Fifty shades of brown

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm. Using various shades of brown mixed from a variety of colours on my palette. 

It is very satisfying placing colour randomly and watching something emerge. Whether it makes sense or not is irrelevant--it's the journey that counts. Sometimes just a few strokes are required, and sometimes intense fiddling is necessary and unstoppable. Whichever route you take, enjoy the journey, enjoy the fulfilment and never, ever stress over the outcome. Whichever way it goes, you're in control, it's your choice -- whether it is ever seen or discarded.

Namasté

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Rhus lancea leaves - Black Karee

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm mixed media paper
Leaves of a Black Karee tree in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

Indigenous to Southern Africa, this tree is a bit untidy with a weird growing habit of the branches backing up on one another and having most of its leaves right at the tip of the branches. It has a graceful, weeping form and dark, fissured bark that contrasts well with its long, thinnish, hairless, dark-green, tri-foliate leaves with smooth margins. The small, inconspicuous flowers are presented as much-branched sprays which are greenish-yellow in colour and are produced from June until September.

The fruit are small (up to 5mm in diameter), round, slightly flattened and covered with a thin fleshy layer which is glossy and yellowish to brown when ripe. The fruits are produced from September until January, and during that time, my garden is a total mess! And if it happens to rain a lot, I have hundreds of seedlings sprouting up throughout the garden. And yet I have never been able to remove one and grow it successfully …

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My Moleskine and Parker addiction

I have a couple of brand names I'm absolutely crazy about - two of them are Moleskine Notebooks and Parker Pens. There is nothing more satisfying than jotting down notes or making sketches in one of the incredible Moleskine note books with an incredible Parker pen or pencil. The inter-action between pen and paper inspires the senses like no other for me and creativity seems to spring forth like a fountain.

Just packing all my Moleskine Notebooks in a certain order on the shelf gets my creative juices flowing and can lead to re-decoration of the whole room to display them more prominently or spark an idea for the next sketch.

A Parker Esprit pencil sketch in one of my Moleskine notebooks

I got my first Moleskine in 2005 when I commented on a family member's lovely note book (her name is Antoinette) and she duly pulled a new one out of her handbag and presented it to me as a gift. I've been hooked ever since! It goes everywhere with me and although I am also a total technology and gadget freak, nothing satisfies like putting pen to paper.

"A man's penmanship is an unfailing index of his character, moral and mental, and a criterion by which to judge his peculiarities of taste and sentiments." 

-- 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, in "Letters to His Son by the Earl of Chesterfield on the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World"

Moleskine is the legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. The notebooks come in various colours (I prefer the black, and it's leather bound to boot) and sizes and have a bound cover with rounded corners and an elastic closure. An expandable inner pocket made of cardboard and cloth in the back of the note book contains the Moleskine history. It's such a nifty idea, I sometimes even put a couple of ten rand notes in there in case I need a cold drink on one of my walks. The acid free paper pages are thread bound. The various formats come as ruled, squared, plain, address book, sketchbook, memo pockets, info book, storyboard notebook, Japanese Album, music notebook and water colour notebook. Needless to say, I have several of each!

Some of my Moleskine sketch and note books ...

I use my Moleskine note books for various applications - sketching in pencil or ink, to-do-lists, water colour paintings, one for notes on what my students will be doing in their next art class, I use one as a Gratitude Journal (jotting my daily gratitudes), one for my inner-most thoughts (carefully hidden from prying eyes!) and a few more for whatever...

Some watercolour sketches from my Moleskine sketch books. The sketch books contain 200gsm watercolour pages - size 8" x 5" :

W&N watercolour

Black ink Parker pen sketch in Moleskine 200gsm sketch book
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W&N watercolour and acrylic in Moleskine 200gsm sketch book

As for Parker pens - fountain, ball point and pencils - these are all neatly lined up in various boxes - some cardboard, some silver with velvet lining, some clear, brightly-coloured modern plastic or metal - and sorted into categories of black, gold, stainless steel, different sizes of pencil leads, etc. (do I detect a bit of OCB here?) A new acquisition sparks un-packing and re-packing of the collection and normally leads to starting a new to-do-list (just to 'try out' the pen!) and a couple of sketches.

