Small paintings in a sketch-book

I have this small, hand-made little sketch-book with satin-finish linen paper, which is exquisite to paint in. The paint takes on a life all of it's own when it his the paper and the outcome is always unexpected! But it is very unforgiving, doesn't take well to pencil or ink and cannot erase on it at all. So whatever gets put down, that's it! But I just love churning out these small little 7"x5" paintings!

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Plant and care for trees

It's the end of another year and even after living here at the coast (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) for the past 3 years, I'm still longing for my Highveld trees. Blue gums, Black Wattles, Cussonia, Celtis, Karee, Jacaranda and even the Syringa -- none of which can be seen along the coast. But they are etched deep into my memory and I will be digging deep every now and then when the longing gets very strong.

"Plant and care for Trees" - W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Trees combat climate change. Trees clean the air. Trees provide oxygen. Trees help prevent water pollution. Trees provide a canopy and habitat for wildlife. Trees help prevent soil erosion.

How many more reasons do you need?

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Going small

 A collection of sketches in a hand-made sketch-book with hand-crafted satin-finish linen paper. 💚

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A scene at my pond

W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

I have this bit of Celtis forest (Celtis africana - White Stinkwood) at my wildlife pond and it's my favourite pastime to sit under the thatch umbrella and sketch part of the scenery. A few weeks ago the bare trees were just beginning to sport green leaves. This is also the area where Torti, my Leopard Tortoise, used to live before I relocated her to her new home at the Krugersdorp Game Reserve.

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Short-cut through Spring Farm

 W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Often, when I go to Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), I take this short-cut through Spring Farm past the little dam. It’s a gravel road, forcing one to travel slower and take in the scenery and I often have tortoises, hedgehogs, guinea fowl and small buck crossing my path. I much prefer it to the quicker route along the main tar road.

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Autumn - wonderful time of the year!

A small W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Autumn (fall) in South Africa (mid-February to April) offers the best weather of the year. Very little rain falls over the whole country, and it is warm but not too hot, getting colder as the season progresses. In Gauteng, autumn is fantastic, with hot sunny days, blue skies and warm, balmy nights.

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African bushveld

W&N watercolour, no preliminary sketching, in small hand-made sketch-book with hand-crafted satin-finish Linen paper

This little sketch-book, which I bought in Gateway Shopping Mall in Umhlanga, is absolutely wonderful to paint in. The 'paper' is very much like material and as you paint, the colour sucks in and spreads, surprising you with the results every time. No sketching though, it doesn't take kindly to pen or pencil

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No. 52

The 52nd sketch in one my Moleskine 200gsm sketch-book - 8" x 5" (21cm x 12cm).

I have several Moleskine watercolour sketchbooks in this size and then I have a few that are A4 size (12" x 8") - the 200gsm paper is lovely to work with and doesn't bleed through to the back at all.

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No. 53

The 53rd sketch in my Moleskine 200gsm sketch-book - 8" x 5" (21cm x 12cm).

I just love these small Moleskine watercolour sketch-books. They have lovely 200gsm paper and are so easy to pack and are great for pencil, pen or watercolours.

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Winter in Summer

“When you are older, you realise that everything else is just nothing compared to painting and drawing.”
— David Hockney

W&N watercolour in my Moleskine 200gsm nature sketchbook

Just as we thought winter had finally ended, we had freezing weather come up from the Cape with temperatures dropping to 12℃. That was on Saturday. Today it's starting to return to normal with beautiful sunshine and no wind. Nature certainly can be unpredictable...

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An Artist's Sketchbook to make

A (really!) Quick & Easy sketch-book to make

An Artist's Sketchbook - front cover

Here in South Africa there aren't many choices of journals or sketch-books for artists to choose from in our book stores or art supply shops. I would imagine one of the few choices is the Moleskine range - they offer sketching and watercolour notebooks in various sizes, and they are really great to use - I have a full range - but that's about the extent of it. If you would like to make your own, personalised sketch-book, here's a really fun, quick and easy way to do it.

