A Merry Christmas 2015!

Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas for 2015! I send my thoughts afar, and let them paint your Christmas Day at home!

Fifty shades of brown

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm.

Using various shades of brown mixed from a variety of colours on my palette.

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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Sketching again

Black ink sketch and colour wash on Amedeo 200gsm

I feel it's time for sketching again, have been neglecting it of late, been preferring just putting colour straight to paper.

Black ink sketch in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

Black ink sketch in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

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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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Winter at the pond

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Winter is almost nothing but a memory and now spring is fully upon us, with the first spring rains having fallen over the past couple of days. But together with that came freezing temperatures as low as 12℃ yesterday. But soon all the cold will be in the past and I look forward to my wildlife pond once again bursting with summer colour.

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Cactus trichocereus

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I'm absolutely in love with my two cacti! (C. trichocereus). The one at the back made a baby, which I transplanted into a pot and placed it next to its parent. I'm sure they whisper endearing comments to one another all day long!

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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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En route to Magaliesburg

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Whenever I go to Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa) just 13km from us, I choose to take a short-cut through Spring Farm and although it is a gravel road, I do away with lots of traffic and getting stuck behind trucks on their way to Rustenburg or Botswana and, to top it all, I see lots of wildlife. It’s a route we used to take with the horses during my horse riding days.

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A labourer's cottage

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A labourer’s cottage on a smallholding just down the road from us in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

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A farmer's cottage

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A farmer’s cottage on a smallholding not far from us in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

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Dusk in Magaliesburg

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

As dusk settles over Magaliesburg, the neighbouring mountains are cast in a hue of purples and blues.

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Cosmos in March

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

March and end-of-summer in South Africa heralds Cosmos time! Every year these beauties grace the fields and road-sides all over the country.

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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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A farm gate

W&N watercolour and ink sketch on Bockingford 300gsm

Farm gates and farm fences fascinate me. I can sit for hours sketching variations on the theme and just cannot drive by a farm gate or particularly interesting fence without stopping and sketching it. This is a  farm gate on a friend’s smallholding in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa).

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A farm cottage

W&N watercolour on thick sketching paper

Done from a photograph, with kind permission of a dear friend, Maria Lock, Millmerran, Queensland, Australia.

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View across the river

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

View of the Magaliesberg across the river in Broederstroom. Once again Blogger is not playing the game with the colours of my painting, it views much greyer than what it really is!

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Singing sweet songs, of melodies pure and true

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

‘Rise up this morning,
smile with the rising sun,
three little birds
sit by my doorstep,
singing sweet songs
of melodies pure and true,
singing,
this is my message to you.’

PS : I don't know what's wrong with Blogger's colours, but the image I uploaded is not as dark as this and the back-ground is totally white, no grey...?

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A blank page

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm

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a blank page . a new journal . what shall I do
dream / sing / write / wait / think / pause / garden / chat / paint
decided to paint

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Little White Dove

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

This is Little White Dove, a White Ringneck Dove I found in my garden a year and a half ago, minus a tail and a big wound on her coccyx. After coaxing her down from the tree with some seeds, I managed to capture her and tend to the wound. She recovered quickly, sporting a brand new tail within a few days.
She has now become part of the family, flying around my studio, having regular baths in her favourite bowl, tolerating Tweeti, the Cockatiel’s advances and her and I have long chats, cooing to one another, she just loves participating in conversations!

Ringneck doves are sweet natured and naturally tame. If you should be lucky enough to acquire one, give them a day or two to settle into their new home, and begin to finger tame them. Talk to them and let them get used to your voice and movements. Coax them onto your finger inside the cage, and then gently take them from their cage. They will fly around the room, but will not fly for long and will settle down quickly. Patience and time will pay off, and soon you will have a wonderful new friend…

The White Dove is often thought of as a separate species but it is actually perhaps the most common color mutation of the Ringneck Dove (Streptopelia risoria). This bird is often confused with the domestic white homing pigeon which is used to release at special occasions (weddings, anniversaries, etc.). This bird does not have the homing instinct and should not be released.

These birds have been bred in cages since biblical times as pets and cannot survive in the wild. They often are not able to find food having had it provided to them all their life and because of their white colour they are easy prey for a variety of predators. Thus many of these released birds die or are killed in a relatively short time. Many white doves that have been released end up looking to humans for assistance.

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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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All of life is a journey

W&N watercolours in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book - no preliminary sketching

“All of life is a journey - which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there.”

- Unknown

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Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year 2015!

Original is W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

The best part of the season is remembering those who make the holidays meaningful. I wish you all the love and happiness this season can bring, and may it follow you throughout the coming new year.

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Winter's redeeming qualities

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm

Winter has very few redeeming qualities. Many animals find that the best thing to do is simply sleep through it. Studies show that human beings sleep more during the winter months as well. One of the few redeeming qualities of winter is snow, something of which we don’t get a lot here in South Africa. But when it happens, there are few things more magical then looking out the window from your house and discovering those first flurries gently falling to the ground. When the snow builds up outside our houses it envelops us in a warm cocoon.

For my Northern Hemisphere friends, the time has come to put on your warm slippers, grab a cozy blanket, and curl up with some hot chocolate!

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