Icons of Africa

W&N watercolour on amedeo 200gsm watercolour paper

Two icons of the African bush - the mysterious and legendary Baobab tree and the powerful, graceful and arguably one of the most beautiful of all the large cats, the elusive Leopard.

Did you know that the Baobab (Andansonia) is the largest succulent plant in the world? It is a tree that can provide, food, water, shelter and relief from sickness.

Solitary, arboreal and nocturnal, the Leopard is a master of stealth and survival. By far the strongest climber, it can haul prey twice its own body weight up into a tree where it can feast without disturbance from other predators.

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Chameleon (Chamaeleonidae)

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm 

Chameleons are fascinating and amazing creatures, always popular with anyone who sees them. They belong to the lizard family and the word 'Chameleon' means 'Earth Lion'.

I just love Chameleons and there was a time when I used to have them in my garden regularly - no more. I haven't seen a Chameleon for... years. Yes, years... I know they might have difficulty getting into the property because of the high walls, but I at least used to see them on my walks. The over-population in rural areas is really having an effect on these wonderful little creatures...

The main distribution of Chameleons is Africa and Madagascar, and half of the world's chameleon population lives on the island of Madagascar. They are famous for their ability to change colour. This serves as a form of communication, a response to temperature, light, and mood, as well as a defense against predators. Their eyes can rotate and swivel independently, enabling them to see almost a complete 360-degrees or observe two things simultaneously. Their tongues can be as long as their bodies. Chameleons can balance on a branch by gripping it with their claws and wrapping their tail around the branch to hold on. Chameleons can even sleep upside down!

There are thought to be more than 160 different species of chameleon that range from just an inch to more than a couple of feet in size. The tiny pygmy leaf chameleon, found in the jungles of Madagascar, is the smallest species of chameleon with some males measuring less than 3 cm long with the largest growing to almost 70cm long.

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Crow wears a silver band

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm

Cape or Black Crow (Corvus capensis) – endemic to Africa
With thanks to John from Midmarsh Jottings for the use of his beautiful photograph.

Crow wears a band of silver on his ankle, holds it out to watch it glint in the sun like cool creek water. It is noon. He is the only one out. All others have sought shelter under the canopy of live oak, the leaves beneath the chaparral, Crow, the only one among them unafraid to cast a shadow. He is a black body to absorb the sun’s heat, and yet unheated.

He’s silver studded with stones, turquoise to match the cloudless sky. He stretches out his leg again, watches sky and water glisten on his ankle.

He flexes claws and brings his foot beneath him again, stretches out his other, naked foot for balance. His feet are beautiful, furrowed skin like charcoal scales, sharp and onyx claws. As flexible as hands, good for grasping new-hatched thrushes or pulling gate hooks from eye bolts, and sleek. The humans see crow’s feet in the faces of their most seasoned elders, the scars of a learned life spent laughing.

Crows’ feet, the mark of craft and cunning, crow’s feet a sense of humour made skin and sinew.
He swings down on the branch, holds himself upside down and swinging, the silver falling down around his upper leg as he barks in delight. Sky below his feet and swaying, silver pools above his head. The world so beautifully inverted, he cannot keep from laughing. This is beauty: the world turned upside down. You can keep your lithe ingénues, your florid sunsets and cloying sentiment: beauty is all that cleft in two, a cunning spark suspended by crow’s feet, a fall from a deadly height and then the swoop of wing, the thickening of the air beneath splayed feathers. Seeing air rising within air and climbing on it, sun glinting blue-black as night sky off your feathers? Night colours blazing brilliant from your feathers? Beauty is day turned to night and night to day.

Heart beats furious beneath that dark breast, mind burns in onyx eyes. Beauty a glint of laughter in a bottomless dark eye. He barks again.

Sun above live oak, a thousand suns refracted on the earth below. Grasshoppers leap into the air clicking. Wild oats, tawn in the summer heat, lean eastward with the breeze, and a wall of fog on the ocean twenty miles west. All this beauty: all this.
<sup>Story from Coyote Crossing

.</sup>
 

The stately Raven

Parker pen and Black Quink ink with watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
‘Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.’

