Shadow Dance

Every now and then, one has a favourite painting which replaces the previous favourite painting!

This one was taken from a pic posted on Dana Marie's Inspiration all Around Us blog - she really takes the most amazing photographs and I would encourage everyone to have a look!

There was something so peaceful about this photo and the colours were so appealing.  Hope you like it.

Have a fabulous 2010 everyone!  Winter Olympics in Canada, FIFA World Cup in South Africa - should be a funfilled year!

Oude Molen

I think this is going to be the last of the plein air for this year for me - after all, it's holiday time and it's Christmas and New Year and there's cricket to watch ... so much activity at this time of the year.  But the group will get together again round the middle of January, although where we'll be going, I don't know!  A wait and see experience.

This little painting (9"x12" is little for me!) was again done at Oude Molen, but boy was the wind doing its thing.  I was all ready to give up, but these die hard plein airheads said, no, it's part of the atmosphere.  So, if you look closely, you will see all the dust and dirt that now decorates my painting!  I guess once it's dry, I will be able to brush it off.

Last week I painted the back of the little shop, so this week, here is the front!

To all those who celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful day tomorrow, and to everyone else, enjoy the holiday season.

Plein Air - Again!

Summer is definitely here!

We have had some blazing hot days and with the school holidays in full swing, I am off the teaching hook and merrily trying to paint the days away.  Unfortunately yesterday and today, cricket interfered - the first three days of the first 5day test against England.  So very little was done.

But I have been trying (again!) to do the plein air thing.  Some time ago I did a watercolour of our special Table Mountain from a friend's upstairs lounge, and last week did the same scene again, this time in oils.

Then I was very brave and went out into the open (yes Rob Ijbema, I am trying to let Mother Nature teach me!), armed with sunhat, sun lotion factor 40, water and painting paraphernalia!   Went with a group of regular plein airheads to Oude Molen, an eco village/farm/horse place with an incredible history, that overlooks the Liesbeek River and M5 highway, but more importantly, has an incredible view of Devil's Peak, the part of Table Mountain on the left hand side.   I will try and paint the mountain, probably next Tuesday when we go out again, but last week did the back of the eco shop/restaurant whilst standing amongst the strawberries.

 

And the week before, as a test run, just sketched this sunflower in full bloom.

Meagen Mendoza - Latin American Dancer

This is a beautiful American dancer who said I could paint one of her pictures.

Her name is Meagen Mendoza and if you love dancing and dancers, click on her name to see the original photograph from which this was done.

I hope I have done you justice Meagen, and thank you for letting me use the pic.

Again, I had trouble photographing this painting, but Dean from Deano's Den has given me many tips and this one is to thin down the darks.  I didn't have this info in time for this painting, but will certainly give it a try in the future.  Thank you Dean. 

Air Travel aka Business Class

Karen Jurick posts the most incredible pictures for us to paint on her challenge blog.  The last one was of the airport travellers, which I did, and completed in time!  I even put it up at a local competition and was placed 13th (out of 65) for it!

BUT, and it is a huge but, no matter where I stood, no matter how hard I tried, I just could not get the glare out of the darks on the photograph.  Even with Dean's tips of indoors with a shield - nothing!

Ja,well,no,fine! as we say in this part of the world.  This problem had to be solved somehow, because I really loved the pic.

So here it is, in charcoal!  Black and white, no glary oil paint - maybe I'll try it in watercolour next!

A Home Wanted

As I haven't done anything for DARG for a while now, and as they have so many new dogs and cats up for adoption, I thought I must really do another painting.

This is Sledge.  He is a cross Husky something and was apparently abandoned by his owner.

It always amazes me how human beings can be so callous about their fellow creatures.  We domesticate them to such a degree that they become totally reliant on us for all their needs, and then idiots like this owner decide they don't want them anymore!

I believe we share this beautiful planet with our fellow creatures and our intellect does not give us dominion and lording rights over them.

I hope Sledge finds someone who will care for him.

My Prize

Yesterday I picked up my wonderful prize for coming second in James Parker's  Windows to the Words challenge blog!

All the way from the USA, arriving safely in Cape Town (we never know whether anything will get to its destination or not!), here are the two marvellous paintings - the hummingbird is a tiny little painting which will sit next to me in my art room.

