Light and shadow

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

... light and shadow reveal a silent presence on a kitchen counter…

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Solly's house

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” 

― Edith Sitwell 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Solly’s house (our handiman factotum) on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) 

No matter the size or location, a true home is one of the most sacred of places. It is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world’s perils and alarms. It is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. It is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is moulded.

 Another sketch of Solly's house that I did a few years ago

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Jonathan Seagull

“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, ”you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…” 

- From ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull’ 

After I read “Jonathan Livingstone Seagull” and because of all the Seagulls that often fly over my garden in Tarlton, South Africa (600km from the coast!), I was inspired to do some more Seagull sketches again – I’ve always been enamoured by these birds, especially their plight of constantly being trapped with plastic and metal rings around their necks and feet. It’s a passion that has been lying dormant for some time and awakened by this wonderful little book again.

Something I didn’t know, is that Seagulls are most closely related to the terns (family Sternidae) and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders. But whoever they are related to, I personally would categorise them with Crows, one of my favourite, most intelligent birds! The same as crows, most gulls will take live food or scavenge opportunistically. And their love for man-made “junk food” defies belief! They will go to ANY length for some tasty hot potato chips with tomato sauce!

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Jack Frost's colours

W&N watercolour on a coffee back-ground (Nescafé instant, black and strong!) on Amedeo 200gsm 

There are popular and scientific myths about the causes of fall colour in trees. Jack Frost is alleged to paint tree leaves with his chilling touch, bringing on colour change along with a frosty coating. Another twist on this myth is that Jack Frost brings reds and purples to autumn trees by pinching the leaves with his icy fingers. A less poetic explanation of fall colour, favoured by scientists for decades, is that the autumnal colouring of leaves was caused by waste products accumulated in the leaves and revealed to us with the fading of green chlorophyll pigments. As it turns out, the waste product theory now seems to be considered a bunch of, well, crud. The fall colour pigments are produced, or revealed, only in living leaf cells of deciduous trees during the critical, seasonal process of leaf senescence. In fact, if Jack Frost did his thing too early, or, in other words, if there was an early killing frost, the leaf colour display would be dulled, if not stopped altogether.
- Info from Why Tree Leaves turn color in Autumn

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The Cheetah

Cats (the Cheetah) were put into the world to disprove the dogma that all things were created to serve man.
~Paul Gray

  Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)- W&N watercolour, using only Sepia, on Bockingford 300gsm 

The cheetah is a large-sized feline (family Felidae) inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species’ paws. As such, it is the only felid with non-retractable claws and pads that, by their scope, disallow gripping (therefore cheetah cannot climb vertical trees, although they are generally capable of reaching easily accessible branches).
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