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered – not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.’
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.’
<sup>Extract from The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe – [First published in 1845]

.</sup>
 

Light and shadow

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

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

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Leopard on the rocks

The leopard lingered in the sun
Almost at close of day,
With all its hours almost done
And fast to ebb away…
The leopard lets his memories
Remind him now and then,
Because he knew each day must cease
When moonlight shone again...

Black Pilot FineLiner ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm 

An African Leopard sunning himself on some rocks. Powerful, graceful and arguably one of the most beautiful of all the large cats, the elusive leopard is a master of stealth and survival. 

In the Cape Province south of the Orange River (South Africa), they have been largely eradicated by stock farmers except in rugged mountainous areas. The Cape Leopard that lives in the Cape mountain range is much smaller than its big cousins in the Limpopo region. Their diet is probably the contributing factor, consisting mostly of dassies and much smaller prey.

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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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African silhouettes

The shadows now so long do grow, That brambles like tall cedars show, Molehills seem mountains, and the ant Appears a monstrous elephant.

- Charles Cotton 

Watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm 

Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the shadow of a mountain on their way to water in the northern parts of the Kalahari desert (South Africa).

A portion of the Kalahari Desert transforms for a brief period each year from a parched expanse of arid wasteland to a bountiful floodplain packed with channels, lagoons, swamps and islands — and it has the Okavango River to thank for this temporary transformation into paradise.

During the annual inundation, the Okavango Delta region draws migrating animals like a magnet, among them herds of Kalahari elephants. Elephants must have water on a regular basis, so as the dry season reaches a peak, they follow ancient instincts across the scorched and desiccated sands to the promise of boundless waters in the west.

As the elephants slowly make their way toward the delta, many can survive on what little resources they find until they finally enjoy a respite in the rich lands touched by the Okavango. Other herds will not complete the migration and may lose members to the harsh and competitive environment of the desert.

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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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My favourite outfit

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

This used to be one of my favourite outfits. Unfortunately the jacket is all frayed on the cuffs and my little red pumps have seen better days! I find it really difficult to find nice jackets. South Africa is never really cold enough for anything too thick, and this cotton one with a satin lining was just perfect.

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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

I did this painting with coffee on a tea-stained back-ground (Nescafé instant, black, and VERY strong!) – Bockingford 300gsm – 12″ × 8″

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 or 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-Imfolozi, South Africa.

Autumn song

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

We've seen the last of Autumn here in South Africa and Winter has settled in with cold but bright days.

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the heart feels a languid grief

Laid on it for a covering,

And how sleep seems a goodly thing

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain

Falters because it is in vain,

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf

Knowest thou not? and how the chief

Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the soul feels like a dried sheaf

Bound up at length for harvesting,

And how death seems a comely thing

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

- By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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A winter's morn

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

A winter's morning at a dam in Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa) 

It was still ash-grey on a Sunday morning, but winter was awake already. She was whispering everywhere. She was shaking shaking everything in her path. She seeped through the gaps around the doors and windows. She crawled down the walls and flooded the room with her ice-cold breath. She crept into my bed. Then woke me up and penetrated my duvet. Surrounded by her, I found myself shrinking like an earthworm. I then had to compromise my bed. She enjoyed taking possession. I was trying to sleep with my knees squashed to my head and my arms around my ankles. I was shaking when I felt her presence. I got up and closed the windows. She were trapped, inside. 

- Unknown

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Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Barn Owl (Tyto alba) 

Afrikaans : Nonnetjie-uil 

Ghostly pale and (not) strictly nocturnal, Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are silent predators of the night world. Lanky, with a whitish face, chest, and belly, and buffy upperparts, this owl roosts in hidden, quiet places during the day. By night, they hunt on buoyant wingbeats in open fields and meadows. You can find them by listening for their eerie, raspy calls, quite unlike the hoots of other owls. Despite a worldwide distribution, Barn Owls are declining in parts of their range due to habitat loss. I for one do not see them as often as I used to. 