Thank you James!

 

Quinces and Walnuts

My computer was non functional for 3 days this week.  Our single, state run telecommunications service took its own sweet time about restoring lines in our area, and my service provider was not amused when I asked her if I needed to take up writing letters and using the post office again!  Absolutely no sense of humour.

And with Summer finally here, life seems to get very active, so not much painting gets done.

I did, however, manage to paint from a rather nice pic taken from Dana Marie's Inspiration all Around us blog, of quinces and nuts - I called them walnuts - I think that's what they are.

Now she has another amazing pic posted, so hopefully I will get to that one in the next week! 

Koi

Another challenge I was late for, and I submitted the pic for painting!

I just can't seem to make deadlines.  After spending all that time in the advertising industry where deadlines are sacrosanct, I have fallen off the wagon.

This one was for the blog, Inspiration all Around Us - one of the newer challenge blogs, but one where Dana Marie posts some really magnificent pictures.  Check it out.

These koi were part of the a household where my sister was housesitting.  The other 'residents' were three dogs, a cat and a parrot.  I don't think the fish presented any problems!

I have just bought a new camera - very nice indeed.  But oh, technology is defeating me!  It has a nice new SDHC 4gb card which I discovered my computer can't read (or find, or whatever it does).  So the last couple of paintings I've done are sitting inside the camera, unable to see light of day.  This also means I will be late for any other challenges out there!  Sigh ...

Contemplation

This is my favourite painting at the moment.  I loved the intense white of her dress against the dark background. 

But oh my, was it difficult to photograph!  The shine on the background was a nightmare and no matter which way I turned it or where I placed it, there was this horrible bluey sheen!  We have had cloudy weather here and even in the early morning with this cloud cover, nothing worked. 

So it was off to the local art shop for a tin of re-touch varnish and that seemed to do the trick.  The shine of the varnish seemed to counteract the shine of the paint, and this is the best result I could get.

Watercolour, flower, and portrait

I have decided that I'm not a watercolourist. I love the medium and will probably persevere simply because I'm stubborn (and have a lot of watercolour paint!) but my attempts will surely remain just that - attempts.

I look at artists like Fabio Cembranelli who paints flowers in watercolour like an absolute angel and then I dare to post my couple of flowers in a pot! Cheek of it, but I thought, it's one of very few watercolours that I will be putting up. I need to practice!



Whilst on the watercolour theme, I tried a portrait as well! (Pushing my luck here). Not too bad, but still on the overworked side.

Eudith is a lovely lady with a beautiful smile who works as a housekeeper/cleaner for a number of people. She works like a demon and when I asked to take her picture, she didn't want to smile. She did eventually, but I did the one she liked first.

Bushman of the Kalahari

I have mislaid a week of my life!

Not really, but that's what it feels like. I was sitting at the SASA Annual Exhibition at Kirstenbosch last week until Thursday, then Friday first thing, it was on the 'plane to Johannesburg for a friend's daughter's wedding. Only got back last night, so have done nothing with a brush for over a week!

This painting is of a Bushman, one of those incredible hunter gatherer people who are the original inhabitants of this country. They owned no land (they believe only God owns the land) and lived off it in much the same way the Aboriginal people of Australia and the Red Indians in America did.

Their ability to live in desert conditions is amazing and in this painting he is using his bow and arrow as a musical instrument.

The Bushmen, often referred to as the San or the generic term Khoisan, are the remnants of Africa's oldest cultural group, genetically the closest surviving people to the original Homo-Sapien core from which the Negro emerged. They are small in stature generally with light yellowish skin, which wrinkles very early in life. Despite the later massive expansion of the pastoral and agrarian tribal cultures, those Bushman groups that utilised environments that were unsuitable for farming, survived until fairly recently with a high level of genetic purity.

Insomnia

I did so enjoy painting this one, but I battled with the photograph.

I picked up on Dean's tip of using black gesso and then just painting with Prussian blue/Cad red and a bit of white mixed in in varying degrees.

Painting the negative shapes was a total challenge and sometimes I had to double back and constantly check where I was going with those tree shadows.

