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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H. hortensis

Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its vigour. - Henry Ward Beecher 

   

Hydrangeas - a small watercolour sketch on Bockingford 300gsm  

Hydrangea H. hortensis, the common garden species, is a native of China or Japan. Here in South Africa they are also known as "Christmas Roses" as they normally flower in December. For us in South Africa, Summer means a bright, sunshiny Christmas and it also means Hydrangeas! They start flowering during late November, through December until January. Instead of Holly and Ivy decorating tables and mantles, it is the Hydrangea that takes pride of place! 

Some years ago a friend gave me a huge bunch of Hydrangeas and, after sketching them, they were hung in my potting shed to dry. Provided you hang them in a fairly damp-free area, they maintain their full, bright colours for a really long time.

Looking forward to beautiful Geraniums

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

My Geraniums looked decidedly worse for the wear this past winter – I added some fresh potting soil and hope for some beautiful flowers this summer, maybe I’ll add something blue to the pot as well…?

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A little bit curious...

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

When you come to a bend in the road, aren’t you just a little bit curious as to what lies just around the corner…?

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Summer beauties

W&N watercolour on a back-ground painted with coffee in a Bockingford 300gsm sketch-pad

A clump of Shasta daisies, growing at the rubbish hole on our property after I had removed old plants from my garden. I discovered them during a walk on the property and these little die-hards just seem to have no end!

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Amethyst Sunbird female

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Black Sunbird feeding on the Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker) flowers in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa).

The Amethyst Sunbird, also called the Black Sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystine) mainly occurs in Africa south of the equator. Its natural habitat is dry savannah but it is extremely fond of gardens.
It goes out of its way to visit a large clump of nectar-bearing plants. Here in my garden, it feeds on nectar from the Aloe, Kniphofia, Halleria lucida (Tree fuchsia) and a nectar mix in one of my bird feeders. It’s diet is supplemented with insects and often hawks flying insects from the trees or bushes, also gleaning them from leaves and branches. Nectar is obtained either from flowers or from garden feeders, which it uses readily (note that in feeding experiments it was found to prefer sucrose rather than sugar).

This Sunbird is not threatened, in fact its range has increased recently due to the spread of wooded gardens.

Swartsuikerbekkie [Afrikaans]

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A Windpomp and a gate

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A familiar sight in South Africa – a windmill drawing the life blood from the earth.

Water availability has shaped life and society in many ways, with aridity shaping the landscape and soils and determining where we live, grow our crops, raise animals and build our cities. Without these wind pumps, farming, and life in general, would not be possible in the more arid parts of our country.

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Arum fields

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A happy meander through the fields and flowers of a sunny Spring morning ...

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Colourful country living

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A colourful front door on a smallholding not far from where I live. 

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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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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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You are...

… beautiful! Your true beauty lies in becoming yourself. 

Watercolour daisies on a textured back-ground by Kim Klassen

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View across the road

'I open my eyes and see the world in a new light. I view everything as if I were a child seeing a freshly opened flower for the first time.'

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm heavy-duty sketching paper 

The view across the road from my studio – I stare at this every day, and every day I am amazed at the different play of colours on the landscape….

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Nature's Peace

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” 

- John Muir 

W&N watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm 

I bought a No. 26 (3cm - 1¼") Hog's hair flat brush and, of course, I just had to try it out! My No. 12 round brush is my favourite, and next in line is my No. 10 Round. I very rarely use a flat brush unless it's a big painting and then I use a large flat brush to fill the back-ground. Painting this entirely with a flat brush was totally strange to me, also resulting in a different outcome to what I expected. With Autumn just around the corner, my palette naturally leaned towards browns and yellows. My two favourite colours. 

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After the rain

All was silent as before -
All silent save the dripping rain.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

W&N watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm

We've had some beautiful rain to end the season - for the past couple of weeks we've had heavy afternoon showers virtually every day and the ground is so saturated that puddles collect next to all the farm roads. We've had this before, with rains carrying on well into May and even June, which is peculiar for us, as Gauteng (South Africa) is a summer rainfall area.

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Jewels from Heaven

Inspired by Elizabeth Kendall's beautiful painting "Abundance", I also dedicate this to the Creator of trees!

Coffee and W&N watercolours on Visual 200gsm - no preliminary sketching

I took a walk down a woodland trail,
without really expecting anything new.
A rustling in the leaves made me pause,
and wonder what was hidden from view.
I kneeled down and spotted a tiny, white flower,
so perfectly formed to bloom for just an hour.
Thank you, Lord, for showing it to me alone,
such a secret I would never have known.
- Extract from a poem by Gina Hatchell

"Abundance" - Elizabeth Kendall

Golden Daffodils

Daffodils - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 5.5" x 7.5" - Maree©
(From my "No sketching" journal)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
- William Wordsworth, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," 1804