Once welcomed by farmers as one form of pest control, the population is now under threat from modern farming techniques, e.g. the destruction of hedgerows & meadowland, which affect their prey, the removal of old barns & buildings, which were their nesting places and the use of chemicals to control rodents. 

The Owl Rescue Centre is the only raptor centre in South Africa that primarily focus on owl species. They give all their time and attention to owl species because of the high mortality rate of owls in South Africa, making owls vulnerable to a decreasing population. They rehabilitate and release 200 – 250 Spotted Eagle Owls, 100 – 150 Barn Owls and 80 -100 other owl species each year. 

SHOULD YOU FIND AN OWL THAT YOU SUSPECT MIGHT BE INJURED, PLEASE CALL THEM ON 082 719 5463 (24/7 emergency line – South Africa)

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Barn Owl hunting 1

Brown Stabilo Fine point 0.4 pen sketch on a coffee-painted back-ground – DalerRowney 300gsm

The Barn Owl (Tyta alba) is a frequent visitor to my property (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and is not shy to hunt in broad daylight. I often see one pouncing on something in the long grass during the day, flying off with its prize, probably to feed some babies. 

Barn Owls love to use man-made structures to build their nests and are very partial to nest boxes one supplies. I’ve always had a box or two in my garden but, sadly to say, the weather has taken it’s toll on them and seeing as I’m past the stage of climbing trees to put one up, it’ll have to wait until I find someone young and agile to do the job for me!

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Barn Owl hunting 2

Black Pilot FineLiner pen sketch on a coffee-painted back-ground – Nescafé instant, strong! – Bockingford 300gsm 

I'm always thrilled when I see or hear the owls on our property. I was lucky anough to spot this Barn Owl hunting early one morning while taking a walk on our property.

The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as Common Barn Owl, to distinguish it from other species in the barn owl family Tytonidae. 

These pale, nearly worldwide, birds are closely associated with man through their traditional use of barn lofts and church steeples as nesting sites.

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Barn Owls are short-lived birds. Most die in their first year of life, with the average life expectancy being 1 to 2 years in the wild. 

Although they are easy to identify in the day as they often hunt in daylight, by night you can find them by listening for their eerie, raspy screech, quite unlike the hoots of other owls.

My Geranium would like to see you...

“Won't you come into the garden? I would like my Geranium to see you.”

Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 8″ × 12″

A few years ago, a friend gave me a Geranium cutting, just a little piece of stalk with one leaf, which I planted in an egg shell filled with potting soil and kept on the kitchen counter. As soon as there were enough roots, I planted her into this Terracotta pot, egg shell and all. Within 2 weeks I had about 8 leaves and another stalk appearing next to the original cutting. She now lives on the patio near my Natal Fig bonsai, and I’m sure I’ve heard them whispering to one another a couple of times! And now, every spring she blesses me with a great show of her gorgeous flowers.  

It is well known that the whole Geranium genus is highly redolent of volatile oils – lemon-scented, musk-scented, and peppermint-scented. In South Africa, folk-lore has it that, if you plant Geraniums in your garden, you will never have any snakes!

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Turn, turn, turn!

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - I used a candle for the white parts of the gulls. You can freely apply colour over it, where the candle wax is, it stays white.

Seagulls (in the family Laridae) and an Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) waiting their turn for a morsel of bread. One of my favourite past-times, watching seagulls… These gulls were hanging out at a restaurant in St. Lucia (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) and I was almost thrown out because I was feeding them!

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Gemsbuck study

We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace. 

 ~Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization 

Pilot Fineliner Black ink sketch with W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm (135lb) Smooth heavy-weight sketching paper

The few times that I have seen a Gemsbuck, I've been in utter awe. their beauty is beyond description and it totally  amazes me that anybody would want to kill such a magnificent animal (no matter what the excuse!).

The Gemsbuck (Oryx gazella) is one of the most handsome antelope in Africa, with its long rapier-like horns and striking markings. They can form herds of up to 20 - 30 animals. Gemsbuck are grazers but will survive on browse in times of drought. When wounded they can be very dangerous animals to approach on foot. The horns of the calves grow extremely fast and when they emerge from concealment after birth their horns are very evident. This has lead to the myth that a Gemsbok is born with horns.

