Awe-inspiring Mountain

“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?”
- Kahlil Gibran

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

"Magaliesberg Mountains 3" - watercolour on Ashrad 300gsm w/colour paper - 8" x 6" - Maree©

The Magaliesberg is the closest thing to a wilderness in Gauteng (South Africa) ... to watch the sheer south-facing slopes from eagle height and to see trees, cows and cars like toys in the patchwork playground of green-brown fields below, is a sheer joy.

I sketched this scene just a few kilometers outside Magaliesburg, as these majestic mountains start rising, eventually reaching their full height of 1741m above sea level.

"The village of Magaliesburg lies just below the southern range of the Magaliesberg Mountains. The roads and rivers take similar paths, breaking though the steep ridges of the mountains in a few places, only to traverse much of the land along the valleys on either side of the two mountain ridges. This small village lies at the heart of a beautiful region of mountains, valleys, rivers and indigenous woodland - home to a variety of birds.

The Magaliesberg mountain range lies in between the highveld savannah of the Witwatersrand and the African bushveld, stretching roughly from past Rustenburg in the west, past Pretoria to Bronkhorstspruit in the east. This mountain range is almost 100 times older than Everest with interesting geology, archaeology, fauna and flora.

The area was also the site of battles during the Boer War, such as:

• Battle of Nooitgedacht: Monument to one of the historic battles between the Boer and English, at the height of the Boer War.
• Old English Block House: Loosely packed stone wall construction built by the English in 1902 towards the end of the Boer War. To view by appointment only.

The Magaliesberg has the most intriguing and longest session of history, as man would have experienced, than anywhere else on earth. The reason for this is the discovery of the remains of the earliest species of primitive man know today, in and around the Sterkfontein Caves, about 20 minutes drive from Magaliesburg."

Read more at http://www.mogalecity.gov.za/municipality/magaliesburg.stm

Magaliesberg Mountains 2

The true artist paints for himself.
- A. C. Leighton

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

"Magaliesberg Mountains 2" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8" - Maree©

This 30 000-hectare mountain preserve is almost entirely the property of agricultural, mining or industrial landowners. But legislation ensures that no more quarries, factories or unacceptable developments can take place that would threaten the integrity of the natural area. There is a fragile and secret world in the kloofs of the Magaliesberg, with places where you can see vultures soaring on updrafts, swim in clear mountain pools - and perhaps even catch sight of a pangolin, a brown hyena or a leopard.

For this wet-on-wet scene of the mountain, after wetting the paper, I sketched the main outlines of my scene using my Rigger and Cerulean Blue, a "trick" I picked up at my watercolour workshop in April this year. I'm sure many of you use this technique, but I've always been somewhat of a sketchy person, using my pencil, going into great detail with a lot of erasing happening. It's only been the past couple of months since I started practicing painting with no sketching beforehand that I feel confident enough to consider doing this.

The other day I was reading the article "When can you call yourself an Artist?" - and that morning, painting this scene, I felt like an artist! Standing in front of the easel, arm outstretched with the Rigger, creating a beautiful masterpiece!

I didn't use any reference material either, just my imagination.

By the way, to answer the question above, I think the best reply was as follows :

“You are an artist when you make art. Many artists spend their lives not selling their work … One of the first requirements for an artist is to ignore those who would define whether they are artists. The only real measure is the person making the art or, if need be, posterity.”
-- Jon

Magaliesberg Mountains 1

“I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.”
- Unknown

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


"Magaliesberg Mountains 1" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 15" x 11" - Maree©

For one of the workshops I attended with Angela Eidelman in March this year, we had to stretch and prepare our paper at home beforehand and that week's practice was wet-in-wet again. We had to draw the outlines of the scene we were going to paint, from pictures Angela supplied, with Cerulean blue and then, paint it wet-on-wet, keeping in mind our composition, light source, focal point, etc., with Angela constantly peeping over our shoulders, giving encouragement and correction.

This is a scene of part of the Magaliesberg mountains, which runs for more than 100 kilometers from Rustenburg to beyond Pretoria. I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise!

Hartebeesthoek

“I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.”
- William Wordsworth

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


"Hartebeesthoek" - Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 7.5" - Maree©

Driving towards Hartebeespoort Dam, we go through the area of Hartebeesthoek (Gauteng, South Africa), where the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory is situated in a Nature Reserve in a valley in the Magaliesberg hills, 50km west of Johannesburg.

The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) is the only major radio astronomy observatory in Africa. The Observatory began as Deep Space Station 51, built in 1961 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America. The station tracked many unmanned US space probes. These included the Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft which landed on the Moon or mapped it from orbit, the Mariner missions which explored the planets Venus and Mars and the Pioneers which measured the Sun's winds. ("Hartebeest" refers to Gnu, a species that used to roam the area in vast numbers).

This area is still one of vast open spaces and unspoilt landscapes, green rolling hills and steep gulleys, with wildlife roaming free and sometimes even crossing the road (luckily none of the Big 5!), like Warthogs, Monitors, Mongoose, snakes, tortoises, guinea fowl, hedgehogs, Striped Polecats and small buck. In fact, anything that's small enough to get through the fence. We normally drive through the area at about 60km per hour and I, for the life of me, cannot understand people whizzing past at 120kph, oblivious to the beauty of nature all around.

Daisies infinite

"Daisies infinite
Uplift in praise their little growing hands,
O'er every hill that under heaven expands."
- Ebenezer Elliott ("The Corn Law Rhymer")

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


"One Spider-Daisy" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 8"- Maree©


The Gerbera Spider Daisy is from the sunflower family (Asteraceae). It has a delicate, spiky appearance and is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds, and deer resistant! (No idea why, Wiki doesn't say!)

It has approximately 30 species in the wild, extending to South America, Africa and tropical Asia and is a tender annual flower.

I just love sketching these daisies - each one has a different personality and seems to fairly beg you to look at them and take notice!