JUST ME :: and a stack of blank pages

:: Living creatively ::

About me

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play. The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is. I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

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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Friday, May 3, 2013

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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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

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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Sunday, April 28, 2013

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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Monday, April 22, 2013

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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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

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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Saturday, April 6, 2013

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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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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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Friday, March 8, 2013

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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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

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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