Daisies and weeds and crab spiders

"The Rose has but a Summer reign,
The daisy never dies."
Author: James Montgomery


Daisies and weeds - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - 8" x 6" Maree©

My Shasta Daisies have now been over-taken by the weeds and I decided to do one last sketch before I trim them down for the winter. Come Spring, they will once again bloom in abundance, and be home to the white Crab Spider, which changes its colour depending on the colour of the flower it is sitting on.

Crab spiders are not active hunters. They make use of camouflage techniques and remain quite still until the prey arrives and then catch it. With a poisonous bite (not dangerous to humans) they kill their prey and suck it dry. Every season I love inspecting the daisies close-up, seeing how many I can find on a bush. I also refrain from watering the daisies with a hose pipe from the top in case I drown them!


A white crab spider on a daisy


Here's a crab spider in yellow form on a daisy


Here the crab spider is half green and half brown, blending perfectly with the flower it is sitting on

(Pics from Wikipedia)

Buy a Greeting Card, Postcard or Framed print of this image on "RedBubble"


Greeting card from my "Flower Series"

Daisies in my garden

Earth laughs in flowers.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"


"Daisies in my garden" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 15" - Maree©

Inspiration taken from my garden - the Shasta daisies are still going strong, but are now long overdue on trimming and rather tall and lanky, but they made an ideal study for a quick sketch on a cold and windy day.

Daisies in the rain

There is a flower, a little flower
With silver crest and golden eye,
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.
Author: James Montgomery


Rudbeckia "Echinacea purpurea" - watercolour in Moleskine watercolour sketch-book 17/04/2010 - 8" x 5.5" - Maree©

When it's freezing outside and threatening to rain any minute, and I can't make a field trip to do some sketching, I always turn to my garden for inspiration. Even under the most dismal conditions there is always something to be found - some flower left-overs, a few Autumn leaves clinging to a branch or the birds and insects who seem to cheerily carry on, no matter what the weather.

Acceptance - on Mother's Day

AFFIRMATION :

"I accept my human imperfections as an expression of beauty;

I accept my struggles and rough parts as my teachers."

The magic of affirmations and visualizations has come a long way with me and has formed a large part of who I am and where I am today.

The above affirmation is the latest to join the list on my mirror, as I've been finding myself bemoaning my "fate" quite a bit lately, albeit only in my own mind. One so easily falls into the trap of dissatisfaction, wanting 'perfection' in everything, not realising that everything is perfect and beautiful as it is.

Letting go of insecurities and worries is important for me to move forward, both as a whole and complete person as well as an artist.

African Storm Brewing

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather."
- John Ruskin

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


African Storm Brewing - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 7.5" - Maree©

It's already April, way past our rainy season, and on one of our recent trips to Harties (Schoemansville), I captured this Autumn storm brewing over a farm on the banks of the Crocodile River, which flows through Broederstroom on it's way to Hartebeespoort Dam in the North-West Province of South Africa.

When a storm is brewing (in your mind or in your life), embrace it as just another delicious experience, like a summer shower. See what you can learn from it, take a lesson from it, because soon the clouds will have a silver lining again as the sunshine bursts through. Nothing lasts forever - not the rain, not the sunshine, not the storm - so might as well accept it into our lives as just another "bad weather" phenomena.