Here I have done the same sketch, but given it a card-like appearance.

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Lobelias for Winter

It's winter here in South Africa and time for Lobelia! As an annual, Lobelia will grow nearly anywhere and they are great in hanging baskets – which is the route I go as my chickens destroy anything delicate planted directly in the ground!

Native to Southern Africa, trailing Lobelia (Lobelia erinus) needs plenty of sun to bloom its best. Technically they are to be planted late winter and will flower from spring well into midsummer or even longer, but here in Tarlton our heat can get pretty intense, so I prefer to plant them in Autumn and every winter I have a blue mass of beauty. I hang them under the eaves of the patio so that they don't get any direct frost and where they get morning sun and mid-afternoon shade.

When planting Lobelia in hanging baskets and hanging planters ensure your basket or planter has plenty of holes for drainage. Then select a good, lightweight, airy potting soil. In summer, they will need watering daily as the temperatures start to warm up, but in winter I water only once a week.

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A garden path

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

I always seem to be doing the opposite of what I should, like with gardening. In stead of jumping into gardening like everybody else in Spring, every Autumn I get this inexplicable urge to revamp my garden! I think it must be the cooler weather, much easier carting paving stones and pots around when it's not so hot.

I've just bought 10 bags of compost and a couple of bags of potting soil for a few potted plants and will be feeding the garden just as it wants to rest! But I'm sure all my earth worms will be thankful for a bit of extra sustenance during this cold period...

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This garden that I know

 "There is a garden that is not like the other gardens round about. In many of these gardens the flowers are only prisoners, forced to weave carpets on the changeless turf, and when the eye is sated and the impression palls, they become to their owners, who have no part in them, merely purchased episodes. 

This garden that I know has a bit of green, a space of flowers, and a stretch of wildness, as Bacon says a garden should always have. At its birth, the twelve months each gave to it a gift, that it might always yield an offering to the year, and presently it grew so lovable that there came to it a soul."

From 'The Story of a Garden' by Mabel Osgood Wright (1859-1934)

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Wildlife Triptych

Ink with W&N watercolour on a textured back-ground by Kim Klassen 

Three beautiful animals of the South African Bushveld . the Cheetah . the Rhino . the Gemsbuck 

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The Garden Party

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - done from my imagination

"After all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, mowing the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine. As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by archangels."

- Katherine Mansfield

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Lavender in a pot

 W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is such a romantic flower that every gardener sooner or later succumbs to the urge to grow it. The fact that it is a native of the Mediterranean and a lover of dry, sunny, rocky habitats makes it a perfect specimen for our hot Highveld climate. It even manages our frosty winters quite well, probably because it is our dry season with not much rain. 

I have taken a couple of cuttings from a plant growing in my garden to try it in a pot, which I can put in a full sun position. I did this sketch from my imagination to try and "see" what it will look like and I've convinced myself! 

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Autumn down at the dam

“Drawing and color are not separate at all; in so far as you paint, you draw. The more colour harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes. When the color achieves richness, the form attains its fullness also.”
~ Paul Cézanne

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Another beautiful Autumn day down at the dam not far from where I live.

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Autumn splendour

“I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air”, said Nathaniel Hawthorne. How well he expresses my sentiments!

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I just can't get enough of Autumn at the moment! It's the loveliest season of them all and the perfect time to be spending outdoors! Until winter hits us in early June I will be making the most of this perfect weather.

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Silhouettes of Africa

Winsor & Newton watercolour on Visaual 200gsm

The bushveld comes alive at night as the rays fade into dusk, and the smells typical of animal and dust settles. An overwhelming sense of greatness that is our universe overcomes you. A momentous silence follows as night falls.

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It's Autumn!

Candle wax and W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm

Autumn in South Africa

Autumn, oh autumn! How you enchant me with your wonderful colours and cool days! How you inspire with your falling leaves, your magical diversity of combining the best of all four seasons in just a few weeks! Your changing fall foliage never fails to surprise and delight me, getting us ready for winter in the most beautiful way!

