Sketching in anything available

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.

- Emily Dickinson

The Red Bishop on my fence post...

I was cleaning up and came upon some old books, so I carried them to the patio with a cup of tea and was busy going through them to decided which ones to throw out, when the Bishop in all his glory caught my eye. The male's buzzing song alerting the female to the nest he's building for her is always the first to alert me of their return. I was so excited to see them that I grabbed one of the books, opened it and started sketching him sitting on the fence post. I then rushed to get some paints and got his colours while he was flitting around, showing off to the female. So now none of the books are being thrown out - I've found a new use for them!

He only carries these colours during the breeding season and in Winter reverts to brown similar to the female, below.

A lazy art Sunday

My art table yesterday

A lazy Sunday - spent the whole day sketching and journaling yesterday - what bliss! - also scanning previous sketches that I hadn't had time to do yet and filing them on my MAC.


My Feint 6-Quire Daily Journal. I mostly use it as my daily thoughts journal, but also do some accompanying sketches. This is yesterday's post.

The above journal entry reads :

"Sunday - 8th November
The Red Bishop is back, dear Journal, and covered in all his breeding finery! On Friday I thought I caught a glimpse of him, but wasn't sure.

"Red Bishop" - 'Euplectus orix nigrifrons Linnaeus'

He was sitting on the Tiger Grass under the Acacia Karroo eyeing the bird bath. Hoped to catch him bathing, but he decided the feeding table was a better option."


Southern Red Bishop - I edited out the writing lines of the Journal

Sketch in Agenda Art Journal

"Exploring space and colour"

I have this old, leather bound, 1997 Agenda Planner that is now filled with watercolour paper cut to size and some of the old note paper, which I use as an art journal. I did the above sketch on one of the note papers to try out a new green I was mixing using Thalo Blue and Burnt Sienna and was quite pleased with how the green turned out. I also experimented with Indigo and Cadmium Yellow on this, which I used on parts of the tree.

I'll use anything I can lay my hands on for sketching and using old diaries and planners is a great, inexpensive way of building up a collection.


Agenda Planner filled with watercolour paper - I used a 6-hole punch to do the holes for the paper.

If you would like to make your own sketch-book in an easy, quick and fun way, go to 'An Artist's Sketchbook to Make'.

What you have

Many of us spend our time wanting and wishing for things we do not have - a new car, a new house, a bigger studio, a holiday home somewhere exotic, new clothes, furniture, etc. And often we do get these things.

Here's the thing - how often have you stopped to be thankful for the things that have come your way? How often have you noticed that you actually received that which you wanted? If it had been on a list, we could have marked it off and seen just how much we do receive and how much we do have to be thankful for.

A Mushroom on my lawn

“I am... a mushroom;

On whom the dew of heaven drops now and then."

- John Ford

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


Field mushroom (Agaricus campestris) 3cm diameter and 4cm tall - in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - Maree©

This mushroom popped through my lawn yesterday and is white with the most gorgeous pink underside and small indented warts on the cap. At the moment it is 1½" in diameter and about 1½" tall - still a baby I think.

After Googling mushrooms, I found that it is an edible field mushroom, (Agaricus campestris) which is related to the edible button mushrooms often used in cooking and salads. But I wouldn't even think of trying to eat it, just in case! There are many similar mushrooms which are deadly.

The cap is white, may have fine scales, and is 5 to 10 centimetres (2.0 to 3.9 in) in diameter; it is first hemispherical in shape before flattening out with maturity. The gills are initially pink, then red-brown and finally a dark brown, as is the spore print. The 3 to 10cm (1.2 to 3.9 in) tall stipe is predominately white and bears a single thin ring. The taste is mild. The white flesh bruises slightly reddish, as opposed to yellow in the inedible (and somewhat toxic) Agaricus xanthodermus and similar, toxic species. The spores are 7–8 by 4–5 µm (micrometre), and ovate. Cheilocystidia are absent.


Field Mushroom (Agaricus campestris)
This common mushroom is edible.
It is related to the edible button mushrooms often used in cooking and salads.
Do not eat any mushrooms you're not sure of!
This info from Hilton College

At Gardening Eden, a nursery in South Africa, one can even buy mushrooms to plant in your garden!

Mushrooms belong neither to the animal nor plant kingdom, but form a phylum all on their own. This is due to the fact that unlike plants, fungi are unable to produce their own food through photosynthesis, as they lack chlorophyll, but resemble animals in their ability to draw their sustenance from animal and plant matter which is dissolved by enzymes and ingested.