But the title! I finally settled on Insomnia, but am not 100% happy with it. Anyone got any other suggestions?

Autumn

I keep finding these wonderful challenge blogs, and the latest on my list is Dana Marie's Inspiration all Around us. That is where I got my last posted painting of the horse from .

Dana Marie runs her blog a little differently in that you have to do your own posts. All you do is email her and she lets you have the details, and off you go!

This is the latest one from the blog - just a reminder of Autumn to all of you living in the Northern Hemisphere!



Oh I'm as pleased as Punch and so honoured! The inimitable James Parker, who lives in Texas, has a wicked sense of humour, also runs a challenge blog called Windows to the Words.

Last month he posted pictures of cats and my drawing of Michelle's Figaro was given 2nd place and a prize to boot!Thank you James, for doing what you do, and being who you are.

Brown Horse

Last night at our painting class, my wonderful teacher, Margie Johnson, pushed the envelope and told me I needed to free up! Ok, I agree - it's something I've been trying to do, with very little or no success.

So, a beautiful picture of a horse from Dana Marie's challenge blog, Inspiration all Around Us, was the subject of choice. I know this was an old challenge, so I hope Dana Marie doesn't mind me using it now.

Painting this lovely animal also reminded me of Maree, a fellow South African, who has just done the most amazing sketches of horses. Have a look.

For a typical neat Capricorn, it was almost teeth pulling to blur the outlines, especially of the back of the horse, but I think I did it.

Anyway, I kind of like the result! Would love to know the thoughts out there.

Michelle's Cat

I never knew until I saw Gwen Bell's painting, that this is Michelle Burnett's beautiful cat, Figaro.

This is part of James Parker's challenge blog - some of the cats he put up for this challenge were great, but I do think Michelle's cat came out as the number one choice for many.

This is my painting of him.

Tiggy and Selection Day

This is a painting done for a friend whose little dog, Tiggy is very special.

She's quite elderly but I am greeted with such enthusiasm by both her and her 'sister' Abby.

I just love Tiggy's whiskers and the way she looks so poised, almost as if she was deliberately posing for the photograph.

Yesterday (Saturday - it is now early Sunday morning here in SA) was a hectic day. We had our society selection day for our Annual Exhibition which is held at the Sanlam Hall in the beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens. I am on the South African Society of Artists (SASA) committee and besides running around from one end of the hall to the other, was responsible for the computer work! Me, who's not that fantastic with computers, is deemed to be the computer expert! Oh dear.

It all went very well even though it was a long day and we had just short of 600 paintings submitted, a record. The judges were put through their paces, and it was a fascinating experience watching their marks. There are three judges and each judge gives his or her own mark without knowing what the others are doing. Apparently this works in England and we have adopted it here.

I was lucky enough to have one painting submitted, my still life, but the other two didn't make the cut. Maybe next year.

Old House in Lisbon

This is for Bill Guffey's challenge this month - Lisbon. I searched and searched and eventually found this old run down looking farmhouse type building (and yes, it is in Lisbon) that I thought was rather nice to paint.

I struggled a bit and feel it's not quite as I would like it, but I've sent it off anyway.

Another problem is the photography! My trusty old camera died. So now I've had to use a 'cheap and nasty' that my sister has. But that's no excuse, I just took lousy pictures! So if it seems a little bit blurry, it is, don't check your specs.

Cup Cakes

I don't often do the paintings from Karin's blog because I always seem to be so slow - never finishing in time to send to her.

But these cup cakes were irresistible! To paint, that is. I don't really like cakes of any kind to eat - I find them too sweet. I prefer salty and spicy foods and love the food of the East, from India through to China.

I know many of you are going to think I'm nuts for not liking these sugary delicacies, but that leaves all the more for you out there!

Hammersmith Bridge

The last time I spent any time in London was almost two years ago! Time goes by so quickly.

It was in the colder month of November. It was quite a shock coming from our really lovely sunny Summer weather to hit the streets of London at close to 5 deg C. But no matter what the weather, London is a place that I really do enjoy.

