JUST ME :: and a stack of blank pages

:: Living creatively ::

About me

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play. The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is. I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Merry Christmas & A Joyous 2011!

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons. It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
~Dr. Seuss



One of my Guinea fowl watercolours turned into a Christmas card - this will be my last post for 2010 and here's wishing you all a joyous and inspirational 2011! I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody's art and inspiration in the new year and I would like to thank everybody for viewing my blog and leaving your lovely comments here!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Painted Dog

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”
- George Orwell

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


'Wild Dog' - Coffee on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8" - Maree©

The Painted dog or *African Wild Dog* (Lycaon pictus), is a medium-sized canid found only in Africa, especially in Savannahs and other lightly wooded areas. It is also called the *Painted Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog,* the *Cape Hunting Dog,* the *Spotted Dog,* the *Ornate Wolf* or the *Painted Wolf* in English, *Wildehond* in Afrikaans, and *Mbwa mwitu* in Swahili. It is the only extant species in the genus _Lycaon_, with one species, L. sekowei, being extinct.

There were once approximately 500,000 African Wild Dogs in 39 countries, and packs of 100 or more were not uncommon. Now there are only about 3,000-5,500 in fewer than 25 countries ore less. They are primarily found in Eastern and Southern Africa, mostly in the two remaining large populations associated with the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and the population centered in northern Botswana and Eastern Namibia.

Whilst the largest population resides in the Kruger National Park (South Africa), some wild dogs have been released into Madikwe, Pilanesberg and Hluhluwe-Mfolozi, South Africa.

I did this painting with coffee on tea-stained (Five roses, black, and VERY strong!) Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8"

Friday, November 26, 2010

Fantasy Arums

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
- Marcel Proust

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


Arum Lilies - Acrylic on Gesso primed un-stretched canvas - 9" x 12" - Maree©

Definitely a first for me, doing a subject that is not true to life. I mean, really, Orange Arums?! What next?! Normally for me, as here, once I apply a back-ground, that normally sets the tone for the rest of the colour palette. And it seemed a natural progression of incorporating orange as the contrast to the yellow back-ground.

All species of Arums (or Zantedeschia) are endemic to southern Africa. Z. aethiopica grows naturally in marshy areas and is only deciduous when water becomes scarce. It grows continuously when watered and fed regularly and can survive periods of minor frosts.

The Zantedeschia species are poisonous due to the presence of calcium oxalate. All parts of the plant are toxic, and produce irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, acute vomiting and diarrhoea. A beautiful flower carrying a deadly secret!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Die Hard!

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you dies each year when the leaves fall from the trees and their branches are bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen.”
- Ernest Hemingway

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


Watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - 8" x 5"

These blue gum trees (Eucalyptus) on our smallholding (Tarlton, South Africa) are real die hards! They have withstood this past Winter's fire ravages and are already sprouting new young leaves and producing new bark under the old burnt, peeling bark. These trees will never cease to amaze me - I've even seen one that, after being struck by lightning and split down the middle, the one side continued growing, even producing new branches!

Monday, November 8, 2010

The Simple Beauty

Unfurl your cloak of silken white
Reveal your secret wand upraised at length
And not unlike a star you shine serene
To exalt the autumn-tide with silver cups.
Shall we drink sweet nectar as we praise
The simple beauty revealed now in truth?
Or shall we simply sit and idly gaze
Into the eyes of love I have for you?
Calla lily soft and silken white
With open heart I pledge my love this night.
- Author unknown

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



Arum lilies done one the back of a sheet of Photo printing paper, using coffee (Nescafé Instant, very strong, very black!) - for the back-ground. This paper is actually very thin, and ever so slightly glossy, so it was a completely different feel painting on this in stead of my normal heavy-weight watercolour paper I'm used to. It's also not conducive to allowing the paint, or coffee, to freely flow and mix. I also gave the back-ground a slight salt treatment, which then promptly refused to budge once the painting was dry! I had to scrub it off with a nail brush! I used fine table salt, maybe that could be the reason... But it has somehow imparted a raw quality to the painting.

Zantedeschia is native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The Zantedeschia species are poisonous due to the presence of calcium oxalate. *All parts of the plant are toxic,* and produce irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, acute vomiting and diarrhoea.

Did you know that the striking arum lily "flower" is actually many tiny flowers arranged in a complex spiral pattern on the central column (spadix)? The tiny flowers are arranged in male and female zones on the spadix. The top 7 cm are male flowers and the lower 1.8 cm are female. If you look through a hand-lens you may see the stringy pollen emerging from the male flowers which consist largely of anthers. The female flowers have an ovary with a short stalk above it, which is the style (where the pollen is received). The spadix is surrounded by the white or coloured spathe. According to Marloth, the whiteness of the spathe is not caused by pigmentation, but is an optical effect produced by numerous airspaces beneath the epidermis.


To buy a Greeting card or other fine art print of this image, go to My Redbubble