My love affair with Parker pens started when I was 7, when my father gave me a Stainless Steel Parker pen as a birthday present. This was followed by a request for a pen or pencil every birthday, but money wasn't full up in those days and my collection grew slowly. After college, way back in 1966, as soon as I got my first pay cheque, a Parker was at the top of the list of "must have's". It was a beautiful, plain Stainless steel Parker, which ate up a big chunk of my salary, and which was my favourite for many years, but unfortunately got stolen about 4 years ago. I wish that person as many happy writing hours as I had with it.

I found this quote on the internet : "There is a fine line between dreams and reality; it's up to you to draw it."

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Rose of friendship sketch

Black ink sketch and watercolour wash on a sketch pad

Long associated with beauty and perfection, red roses are a time-honoured way to express love and affection. Whether it’s for a birthday or just to express appreciation for someone, there’s no better way than a red rose to express your feelings.

*•.¸♥♥¸.•*

Changing season

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

The last signs of winter are fast disappearing as spring starts to peep through. We've had a bit of rain and Mother Nature is replacing her landscape of browns and yellows with various shades of green, one of my favourite colours. 

A walk around the Estate where I live is  revealing fresh grass, beautiful little buds on the bare tree branches and birds preparing new nests with many of them already rearing a brood. My Fiscal Shrike is frantically collecting little pieces of mince meat I prepare for her, and I'm wondering how many babies she's feeding at the moment. 

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Cape White-Eye

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost."

~ Martha Graham

"White-eye" sketch with watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree©

The White-Eyes are regular visitors to my garden. They normally flit around furiously catching the tiniest insects hardly visible to the eye and never sit still for long. Did a quick out-line sketch of this chappie as he gave me the cocky eye and finished it off once they had moved on.

They are also known as Silvereye or Wax-Eyes (Zosterops virens) and are native to Southern Africa. Kaapse Glasogie in Afrikaans.

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Why keep Art Journals?

 

Keeping art journals -- and I mean it literally -- actually KEEPING art journals and sketchbooks, physically, for ever! I have shelves and boxes filled with sketchbooks and journals and loose sketches and paintings on paper. Over the years I have sold many of my paintings and given even more away to family and friends -- I'm very rarely sentimental over a painting (although I must confess that I DO have a few favourites that I'm not willing to part with!), because anything that I've painted before I can re-create again, right? Sometimes not as good as the original, but who's going to notice? Right? And yet, I have all these sketchbooks that I just seem incapable of dumping in a dustbin.

I really don't know what it is about a particular painting that gives one an attachment to it, because over the years I have found many times that when I really am pleased with and like a painting I've done, nobody else enthuses over it much. And often when I cringe over a particular painting I've done, I have people raving about it and clamouring to buy it.

Obviously the only conclusion one can come to is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. :)

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Gum leaves - Eucalyptus beauties

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm

Dedicated to all Eucalypt and Bee-lovers.

A recent study by the SA National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi) in South Africa has found that gum trees provide nectar and pollen for swarms of commercial bees – and bees in turn pollinate about 50 food crops in the country. This “service” bees provide is worth about R10.3 billion a year.

Gum trees are not only important food for bees, but so are many roadside wildflowers, crops, suburban flowering plants and those that many regard as weeds. A major reason for the decline of honey bees around the world is a lack of good forage plants to provide nectar, which is the carbohydrate in the bees’ diet, and pollen the protein. Bees collect nectar from Blue Gum tree blossoms from spring to late summer.

A lack of good quality and variety of forage plants can lead to unhealthy honey bee colonies that are more vulnerable to pests and diseases.

This in turn can lead to insufficient pollination of our important agricultural crop flowers, leading to a decreased yield or quality of the food crop, Insect pollinators are needed for 35 percent of all food production globally – or one of every three bites you eat.

Although most Blue gums have been declared as an invasive species in South Africa, Beekeepers are highly dependent on eucalyptus and if they are all removed because they are aliens it would mean a serious shortage of food for bees – with a knock-on effect on crop pollination.