And by total coincidence, last month's challenge on the Google Earth site , The Virtual Paintout run by wonderful artist, Bill Guffey, was ... London! So my immediate reaction was to google where I went when I was last there, and one of the nicest sites was riding on the number 9 bus over the Hammersmith Bridge.

It is an incredible bridge - yes I know Tower Bridge is the one that is associated with London and beheadings and all that! but the little known Hammersmith Bridge has such lovely markings and old fashioned lights and all the little English quirks that we've come to expect.

Next time you're in London, take the no. 9 bus just for a trip to Hammersmith Bridge.

Catherine Irene

Meet the newest addition to my family, Catherine Irene. She was born 7 days after I left Sweden, so I have never actually seen her in 'real' life, only through Skype!

This is painted from one of two pictures the family sent me and I think she's gorgeous! (But I am biased as well).

About the leaves and flowers in her hair. Midsummer is a national holiday in Scandinavia and they celebrate by dancing around maypoles and doing all sorts of wonderful summer holiday things. The girls dress in white and put garlands of flowers in their hair, so Catherine joined in the party, although she's only four months old at this stage.

Kiera

This is Kiera. She is a 4 year old cross Pitbull whose best activity is to watch TV on the couch with some biscuits to munch!

Kiera is a DARG dog, and according to DARG, she's a great companion, bonds well with people, is love-starved and is a real softie. I guess that's quite hard to believe from a Pitbull, given the bad reputation they've got over the years.

But like all protective breeds, if they're treated properly, they will be great companions. The Pitbull reputation has been brought about by unscrupulous owners using them for fighting purposes. So, there is no such creature as a bad dog, only a BAD OWNER.

I hope she finds the loving home she so deserves.

Carlos

Carlos is an elderly gentleman(dog) who lives in an historic house in Constantia, one of the first wineland areas established in the Western Cape.

My sister was doing her dog/housesitting with Carlos and two of his pals whilst their mom went overseas to the UK.

I met him when she brought him round for a visit. He is practically blind and quite deaf, but he still loves life, and very definitely, FOOD. Put your hand near him and it's snuffle, snuffle, looking for tidbits to eat.

I don't think he's going to be with us for much longer, but as his doctor says, he's happy and in no pain, so let him enjoy his twilight years in the luxurious comforts of the Constantia greenbelt.

Christina in Oils

I feel that this past week I've had my fingers cut off! No computer! It has been in the computer hospital under observation for a computer virus.

But all better now and I am spending an incredible amount of time going through all the postings that I've missed. It is sometimes better to wait a while and then get an eyeful of all the wonderful work out there - sensory overload!

So, in order to make my 'come back', I thought I would post a painting I did from one of the sketches in our life drawing group a month ago. I will also be putting this up at the end of the month for our annual Life Drawing and Landscape competition which is held by our local Art Society, South African Society of Artists. No selling, just judging by our peers! Nerve wracking!

It was posted a while ago, but here is the original charcoal sketch that this was done from.

The Masters and Flowers

I didn't take part in last month's Masters Challenge, the terrific blog run by Michelle Burnett.

But this month I thought I would do something. Even though I'm not mad about painting flowers - (I leave that to the immensely talented artist from Texas, Nancy Medina) - there is one artist whose flower paintings I really admire.

Georgia O'Keeffe's work is always a pleasure to look at. One day I hope I will get the opportunity to see her works in person, but until then, all I do is admire.

This is my version of her 1926 work, Black Pansy. Although this was painted more than 50 years ago, O'Keeffe only died fairly recently, thus I can admire and emulate, but this painting will be for my own space.

Hope you like what I've done to this wonderful American artist's work.

Winter at Velddrift

One of the aspects of painting that I still hesitate doing, is plein air painting. I need photo references. Sad, but true. Maybe one day I'll take all my oil painting paraphernalia and set up somewhere in the surrounding countryside. Until then, it's photo references!

This was taken by a friend who paints with our group every Friday. He is lucky enough to have a holiday house up the West Coast in a fishing area called Velddrift. His is one of 3 houses in the area and this is the view from his front 'garden'.

Winter in the Cape, and especially up the West Coast, has it's own bleek kind of beauty. A Winter rainfall area, everything seems wet and damp, but the water brings out the most glorious colours when the sun shines.

