Friends

Just before Christmas our outdoor group was painting at the eco village of Oude Molen. 

While we were there, a group of youngsters from the next door area came by to exercise the horses.  They run down to the river with them and then walk back and allow them to browse until they go back to their holding area.

These horses belong to the children of wealthier Capetonions and locating them at Oude Molen provides income for the locals and the village itself.

I took this pic as they walked past my painting spot and have wanted to paint it for some time.  Now that I finally have, I'm not that happy with it.  I think I spent too long a time on it and tried to get it 'perfect' thereby losing the looseness that I so desperately want.  Photographing it was also not the easiest.

Anyway, here it is - I've called it Friends.

I'm going the apologise to all the wonderful bloggers I visit regularly.  I've been absent and will be a bit busy for the next 7 days as I've got the job as 'Official Sitter' at the current South African Society of Artists exhibition at Kirstenbosch.  Despite not having qualified for this exhibition, it's a job I enjoy doing as you get to see all that great art and meet many wonderful artists and art lovers.  But I'll be back on my computer in bits and pieces during the period.  Then I will have to paint again so I have something to post!

A Palette Knife Bluebird

I was totally bowled over by the response to my American Robin and all your comments have inspired me to try my hand at some more birds!  I'm just a bit scared that I won't live up to the Robin and be a total disappointment.

So, instead of posting a brush painting of a bird, I did it with a palette knife. 

First time working an entire painting with a palette knife.  Our Friday group decided it was palette knife day and we were shown the nitty gritty by artist Heather Selby who paints with us.  I must say that I did enjoy it, but I think I'm really a brush painter.  It's kind of nice finding out where your interests lie by constantly trying new things!

So, this is my Eastern Bluebird, also from the USA and from James Parker's Windows to the Word blog.

(This is taking a heck of a long time to dry!!)

An American Robin

Wonderful James Parker has done it again.  Given us a choice of some wonderful pictures to paint - this time of birds.

And already he's had a stack of paintings to post on his blog, Windows to the Words.

This is my contribution.  The American Robin, which looks totally different to our smaller Cape Robin and very different to the English Robin that I saw many years ago.

Zoë

This is my friend Wendy's daughter, Zoë.

What an absolute delight to paint this picture of her.  She was so unaware of the camera, concentrating on what someone else was saying - I always think that these are the best photos to paint. 

Zoë is about 6 months younger than my grandson and an absolute delight.  Highly intelligent and so quick - a typical Leo!  This painting of her is a gift to her Mom.

 

It's been so hot here that my art room has turned into a sauna!  Hence the week gap between posts.

In one of my previous posts, I put up a charcoal sketch of a horse skull.  Wonderful artist Carol Horzempa left a lovely comment on my blog saying that it reminded her of Georgia O'Keeffe.  Strange, I thought.  Then the next Friday, the skull's owner, Barbara, brought in a photostat copy of the Georgia O'Keeffe painting and it was almost exactly the same!  It was the first time I'd seen the painting - luckily Barbara's skull was a bit battered and bent so you can see the differences.  Just to prove that there was no copyright infringement, here is another sketch, done from a different angle, of the skull.