Daisies" - Coffee and watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8"

I have discovered painting with coffee! I have used both coffee and tea in staining certain materials before, especially cotton, but never thought of using it in art until I saw some of Barbara Glatzeder's art on RedBubble.

I've painted these daisies almost totally with coffee, adding a bit of Cadmium Red to the background, leaving it to dry over-night. Then I did the flowers straight on the page with coffee the next morning (Nescafé instant, made VERY strong!), no sketching. A bit of grey/green was used for the flower stalks.

When looking at the original, the coffee, when it dries, leaves the richest, shiniest, wet-looking patina, better than any permanent staining watercolour, absolutely great! Wish they made coffee in other colours!! And as Barbara says, the artwork smells great!

I'm disappointed in the scanning of this image, as the rich patina of the coffee doesn't show at all.

You can view more Coffee Art HERE.