But wait! About 3 weeks ago, I did try a plein air piece. This was done from a friend's house in Tableview. She has the most magnificent view of the vlei, which is home to an incredible amount of birdlife, leading through to this panorama of Table Mountain. The day we were there, the clouds danced in and out and around the mountain, first hiding then revealing this beautiful mountain we live with every wonderful day. I don't think I've done it justice, but there it is, my plein air piece!

Copper Reflections

Still life is not my first subject choice, but every now and then there is this urge to try my hand.

Brilliant New York artist, Susan Martin Spar, always posts the most incredible still life paintings. So I thought, let me try again. With a bit of help from a fellow artist (we were lucky enough to use our wonderful teacher, Margie Johnson's studio while she was visiting her son in Australia), we set up this grouping.

I think I really wanted to try again because of the incredible reflections in the copper kettle. A spare bottle of red wine was found to round off the setting, which we promptly drank when I had finished.

Waiting Patiently

It's been a while since I did anything for Karin Jurick's wonderful DSFDF blog, but love this guy sitting on his chair outside the office. I have called it 'Waiting Patiently' because it reminded me so much of all our refugees from Zimbabwe and points north, waiting and waiting outside the home office to get refugee status papers from our veeerrry sloooow government department.

I am not 100% happy with it and think I need to tone down the background somewhat, but because I've sent it on to Karin (hopefully in the correct format!) I thought I would post him here as well.

I have also been honoured with another award by the incredible animal portrait artist, Karie-Ann Cooper who lives an idyllic life in rural England! It is the Premio Meme Award and to be honoured in this way by this amazing artist is humbling.

I will in time, think of things to say about me that I haven't already said on my blog, although what Karie-Ann said about herself rings a lot of bells with me. Rather than send it on to individual people, I would dedicate this award to all those wonderful people I interact with on my blog - last count 76! All you amazingly talented artists out there, this one is for you!

Saundra's ... goose!

I had forgotten that I had painted this picture of Saundra's goose (or she thought it may be a duck!) because it was done in about 2 hours as opposed to my usual 2 weeks!

It presented such a wonderful pose that just begged to be put into paint, and as everyone who reads my blog knows by now, I love all animals, this delightful goose being no exception. Not that I'd tempt fate by going too near any goose as they are known to be rather fierce watch..geese! Probably better than my two rather soppy Rottweilers!

So here he/she is - Saundra's feathered friend!

Saundra's Shadow

A couple of weeks ago, wonderful artist, Saundra Lane Galloway, posted a pic of her beloved cat, Shadow. Her heart is still sore after all this time about losing Shadow and she hasn't yet brought herself to paint him, but decided to put Shadow's picture up for others to paint.

Although I am a 'dog' person, I still love all animals, and Shadow looked so sweet lying on the sofa without a care in the world, I decided to have a go. (Go to Saundra's post on the story of Shadow)

It is such a shame that our much loved pets only stay with us for a short time, but maybe they teach us that life is fleeting and to be enjoyed while we can.

A Life Drawing Experience!

This is one time that I really envy my counterparts in Europe, England and America - the fact that you seem to have so many art teachers and art opportunities that we don't have in our little corner of Africa. But every now and then there is a little glimmer and we need to grab it with both hands.

Over the past four weeks we have had life drawing classes (I couldn't make the first two), but while America was enjoying a July 4th holiday and Europe and the UK were basking in Summer sunshine, we were bundled up, heaters going full blast trying to keep the model, Christina, warm.

The opportunities for classes such as life drawing are limited here and I only know of one or two (private) groups that have models regularly for classes. So for me it was a totally new and wonderful experience, something that I hopefully will repeat in the very near future.

These are sketches from the first Saturday - I haven't yet taken photos of yesterday's class.

25 minute sketch, 5 minute sketch and (lower) 15 minute sketch

55 minute sketch

An Old Guy

Talk about getting through as the gate closes!

James Parker, that inimitable artist from Texas has his own challenge blog. For the month of June he decided to post 'Wrinklies' and what a wonderful subject! Nothing like the character in those facial lines of old folk, and because I'm heading in that direction, I like the idea of trumpeting those face maps.

