Season's Greetings 2012!

 

The magic of Christmas is in the air and New Year is just round the corner. It’s the perfect time to take a break from work and cherish the warmth of the season. Hope you have a wonderful festive season and for those travelling, be safe!

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Steal an hour

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 300gsm

As the year draws to a close - steal an hour to reflect on the beauty of Nature.

When breezes are soft and skies are fair,
I steal an hour from study and care,
And hide me away to the woodland scene,
Where wanders the stream with waters of green.

Yet, fair as thou art, thou shunnest to glide,
Beautiful stream! By the village side;
But windest away from haunts of men,
To quiet valley and shaded glen;
And forest, and meadow, and slope of hill,
Around thee, are lonely, lovely, and still,
Lonely—save when, by thy rippling tides,
From thicket to thicket the angler glides,
Or the Simpler comes, with basket and book,
For herbs of power on thy banks to look;
Or haply, some idle dreamer, like me,
To wander, and muse, and gaze on thee.
^UNKNOWN

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A Crow's dream

W & N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Coco, my Black Crow (Corvus capensis) having a dream

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To build a nest
with twigs unrest
lying here, lying there
to lay some eggs
and breed some chicks
to teach them how to click
to swing in the branches
and spy through the arches
to bathe in the puddles
all cool bathed rooms
in search of green woods
fully loaded with ripened fruits
all life did I stood
for life and livelihood
my nest my homes
one for one crow-hus
same straws yet new nest
next time I breast
sweet life, luxurious breeze
small problems everything within reach
friends of mine
plenty and more
we dine together
that is where we gather
we dirt eat to purify the earth
our souls divine burn the heaps holy
Yet I dream of cages untold
where parrots feed on milk and grains
mellow fruits are ripe and ready
anytime to taste without buddies.
 ^{lalitha iyer}

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The beauty of Autumn

W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm 

Autumn is a beautiful time of year for personal reflection and coming to terms with our position in life. There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough to pay attention to the story ...

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A Murder of Crows

One crow, sorrow, 

two crows, joy, 

three crows for a girl, 

four crows for a boy, 

five crows for silver, 

six crows for gold, 

seven crows for a secret that's never been told.

 - Ashe Corven 

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

- practice, practice, practice! 

A collection of crow sketches done on a free Textured back-ground from Boccacino - first I print out the texture on watercolour paper and then paint the sketches on top of that. 

Although cultures around the world may regard the crow as a scavenger, bad omen, or simply a nuisance, this bad reputation might overshadow what could be regarded as the crow’s most striking characteristic – its intelligence. 

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The True nature of Peace

Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. 

- Walt Whitman 

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 300gsm 

A peaceful scene in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa). 

For me, total peace is to be found in nature – the biggest problem seems to dissipate in the face of the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset, the birds singing, or while walking in the rain… And as you lose yourself in the moment, you realise that this Peace is the natural radiation of Living in the Now, seeing only the Present and nothing of the Past or the Future.

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What will I find?

Driving up one of the gravel roads in and around our area always fills me with expectation - what will I find over the horison? Neat, green fields? A little stream? Or some antelope crossing the road? I can't remember how many times I've been blessed with some wonderful finds, a Hedgehog sprinting for the cover of grass, a Duiker quickly leading it's fawn back to the safety of the trees, a Kestrel sitting on a fence post devouring its prey.

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Windpomp in the Karoo

Ink sketch and watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm 

A depiction of a ‘windpomp’ (windmill) in the Karoo. They are such a part of our countryside here in South Africa and they play a specially important part in dry areas like the Karoo where both humans and animals are very dependent on them for water. 

These windmills extract the life blood of the earth and it is usually poured into a cement dam close-by the windpomp. Many farm children swim in these cement dams on sweltering days and I have seen flocks of Egyptian Geese taking a quick, cool dip on their way to somewhere.

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View across the road

'I open my eyes and see the world in a new light. I view everything as if I were a child seeing a freshly opened flower for the first time.'

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm heavy-duty sketching paper 

The view across the road from my studio – I stare at this every day, and every day I am amazed at the different play of colours on the landscape….

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Morning pleasures

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. 

- E. B. White 

 'Morning' - W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 300gsm

It is SUCH a pleasure waking up to sunshine at 5am in the morning after months of darkness until about 6.30am. Getting up early is one of my long-standing habits and when my biological clock wakes me up at 4am on a cold winter's morning, still pitch black outside, it upsets my whole day because I can't carry my first cup of steamy coffee out onto the patio to greet the day. And early morning really is one of the great pleasures of the day, when only the birds are chatting to a still half-asleep world.

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