Because of this, the Department of Environmental Affairs’ legislation on alien and invasive species, updated in 2014, is “nuanced” for eucalyptus trees, not requiring all of them to come under the axe or chainsaw. Good news for all Eucalypt-lovers, I for one am ecstatic as I think they really are grand!

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Thinking back

Sunday morning doodles, 

thinking back on Gauteng landscapes.

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Silence is beautiful

Winter reminds us that everyone and everything needs some quiet time. 

If you listen carefully, the silence is beautiful.

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Panthera pardus

 

Watercolour pencils on Amadeo 200gsm

Not only is the Leopard powerful, graceful and arguably one of the most beautiful of all the large cats and a master of stealth and survival, it seems she can teach us a thing or two about relaxing!

Here a Leopard (Panthera pardus) relaxes after a successful hunt. Did you know that leopard spots are called rosettes? Leopards are secretive, solitary animals and also the smallest of all the big cats.

The road West

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm with a couple of ink scribbles

Taking the road West from us and going from Rustenburg towards Botswana, the landscape suddenly changes from bushveld to a somewhat dry and arid landscape, especially in winter, when everything turns to lovely yellow and brown hues.

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The Foal That Never Grew

W&N Watercolour om Bockingford 300gsm

I stand before the early dawn
Alone with my thoughts before the morn’
Remembering the night when all was dark
Not even the sound of a lonely dogs bark
When three of us in a stable small
Tried in vain to assist, the night before
A brave little mother who gave her all
To give life to her first born.

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I remember the pleasure that turned to pain
Reflected in the eyes of your loving master
As he tried again and again
Working faster and faster coaxing your heart
Hoping and praying that you won’t depart
He took one last deep breath, blew into your nose
Only to discover your beautiful eyes were closed.

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If horses become angels
And I’m sure they do
You’ll know that you are one of the few
To be touched by loving hands
Who had great plans for you
Race on little foal, across your golden sands
And as your free spirit soars high into the sky
Your master bids you farewell, and a last goodbye.

--Sue Eggersglusz

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Geranium or Pelargonium?

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Geraniums originated from South Africa, as well as Reunion, Madagascar, Egypt and Morocco and were introduced to European countries such as Italy, Spain and France in the 17th century. 

Actually, the plants that gardeners have grown under the geranium name for several hundred years is not a geranium, but a pelargonium. Both plants, as well as a few others, are all members of the geraniaceae family. 

The problem arose when the plants were first brought from their native home of South Africa into Europe. All the early imports were labeled “geraniums” and continued under that blanket name for many years. When some observant botanists finally started a closer examination of these lovely new plants, they discovered many differences and then decided that the imports were not all the same plant type, but there were differences so were then moved into different named classifications. 

One group of plants was given the original name of geraniums. A second group was classified as pelargoniums, then there were erodiums and sarcocaulons/monsonias. The plant we label “geranium” was put into the pelargonium category, however, it had become a well loved plant of gardeners in Europe under the old “geranium” label so although the botanists told them that the lovely pot or bedding plant they grew in such numbers was a pelargonium, they persisted in using the old name. 

I’m now more confused than ever! 

(Find out more at The Geranium Society)

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Blue gum fantasy

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm in small sketch-book
Blue gum trees on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) I must just mention that we no longer live in Tarlton, but her colour-palette is forever etched into my mind. 

Blue gum eucalyptus, Eucalyptus globulus to the botanists, have been a part of the South African landscape since the Gold Rush, long enough that legends have sprung up about how they first made it to the country. The usual story is that 19th Century gold miners encouraged planting of the trees as a quick-growing source of quality lumber, then were disappointed to find out that South African-grown eucs produce wood unsuitable for much besides rough fenceposts and firewood.

The stories have some factual basis: there was a speculative eucalyptus-planting rush in the first years of the 20th Century, with people planning uses from fine furniture to rot-resistant railroad ties. And the home-grown trees, which grew far more quickly than their Australian counterparts, did not turn out to make lousy timber! The logs were extensively used in our mining industry and to this day they are still popular as fence posts and roof timber.

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