But the deadline for sending it to him is TODAY. Luckily I'm quite a few hours ahead of the States, so I should just make it.

From tomorrow he will posting pics of doggies - one of my favourite subjects - check it out.

Here's my June 'Wrinkly' with a bit of a glare from the wet paint.

Two Donkeys

Four months ago I took a two month break from watercolour painting. That was the last thing I should have done as I am now really struggling with my watercolours.

I love the medium but freely admit that oils are my preferred choice. But the discipline and clarity of watercolours will always attract. As a result I have spent ages on paintings, only to tear them up in frustration. Overworking again and again, even though I know I'm doing it but can't help it!

But if nothing else, I'm stubborn and will persevere until I get better at it. After all, isn't that what art is about?

This comes from a photograph taken in the Baviaanskloof area - there was a handler in the picture, but I just concentrated on the donkeys.

A Dog called Khaya

Another painting of a young dog from DARG.

Khaya and her companion, were left to fend for themselves and were picked up wandering on the N7 highway just outside Cape Town (the main West Coast Road). Both youngsters, Khaya is a cross Husky Lab, were obviously just dumped as people become less and less able to feed and care for them.

An unusual name, Khaya is the Zulu (and Xhosa) word for 'home'. And the good news is that both Khaya and her "sister", Ujo, have just been adopted. I'm hoping that the new owners will donate to DARG for Khaya's portrait. Fingers crossed!

A South African Master

Well, I think I've finally made a deadline. It's been a bit of a sweat as I haven't painted for 9 days whilst on duty at our annual SA Society of Artists Members Exhibition. But here it is. This is my entry to the Masters Challenge blog run by Michelle Burnett and she certainly challenged me with this one.

Although I find landscapes quite daunting, I had no trouble at all in selecting one of my favourite South African artists to copy.

Pierneef (full name is Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef) has always been immensely appealing in his rather 'different', geometric way of portraying the landscape of our country. His love of the land shows through in all his work, a love, I guess, that is shared by most of us Africans.

This one is entitled Bushveld Autumn Landscape and was painted in 1943. I did check that I was within the copyright limits of 50 years; Pierneef died in 1957.

Latecomer

I've been housesitting for the past 2 weeks and have done very little painting as a result.  In addition I never made the deadlines for Karin's DSDF Diana challenge, nor the one for the Masters Challenge.

I did finish the Companion of Diana e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y, but have to confess that I'm nowhere near finished the Masters one.

This is my version of Diana's companion (I'm not even going anywhere near the Manhattan taxis!)

Daphne

Meet Daphne.   She is one of the older residents at DARG, the animal rescue group that I have done a couple of paintings for.  

This initiative, which was started by Sheila and Carrie, has taken on a life of its own in the USA. Hopefully it will progress to other countries across the world.

Daphne has been with DARG for some time now, and the hopes of her being re-homed are quite remote.  It is scary the number of animals that are 'discarded' by people - they currently have a whole host of puppies that have been rescued and one puppy pitbull that is deaf.

I always feel so sad when I see the faces of all these lost animals.  Thank goodness for organisations like DARG and thank goodness for people like Sheila and Carrie who give people like me an opportunity to help them.

Nelleka

It's incredible to think that it's May already. It seems that it was only a few short weeks ago that it was the beginning of the year! It's been said that time moves faster the older you get - I guess I know where I stand now.

It also seems just a few days ago that I last posted on my blog, but it was actually a week and half. The time that I have seems to be taken up with all sorts of 'other' things, like going to cricket to watch the Indian Premier League.

May also heralds the advent of winter and the days this week have been decidedly chillier. Today, however, was the exception - beautiful and sunny and absolutely perfect for gardening.

But I did manage to finish another painting from the 'Forgotton Portraits of a People' article that appeared in the Sunday Argus last year. It was also taken in 1864. The first one I did was of Mickie, the rather sad Khoikhoi from Harrismith in the Orange Free State.

This one is of a 'transport rider' called Nelleka who came from an area in the Eastern Cape formerly known as British Kaffraria. It doesn't say what nationality he is, but it is likely that coming from that area, he would be of Xhosa descent. Like Mickie, what struck me was the sadness in his eyes but I also think he had an extremely beautiful face.