The 4 Seasons - Autumn

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.”
- Emily Bronte

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


Autumn in Hillside - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper - 8" x 6" - Maree©

With Autumn in full swing here in South Africa, the Black Wattle trees in Hillside, Tarlton, are still dressed in their show of brown seedpods and there's still a lot of greenery around, but soon it's going to be stark with lots of veld fires again. We live in a summer rainfall area and winter always brings dry, dusty conditions and the foliage is always covered in dust, wanting me to bring out my cleaning cloth and foliage cleaner to get the landscape sparkling again!

This is one of a series "The 4 Seasons" - next will be Winter.

The 4 Seasons - Summer

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”
- James Dent

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


Summer in Tarlton - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper 8" x 6" - Maree©

The Summer of 2009/2010 has been amazingly green with an extraordinary amount of rain, replenishing our rivers and ground water supply.

This is one of a series "The 4 Seasons" - next will be Autumn.

Autumn setting in

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”

- William Cullen Bryant

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

Autumn Setting in - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook - 8" x 5.5" - Maree

Autumn is in full swing and the trees in my garden are slowly starting to change colour - this is actually a friend's garden on their plot here in Tarlton, South Africa, and I just had to capture her Japanese Maple in all its glorious orange splendour amongst her mostly indigenous trees. She commented that she never knew her garden was so beautiful and that she will be looking at it differently now!

Tarlton Vlei

“Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear.”
- wolfdyke

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


"Vlei in Tarlton" watercolour in Moleskine Folio 200gsm - 12" x 8" - Maree©

Still on the subject of rain, all the vleis in Tarlton and surrounding areas are full and turning the landscape into a shimmering play of colours... For the past couple of weeks we've had between 15mm and 70ml rain most days, causing trees to fall over and swollen rivers to burst their banks. It's also great seeing huge flocks of water birds enjoying this abundance so late in the season.

This area, just 3km from us, is usually quite dry, with young boys charging around on their off-road bikes.

I'm on a Seagull mission!

“Why is it,” Jonathan puzzled, “that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”
- From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

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


"Seagull in flight" - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketch-book 8" x 5.5" - Maree©

After just having read "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" (I know, I'm a late bloomer!), I'm enamoured by seagulls again! It's a passion that has been lying dormant for some time and awakened by this wonderful little book again.

Whenever I go down to the coast, one of the highlights of my visit is feeding the seagulls. They look at one with definite, calculated intention, and they seem to anticipate your next move before you even know what's it's going to be, snatching the food as it leaves your fingers. I also love the way they land right next to you, so close that you can see the pupil in their eye, without any apparent fear, yet poised for instant flight should you make an ominous move.

One time, a seagull landed next to me within touching distance, the plastic ring of some soda can wrapped around its one leg. I reached out slowly to try and catch it, and it lifted into the air, staying just centimeters from my grasping hand, landing again as soon as I retreated. I tried to grab it quickly, and once again it lifted off, staying just inches away from my hand, landing again as soon as it was safe. I fed it some bread and watched with great pain in my heart as it eventually lifted off and took flight over the ocean.

But here's the thing - I travel down to Ballito, on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, a few times during the year, but I have to go to Durban or further North up the coast to find the seagulls - there are no seagulls in Ballito! And yet they are up here in Gauteng, 600km from the coast, a mystery I still intend solving!