Farm gate in Magaliesburg

"Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory."

~ Les Brown

Farm gate in Magaliesburg - watercolour in Moleskine - Maree©

The town of Magaliesburg in Western Gauteng, has these lovely little meandering roads leading off the main road, going to the various properties and farms, some on the banks of the Magalies River. This entrance to someone's farm is not far from a little Bistro we frequent and, as we drove past, this gate caught my eye and we stopped so I could do a quick sketch. Wonder what's on the other side of the gate?

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Little Green Patch in Tarlton

This little green patch on a hillock caught my eye as we drove past the other evening on the way to Magaliesburg, the sunset casting a golden glow on the distant fields. I did this sketch from memory once we got home.

Veld fire on the road to Magaliesburg

We were on our way to Magaliesburg the other day and to my amazement! a veld fire sweeping across the hills! Some areas that had not previously burnt were still brown and dry, but it always puzzles me how the fires start in good weather with no lightning. A passerby's cigarette...?

The Hills of Magaliesburg

From where we live in Tarlton, South Africa, the small village of Magaliesburg is just a short 13km drive through some wonderful scenery, especially during summer, when the area turns the most amazing green after a brown and dusty winter. Although our first rains have fallen, much of the landscape was still dry and in danger of veld fires in October.

Sketching in soft-cover books

Blue gum tree in soft-cover book

I'm feeling a bit distracted these days - I get like that when I've got a lot on my plate - besides sketching daily, doing larger paintings once or twice a week and my Private Daily Journal - I've also started an on-line art class with Cathy (Kate) Johnson on "Keeping an Artists' Journal" and I'm also participating in a sketch-book exchange between South Africa and Australia, which you can read about on Artists' Circle.

To centre my thoughts and ground my energy a bit, I took and old soft-cover book with me to record little sketches of grasses, weeds and indigenous flowers on our property. Before I started on the grasses, I couldn't resist doing a quick sketch of this Blue gum tree - I'll use the sketches that I do in these soft-covers as reference for larger paintings at a later stage.