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Sketching in the Game Reserve

Some sketches I did while visiting the Krugersdorp Game Reserve (Gauteng, South Africa). The herds stay quite close to the road and don't mind cars in the vicinity, making it easy to do some quick sketches. Some watercolour pencils and a bottle of water is all it takes!

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African bushveld scene

“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.” 

Aloe Marlothii and Giraffe watercolour in hand-made sketch-book. 

The fiery aloe in full bloom, the smell of the fragrant wild sage on a dewy morning and one of Africa’s tallest animals in the back-ground – a typical African Bushveld scene that makes one’s spirits soar!

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Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)

W&N watercolours on Amedeo 200gsm watercolour paper 

The Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is a woodland antelope found throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. Despite occupying such widespread territory, they are sparsely populated in most areas, due to a declining habitat, deforestation and hunting. 

This animal’s true home is stark grey thorn-bush wasted, rocky outcrops and dry desert ridges – It forms the perfect background to display the beauty of this elusive, ghostlike and magnificent antelope of Africa. Bulls are very secretive when they are alone and will stand motionless in bushes and under trees to avoid detection. Then only the most experienced human eye will see them. Just like Hemingway, most hunters experience a passion and a wish to obtain this dream trophy since man is often outwitted by the alertness and fantastic sense of hearing of the greater Kudu.

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Life is still...

I am thinking of the onion again. … Not self-righteous like the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. No show-off like the banana. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable, questioning, introspective, peeling itself away, or merely radiating halos like ripples. 

- Erica Jong, Fruits and Vegetables, 1971

W&N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm

Fruit in a bowl on my kitchen table 

I really felt like painting but was stumped as to what! My muse seemed to have gone on holiday and I don't really mind, she deserves it. So I scoured the cupboards and the refrigerator for inspiration and all I could come up with was an onion, a rather bedraggled yellow pepper and two apples. Mother Hubbard’s cupboard was rather bare! The bowl belongs to a friend who brought a salad over for a braai (barbecue) we had a while back. 

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You are...

… beautiful! Your true beauty lies in becoming yourself. 

Watercolour daisies on a textured back-ground by Kim Klassen

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Black Wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou)

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Often, when travelling on the Sterkfontein road on our way to Lanseria Airport, these Black Wildebeest cross the road, bringing all the traffic to a halt and resulting in everybody hauling out their cameras and binoculars. I always leave early for the airport, never know what you might spot on the road!

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Black Wildebeest, also known as the White Tailed GNU, are endemic to South Africa, found almost exclusively in the Highveld areas of the country in South Africa. It is a very strange and comical looking specie with its black body, erect mane, long whitish tail, forward curving horns and facial crest. They were on the verge of extinction in the 1960’s, but are plentiful today as a result of careful conservation management. They are often found in herds of females and young males, with the older males either being solitary or forming small bachelor herds. 

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Baby Elephant walk

“Be humble as the blade of grass that is being trodden underneath the feet. The little ant tastes joyously the sweetness of honey and sugar. The mighty elephant trembles in pain under the agony of sharp goad.” 

- John Ruskin

African elephants (Loxodonta africana), unlike their Asian relatives, are not easily domesticated. They range throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the rain forests of central and West Africa. The continent’s northern-most elephants are found in Mali’s Sahel desert. The small, nomadic herd of Mali elephants migrates in a circular route through the desert in search of water. 

Having a baby elephant is a serious commitment. Elephants have a longer pregnancy than any other mammal—almost 22 months. Cows usually give birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh some 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and stand about 3 feet (1 meter) tall. 

• Elephants typically reach puberty at thirteen or fourteen years of age 
• They have offspring up until they are around fifty years old 
• They may live seventy years or possibly more 
• A cow produces a single calf and in very rare cases twins 
• The interval between births is between two and a half to four years 
•  An elephant´s trunk, a union of the nose and upper lip, is a highly sensitive organ with over 100,000 muscle units.

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Valentine roses

 Black ink sketch with Coffee (Nescafé instant, very strong) plus Cadmium Red and a mix of greens

Valentine’s Day reminds me 

of the smile I smile

every time I think of you, 

the emotional lift I feel 

at the sound of your name. 