Current estimates put the number of species in the fungal kingdom at approximately 1.5 million, in comparison with, for example, flowering plants at 250,000 species.

The role of fungi in the ecosystem is vital. Fungi are one of the largest contributors of the decomposition of organic matter, returning nutrients to the soil, which in turn is utilised to sustain other species of flora and fauna. The majority of the fungi kingdom cannot be seen with the naked eye, and needs to be viewed with a lens or microscope.

The reproduction unit of all fungi is known as the "spore". When this spore lands on a suitable substrate or base, and growth conditions are ideal, it will germinate by sending out a germ tube which becomes attached to the base or substrate.

This tube develops in to the "hyphae", which in turn will expand and develop into a network of hyphal threads, known as "mycelium". This mycelium, hardly ever seen, is the vegetative body of the fungus responsible for its nutrition and formation.

The mycelium will continue to grow and branch throughout the substrate for as long as it can obtain nutrients from it, and conditions of temperature and moisture remain favourable. This mycelium may continue to grow for a long time without forming any sex organs, but once two sexually differentiated mycelia meet, and plasmas of conjugating cells unite, if external conditions are ideal, a "fruit-body" will appear. A mushroom or toadstool etc. pops out of the ground!

(This info from Eco Travel Africa)


(Photo by Pamela Kaminski)

Moleskine - Snail

“The year's at the spring / And day's at the morn; / Morning's at seven; / The hillside's dew-pearled; / The lark's on the wing; / The snail's on the thorn; / God's in his heaven - / All's right with the world!”
- Robert Browning

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


"Snail" pencil sketch and watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - Maree©

Oh my! I found some snails in my garden! They're all over the Agapanthus. One consolation is that there is now plenty to eat for the Thrushes and any passing hedgehogs.

The snails are related to the oyster, the clam, the mussel, the squid and the octopus. All of these animals are called molluscs. More than 30,000 kinds of snails have been described, of which about two-thirds still exist -- about half of them in salt water and the other half in fresh water or on land. The remainder are known only as fossils and, in the limestone quarries around Chicago, we find several kinds-- some as big as your fist-- which have lain buried there since this region was on the floor of the ocean, 150 million years ago.

There are even Graffiti snails roaming London!

Shell shock: One snail has shell graffiti

Most people have to shell out to give their homes a makeover – not so for these multi-coloured molluscs.

The flashy snails have had their drab shells given a paint job for nothing – and they didn't even have to move a muscle.

A London artist, known only as Slinkachu, has used the molluscs' shells for a series of designs dubbed 'Inner City Snail – a slow-moving street art project'.

FROM METRO UK

Bapedi Woman

“For tribal man space was the uncontrollable mystery. For technological man it is time that occupies the same role.”
- Marshall McLuhan

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


"Bapedi Woman" watercolour on Ashrad 200gsm - Maree©

Chrissie, my gardener, above, is from mixed Pedi and Coloured stock.

Pedi, (also known as Bapedi, Bamaroteng, Marota, Basotho, Northern Sotho - in its broadest sense, has been a cultural/linguistic term. It was previously used to describe the entire set of people speaking various dialects of the Sotho language who live in the northern Transvaal of South Africa. More recently, the term "Northern Sotho" has replaced "Pedi" to characterize this loose collectivity of groups.

Estimated at 7 million, these Sotho speakers are the second largest African language group in South Africa. Three million Sotho and other closely related groups live outside of South Africa, the majority of who are in Lesotho.

Although the Pedi originated from the Bakgatla and were of Sotho origin, their inter-marriage with other tribes by defeating them, ended up in the application of many other words in the Pedi language and customs which are not of Sotho origin, but which are akin to the Venda and Lovedu and the Karanga from Zimbabwe.

The Sotho can be subdivided into three groups. The first group is the Northern Sotho also called Pedi and Bapedi.



The Pedi society arose out of a confederation of small chiefdoms that had been established sometime before the 17th century in what later became the Northern Transvaal (Northern Province). Defeated early in the 19th century by the armies of Mzilikazi, they revived under the leadership of Sekwati. Thereafter, they repeatedly clashed with the Voortrekkers during the later half of the 19th century.



It appears that the Sotho people migrated southward from the Great Lakes in Central Africa about 5 centuries ago in successive waves and the last group, namely, the Hurutse, settled in the Western Transvaal towards the beginning of the 16th century.

