Still Life

I'm not a still life painter, but these are little ones done in a few hours.  And I really enjoyed doing them!  Lucky for me, they sold as well at the last exhibition.

Soft Shadows

Daisies in Silver

Pincushion Protea

This is one of the many protea species indigenous to the Western Cape.  This particular one was found in the Noordhoek area.  The best place to see all our protea species is in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, a wonderful area set up against Table Mountain.

A view of Kirstenbosch Gardens with our national flower, the King Protea in the foreground

 

Lisianthus

A few of the smaller flowers that I've been doing.

It's so long since I logged into the blogging world, I had forgotten there were so many artists out there that I was in constant contact with.  And it was quite sad to realise that, like me, they also have dropped off the blog list.  So maybe it's time I linked this to my Instagram and Facebook accounts!  If I could just figure out how to ....

Watercolour Dabbling

Would you believe that not painting that much also means not blogging that much?  No?  Oh well, have to rethink that one!

I've been a bit hassled since I've been back - all sorts of things like my garden which is now going crazy with the start of Summer, Art Society meetings and extra teaching slots at the fabric painting place I help teach at.  Plus there's been cricket and rugby and tonight, our national soccer team, Bafana Bafana take on the mighty USA in a friendly down here at our all new Cape Town Stadium, specially built for the World Cup!  So have to watch that as well.

What has saved me somewhat, are my two art groups that I go to every week.  Even though what I've done does not please me, it's at least a start and I think I'll be getting back regularly pretty soon.

To all my blogging friends, I have visited you and forgive me if I haven't left a message.  I will be mending my ways!

These are two watercolours I did before I went away.  The first was done at a workshop and although a bit static, turned out ok.  The second I loved doing as I got both my fellow art group artists perfectly.  Totally recognisable, lost in their own painting worlds.

Sunflowers

We are sweltering here at the moment and Dana Marie's sunflower post seemed so appropriate for our climate.

But, she lives in the USA where, I believe, it is rather COLD!  Maybe the sunflowers were a promise of things to come?

Anyway, I finished them on time for a change and got them up and posted.  All the time whilst painting them, I thought of that marvellous Sunflower/Pug lady, Nancy Medina whose favourite flower is the sunflower and who also loves dogs (especially Pugs).  Her sunflowers are a must-see if you haven't already.

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.