Valentine’s Day reminds me 

of the strength and comfort I get 

from knowing 

there are people like you in my life. 

Everything good about Valentine’s Day 

reminds me of you. 

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

By Joanna Fuchs

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African Wild Dog

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” 

- Mahatma Gandhi

Watercolour on Ashrad 200gsm watercolour paper 

The 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 Dog, 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, or perhaps only 14 countries. 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 centred in northern Botswana and eastern Namibia. 

- This info from Wikipedia Wikipedia 

African hunting dogs are endangered. They are faced with shrinking room to roam in their African home. They are also quite susceptible to diseases spread by domestic animals.

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Cheetah on the rocks

Black Pilot FineLiner ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm 

Stalks of brittle grass, towering and light-russet in colour, rose several feet high on the breezy African plain. A faint rustle sounded among the grass. Two sparks of amber, the eyes of a creature, lit up the maze of grass like candle flames, and hovered there. The crackle of shifting stalks grew louder until the grass parted, revealing a magnificent beast, dappled pelt rippling as if made of glistening gold. 

Majestically, the cheetah strode into a rock clearing where a light breeze blew swirling dust at her head. She blinked, unfazed. Suddenly, crouching into a stalking position, her muscles pulsed with tension. With explosive speed, she propelled herself across the plain… 

- Read the rest of this lovely story at A Day on the Savannah 

The Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has unusually low genetic variability. This is accompanied by a very low sperm count, motility, and deformed flagella. Skin grafts between unrelated cheetahs illustrate the former point in that there is no rejection of the donor skin. It is thought that the species went through a prolonged period of inbreeding following a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age. 

Cheetahs are found in open and partially open savannahs, inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East and they are basically solitary animals. At times, a male will accompany a female for a short while after mating, but most often the female is alone or with her cubs. Cheetah mothers spend a long time teaching their young how to hunt. Small live antelopes are brought back to the cubs so they can learn to chase and catch them. 

Cheetahs do not roar like lions, but they purr, hiss, whine and growl. They also make a variety of contact calls – the most common is a bird-like chirping sound. They are the only existing felines that do not possess retractable claws.

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Keep Peace in your Soul

"In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul." 

I just love playing with free textures I find on the web and use them as back-grounds to a lot of my paintings. Here I have used one of Kim Klassen's textures, which worked out well with this arum Lily.

I often print out the texture first and then paint on top of it, but in this case I added my Arum Lily image to the texture in PhotoShop. Printed out on some watercolour paper it makes a lovely every-day card.

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Why grow Geraniums in pots?

Because it’s easy! 

W&N watercolour in hand-made sketch-book with satin-finish linen paper 

No sketching before-hand

Last year some time, I was given a small Geranium plant by Redbubble friend Antionette, a lovely little specimen which I planted in a terracotta pot, which now takes pride of place on my patio. I haven’t had geraniums for some time now, so this special plant is highly coveted! 

Whilst in a pot, watering and weeding are easy – there’s just the pot to water and weeding is almost completely eliminated. It’s easy to move them around – you can have color where ever you want it, almost instantly. No garden is required – you can grow them on the front steps, the back deck or your apartment balcony. 

One thing I have discovered is that Geraniums HATE wet feet and will not be happy in soggy soil. And with all the rain we’ve been having, that’s all that’s been required in the waterig department to keep ‘her’ happy.

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Ode to the Crow

W&N watercolour done on a textured back-ground by Skeletal Mess on Visual 200gsm

Ode to the crow
that finds its way
to fly straight home
on this most terrible day.
Through gusts of wind it takes flight
through rain and storm
through dark and light.
We cower down at the sight of bad weather
and it lands when its done
not missing a feather.
We act as though the world revolves around us.
yet when the finger is pointed
all we do is gripe and fuss.
we set our traps of jealousy
to capture which we yearn most
A white lie here and a grin of deceit
we are determined to make all
bow down at our feet.
through dust in ash
where all you can hear
is a wallowing cry
I say ode to the crow
that continues to fly.
- Cameron Daniel Brooks

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