It is from this group that the Pedi eventually originated through the Bakgatla offshoot that takes its name from the chief Mokgatla. Very little is known of the history of the Bakgatla people for the first few generations after their founder Mokgatla had withdrawn from the originating group, but it is known that, arising from a further split at a later date, a chief by the name of Tabane left with his followers and settled at what is now known as Schilpadfontein in the vicinity of Pretoria.

Now here's the interesting part - It is not known how long they lived there, but Tabane appears to have been succeeded by his son Motsha, whose son and heir Diale (or Liale) had a number of wives, the youngest of whom was his favourite, Mathobele. The other wives were jealous of her favoured position and when she was expecting her first child they would tease and mock her; saying that her child cried whilst still in her womb.

Mathobele gave birth to a healthy boy, and named him 'Lellelateng' meaning 'it cries inside', but the unusual event was attributed to witchcraft and the Kgatla council, wanted to kill the mother and child. Diale interceded for them and they were both saved.

However, as the baby grew older it became apparent that he would not be accepted by the tribe, and it seems that he and his family, together with a large following, broke away or were driven away and trekked to the east with their flocks and herds to start the Pedi nation.

South African Grasses 1

Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the Earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know - the Earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the Earth. This we know.
- Chief Seattle

My daily sketch...


South African Grasses
"Restio - Thamnochortus sp" - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

One of the Restios or Cape Reeds, Thamnochortus lucens, is very common in the Western Cape mountains. It grows well in dry, gravelly slopes and is often in small populations or locally dominant. The plants grow tufted on a short rhizome, often with tangled sterile clusters of culms at the base. Grows to 50 cm. There is quite a difference between the male and female plants - the sketch above is a male.

The beautiful Thamnochortus genus have 13 species and most of its members grow well in coastal areas at the beach. Some species are very large and are commonly used to thatch houses. T. insignis is commonly used for this purpose because of its very long culms. One species, T. nutans is the exception and is only found 600m above sea level. It is endemic to Table Mountain and the Constantia berg.


Female Thamnochortus lucens.


Restio stems

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Painting Wildlife in a Game Park

Gathering your own reference materials, sketches and using your own imagination is going to help you grow as an artist far more than stealing someone else's work.
- Bonnie Hamline


"Impala" watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

It was last during 2004, when I visited the Krugersdorp Game Reserve, that I had painted any wild animals plein air, but in January 2009 I re-visited the Game Lodge, taking my paints with me, and managed to find the Impala herd quite close to the road, which allowed me to capture a group that were standing close together. The rest of the herd on the right-hand side of the picture are not included, as my scanner could not take the large sketch.

Also see Painting Wildlife

Velvet Spider

If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.

~American Quaker Saying

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


Black Velvet Spider - pencil sketch and watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketch-book

This black Velvet Spider has lived in the bark of an old log in my garden for approximately 2 years now and she lets me coax her out for photographic sessions every now and then. These spiders are robust and deliberate in the way that they walk and she even allows me to gently stroke her abdomen and thorax, which is covered in thick, smooth, velvety hairs.

The velvet spiders (family Eresidae) are a small group (about 100 species in 10 genera) of almost totally Old World spiders (exception: a few species are known from Brazil).

Velvet spiders are found under rocks or bark resting in a sheet of dense white silk and are often confused with baboon spiders. They can live up to 5 years. Free living but rarely leave the safety of their webs.



Description: 12mm to 15mm in length. These robust spiders colouration may be from black, grey or a rich red. Body covered with hairs which give them a velvety appearance, hence their name. The abdomen is often lighter in colour than the rest of the spider. Abdomen may have 4 dimples on the top. The eyes are close together and the mouthparts are very robust looking for a spider that size. Legs are short and strong and they are widespread throughout Southern Africa.

Web: These spiders build their webs under rocks, under loose bark. Their retreats consist of flat candy floss like dry sheets of silk. The silk is tough and has interwoven prey remains. Their nest-like webs are attached to the ground using silken anchor lines. Silken lines radiate from the entrance to their shelters. These lines are used to detect prey.

Venom: Even though these spiders can be large in size they very rarely bite. Not much is known about the affects of their venom. It is highly unlikely that this spider’s venom is of importance to humans.

Notes: Females seldom leave their webs in order to hunt. Instead, they prefer to wait for prey to wander into their webs and radiating silken lines. They prey upon tough skinned insects and other large prey items.