Artist's Journal Open

For this project I used an A4 Bockingford 300gsm watercolour pad (containing 10 sheets of paper) cut in half to form an A5 size (5.5" x 7.5" - approx. 14 x 19cm), giving me 20 pages. You can use any paper you like, but less than 140gsm doesn't give a good surface for painting on. You can also fold and tear the paper in stead of cutting it for an interesting effect on the edges, or use different colour papers.

For the front and back covers I used the backing card of the A4 watercolour pad (cut in half), but you can use any stiff board cut to size, even covers from old books.

Artist's Journal Inside

The next step is to mark where you want your holes and punch the holes into your paper and stiff board covers. You can use ribbon to hold the book together like I have done here, or you can use binder rings found at most craft shops. Two should do the job. I used a leather hole punch to do 2 or 3 pages of paper together, as 300gsm is quite thick. Or you could use the standard office 2-hole punch with the holes in the centre of the paper, but I have found that top and bottom works best to keep the book stable.

Binder rings

Leather hole punch

I punched 6 holes into the pages of this journal as I was going to put it into a leather-bound ring binder I already have, but when the pages proved to be too big, and I didn't want to cut them smaller, I changed my mind and decided to use the ribbon.

And here's the enjoyable part - designing your front and back covers. I have used plain brown paper to cover the stiff boards and glued on some Hessian cut into an interesting shape, using ordinary Pritt Project glue (Ponal or Alcolin wood glue does the same job). You can, of course, use any pretty paper or gift wrap you have lying around as well.

Journal Back cover - you can leave it plain as above or embellish it further with items of your choice, below.

Journal - last page and inside back cover

Optionally, for the inside back cover, I cut a piece of Hessian, glued all along the top, right-hand side and bottom edges, leaving the uneven edge open, to form a pocket for some notes (money or other-wise!). Always comes in handy when you've been out sketching in the heat and you need to buy a cold drink.

Enjoy and happy sketching!

List of supplies :
- 10 Sheets A4 watercolour paper, cut in half
- 1 sheet A4 board, cut in half
- 2 binder rings or ribbon, string, cord of your choice,
- Office or leather hole punch
- Gift, wrapping or any paper to cover front and back covers
- Scissors
- Craft glue

Birches & Maples

Alone with myself
The trees bend to caress me
The shade hugs my heart.
~Candy Polgar

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

W&N watercolour in small hand-made sketch-book with hand-crafted satin-finish Linen paper

Birch trees and Maples, two of my favourites, which I rarely plant, firstly because they are not indigenous to South Africa and secondly, both the Birches and Maples require enormous amounts of water. Another reason for not planting a Birch, is that, on a healthy birch, the roots will spread to a distance of at least twice the tree's height. This means that the roots of a mature tree may cover an area about one third the size of a football field. I found the roots very invasive, easily penetrating sewerage and water pipes, often causing great damage to our septic tanks, as it is a great source of moisture.

I read on the internet, "To properly water a birch, place a soaker hose upside down around the perimeter of the canopy or drip line of the tree and let the water run very slowly for several hours. The water should be applied slowly enough to filter into the soil and not run off. Once the soil is moist do a depth of 60 to 100 centimeters enough water has been provided. A birch tree should be watered in this way every two or three weeks, and more frequently during hot dry windy weather."

That's definitely not going to happen around here, water is much too precious to spend so much on just one tree. My friend, in whose garden these trees are, has an elaborate automatic sprinkling system, every gardener's dream, but they have Municipal water and are not reliant on a borehole like we are out in the country.

Burning Desire

“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.”
- W. Clement Stone (American best selling Author - 1902-2002)

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

W&N Watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm Folio watercolour sketch-book - 12" x 8"

Sometimes my work is inspired by a sight or sound, sometimes by a few words. Here I was testing out how the colours flow on my new Moleskine sketch-book's paper and it turned into a bit of an abstract exercise. I very rarely do abstracts, even in acrylics or oils, but I might just try a few more!