Cheetah

If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.

Honore de Balzac

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

"Cheetah" watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree©

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Re-visiting an old haunt

Yesterday I actually made the effort of packing my portfolio bag and art supplies and setting off to the dam just 2km down the road from us. Another perspective of the Tarlton Dam, which I first painted back in the 80's.

"Tarlton Dam '09" watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree©

Winter is in full swing and the only greenery is the Blue gum trees and Wattles, which are deciduous and only drop a lot of bark and seeds. Everything else is bone dry and the veld fires (wildfires) have taken their toll everywhere, leaving the landscape lifeless, except for the Egrets scavenging on dead insects and little mammals that couldn't manage to escape the roaring fires.

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Blogger Award!!

Wow! I received the Kreativ Blogger award!! from Nature As Is and all I can say is, thank you, Crista!


Crista is a fantastic photographer and has some fabulous photographs on her blog covering a wide section of nature. I've been so inspired by her photographs that I have even painted a couple of them. Crista also has an interesting tactic in that she changes the photograph on her header at regular intervals. Makes for a unique surprise every time one visits her blog!

After receiving this award, I'm to nominate 7 other blogs and state 7 things about myself. So here we go :

1. I am blond, 5'4" tall, have blue eyes and live on a smallholding in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa, together with all the birds, ducks, geese, hedgehogs,2 cockatiels, 1 cockatoo, my husband and Jacko, my Fox terrier-cross.

2. I am mad about nature, especially birds, and I am constantly inundated with sick or injured birds or people who bring me sick or injured birds. I always complain that I haven't got time for this, but somehow make time and nurture them back to health for release in a safe area.

3. I have been drawing, sketching and painting my whole life, getting most of my inspiration from nature, and it has been the one constant in my life, because I easily get bored with something and then move on to another. I'm a jack-of-all-trades (and master of...?) - I make jewelry, have done stained glass, woodwork, copper work, pewter, scrapbooking and every other craft you can think of and can do anything I set my mind to. My tag-line is "There is a fine line between dreams and reality; it's up to you to draw it."

4. I love walking on the beach and it is my dream to live at the coast, if I can get past the heat and humidity thing.

5. I am an early-to-bed and early-riser, in summer watching the sun rise with a cup of coffee in hand, listening to and watching the birds start their daily routine and writing in my Gratitude Journal. In winter I plonk in front of my MAC at 4.30am, reading my mail and catching up on all my blogger friends via Google Reader, writing in my Gratitude Journal and clearing my To-Do-List, all before having a bath at 7am.

6. I don't like cooking (even though I can) and would rather spend my time in my art studio. I'm actually considering changing the kitchen into a workshop - lots of cupboards for tools!

7. I am a grand-mother of 3 beautiful girls, of whom I don't see nearly enough, as they live at the coast, but I do manage to visit 4 or 5 times a year, the also exercising my passion of walking next to the ocean, climbing rocks and collecting beach finds.

The 7 Blogs I would like to nominate are as follows :

Artist Marie Theron from Chronicles of the West Coast
Cathy Gatland at A Sketch in Time
Liz at Art with Liz
Jennifer Lawson's On-line Painting & Drawing Journal
Vivien from Paintings, Prints & Stuff
Jeanette Jobson at Illustrated Life
Vickie Henderson of Vickie Henderson Art
Vickie does such wonderful work with the endangered Whooping Cranes.

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to do 8 - last but not least -
Ronelle of African Tapestry with her wonderful sketches of life in France.

Rock Challenge - Rocky Outcrop

“We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better.” 

― Walt Stanchfield 

"Rocky Outcrop" - watercolour on Visual 140gsm watercolour paper - Maree©

My neighbour has this little rocky outcrop with a couple of lonely trees on his property, and I painted  it a couple of days ago, sitting behind the wooden fence, but yesterday I summoned up the courage and asked him if I could come in to do the painting again. It was a nice warm day, no wind, slight nip in the air, but I got totally engrossed and only packed up when I decided I had fiddled enough. Every time I looked up, there was another little rock I had missed!

This is part of Jeanette's rock challenge which ends on the 4th August 2009. If you are interested, you can visit Jeanette's blog at Illustrated Life to participate, there are still a couple of days left.

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Mountain Landscape

snow in the high mountains | around the corner | winter
A Twitter Poem from WATERMARK


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



"Mountain Landscape" watercolour on visual 140gsm watercolour paper -Maree© 


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