Daisies Postcard 2

I'm a pretty little thing,
Always coming with the spring;
In the meadows green I'm found,
Peeping just above the ground,
And my stalk is cover'd flat
With a white and yellow hat.


Little Mary, when you pass
Lightly o'er the tender grass,
Skip about, but do not tread
On my bright but lowly head,
For I always seem to say,
"Surely winter's gone away."
- Ann Taylor, "The Field Daisy"

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

"Daisies Postcard" - Watercolour on handwritten background text on Visual 200gsm - 12" x 10"

Every Spring, the daisies in my garden spring up with such exuberance and last spring I just had to paint some of them!

I'm exploring doing some watercolours on back-grounds with handwriting on them (this one from Boccacino), and find it gives some lovely soft effects. First I print out the texture on watercolour paper and then add the sketches and watercolours.

Winter Bullrushes

“Never cut a tree down in the winter time. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.”
- Robert H. Schuller

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

Winter Bullrushes - W & N Watercolours on Arches 300gsm - 7" x 10"

I absolutely LOVE Bullrushes and used to have them growing at my pond (in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa), until I discovered how quickly they take over an area, killing everything in its path. I also used to cut the velvety flowering spikes to arrange in a vase, absolutely gorgeous!, also only until I discovered that, when they're ripe and ready to disperse their seeds, the velvety spike would burst open, covering the house with bundles of dense, cottony fluff! Only the female flower does this, the male withers and dies once it has dispersed its pollen.

Typha Typhaceae is found in a variety of wetland habitats. These plants are known in British English as bulrush, bullrush, or reed mace, in American English as cattail, punks, or corndog grass, in Australia as cumbungi & also bulrush, and in New Zealand as raupo.

Some interesting information : the dense cottony fluff was used for stuffing Futons in Japan before the advent of cotton.

Around the corner there may wait...

Around the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate;

And though I oft have passed them by,

A day will come at last when I

shall take the hidden paths that run

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

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

 W & N watercolours on Arches 300gsm - 10" x 7"

Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa) is mostly a farming community, with small farms and smallholdings scattered throughout the area, and I just love peeping up all the little roads leading to where somebody is eking out a living from the soil and nature. We don't even have many of the basic services like the laying out of roads to the various farms and properties - these are all done by the owners themselves, often just being little tracks that go for miles before reaching the house.

This is one such little road not far from us, leading off the Sterkfontein Main road, taking one over the hills to where a couple of owners farm with chickens, cattle and vegetables.

The magical process

"Painting is a magical process that I like, where you conjure something out of nothing; you get a little idea that leads you through ... You can go into a trance while you're doing it, so it's a nice contrast to real life."
- Paul McCartney

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

Watercolour on Arches 300gsm

Stuck indoors again, lots of rain, so no field sketching at the moment! This is one of the 6 paintings I did while it poured outside and being without electricity (and therefore internet as well!) - having to boil water for coffee on the little gas burner and sitting close to the window (for light). Did this from my imagination, taking inspiration from the blue, wet hues outside, the bright green of all the grass and all the muddy patches everywhere.

An Important day!

"The long span of the bridge of your life is supported by countless cables called habits, attitudes, and desires. What you do in life depends upon what you are and what you want. What you get from life depends on how much you want it, how much you are willing to work and plan and co-operate and use your resources. The long span of the bridge of your life is supported by countless cables that you are spinning now, and that is why today is such an important day. Make the cables strong."

~ L.G. Elliott

Watercolour on Arches 300gsm – 10” x 7” - Maree©

One of my Christmas gifts was 3 pads in various sizes of Arches Watercolour paper and I was TOTALLY ECSTATIC! Arches is not available in South Africa, or very difficult to get hold of at the least, and my daughter went to all the trouble of finding it for me! This painting is my second attempt at giving the paper a try (my first attempt was not that good!) – and it is completely different to the Bockingford I normally use; the flow of the paint, dry brush application, lifting, transparency and the way it soaks. A wonderful way to start the new year and I've been having a ball ever since!