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 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. 
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.
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.
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!
