Painting our indigenous Flora!

 

Limestone Sugarbush Protea

A Rose - LOVE

Today I painted roses......
This month being Valentines month and today being my anniversary, I thought I'd paint roses (purely from my head)..... the symbol of love and and peace.

Antique roses

Artichoke and Gerbers studies

My cousin's artichokes in her veggie garden had gone to flower so she picked a few for a vase in her kitchen. They were huge and I fell in love with the lovely fluffy purple tops against the glorious green hard spikes, so she gave them to me to paint.

 

Artichoke Flower Studies 

  

The inspiration

The flower store was offering 3 pots of Gerber's on special so I purchased a baby pink one, a cerise pink and a lovely orange pot. Here are a couple of studies of the orange one I did..... I have studied the sketches and there is definitely some room for improvement here, I'd like to do others with more lost edges around the petals.

 

Gerber Studies

Practice, Practice, Practice

That is what top artists will say to you if you want to improve your skills in painting. "A painting a day" is another..... Basically, you need to just paint, paint, paint, even if it's just playing with 'colour mixes', 'shadows', trying tonal values, sketching etc. But we all know that..... don't we? It's not the only way we learn, but it's the best way...... Remember, It's a journey of growth, so enjoy it!

How many of us actually do paint daily?... I'm blushing here, as I fall into the 'non-daily' painters camp! Life just seems to get in the way sometimes and I forget that painting is or should be part of my daily therapy. And boy, do I need therapy! However I do feel terribly guilty if,  by the end of the day I haven't picked up a brush or pencil. 2010however does look promising as I find myself with more time on my hands and less daily interruptions.

I have a few commitments this early this year with 2 wonderful workshops coming up so I really need to practice and get my brushes flowing. The first workshop is with Hazel Soan, who will be visiting South Africa soon - Hazel is an internationally renowned artist and is the author of seven books on painting in watercolours. The other 2 exciting workshops I'll attend are in the UK with renowned artist Jean Haines. http://www.jeanhaines.com/ Jean has been my mentor and inspiration for a number of years now, she has a unique loose style of painting which I admire and is in the process of having her first book published.I have had the fortune of meeting Ms Haines last year at a workshop she ran on 'Watercolours with Life' and although, exhausting, enjoyed my self immensely.

Here are a few sketches I was practicing using Hazel Soan's 'African African Watercolours'.

Sketches from Hazel's book...using my moleskin.

And one using my own photo... minus preliminary sketch.

This painting was from a photo I took at the Rhino and Lion Park last year. 

This ewe was actually feeding.....hence her looking away from the camera,

  I left the young Springbok out of the painting....

I plan to do flowers next.....(Jean style). I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of flower studies.....

so best I get cracking......

Have a lovely weekend all... till next time.....

Phoebe the Allens Hummingbird

This is Phoebe the little hummingbird. I to have jumped on the bandwagon to sketch her.
Two Blogger friends, Maree  http://naturesketchers.blogspot.com/2010/01/allens-hummingbird-maree.html. and Vickie  http://vickiehenderson.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html. have also painted sketches of her sitting on her eggs.

 PHOEBE

Sketched from a live video-cam link http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Hummingbird-Nest-Cam. set up next to a house near a rosebush in a yard in Orange County California. It was quite easy sketching her as she ignores the camera lens on her and I had the opportunity to really study her. One can see her from different angles and get to see her markings quite well as she turns around to settle in the opposite direction.

This little hummingbird is sitting on two eggs at the moment and are expected to hatch any day now. So follow this link if you are keen to get a good sighting of Phoebe and the hatching of her eggs. The eggs were laid on the 2nd & 4th of Jan and are incubated for about 17 days. Apparently this is her 5th clutch laid in the same yard.  It's so exciting watching the live feed of this busy little lady who flits in and out of her nest and wriggles around re-arranging her eggs. I must admit, I do get carried away with watching her... it's addictive.

We do not have hummingbirds here in South Africa, but they are similar to our Sugarbirds and Sunbirds.

Till later.......

Face in the Shadows II

I should have painted this whilst working on the other Face in the Shadows. I wanted to create another painting to compliment the first one, but it went horribly wrong..... I think I was trying too hard to get the mystical background to match the first painting. I ended up overworking the background and the top section of her head should not have been so pronounced but should have just faded away into the background. She does not look like she is coming out of the shadows at all! Oh Well! Thought I'd add this in just to show you that I did try and do a follow-up! I do like the way her face turned out though as I did not use a preliminary sketch as a guide.

I am enjoying my painting at the moment and have a mountain of subjects to try and experiment with. But that I'll will be tomorrow's task.

Till then..................

Playing with Washes

I add this little sketch with trepidation. I feel it is not worth the viewing but I thought, for prosperity's sake I'd add it to my blog as I do plan to take this further. I'll enjoy coming back in about a year's time to view how my painting style as evolved. This is a little sketch, playing with a 'first wash'. Minus pencil.  I was challenging myself with the encouragement from a friend to work in a loose style. Watch this space.................

Face in the Shadows - DONE!

I am calling this done!

FACE IN THE SHADOWS

I will have to do another now........ perhaps his partner or wife! 

Final touches - Face in the Shadows

This is looking a little better with the shadows added and the features enhanced. I had a little giggle when my domestic help (who is a S Sotho lady) saw this.... she said it was "scary" and promptly asked me why I painted it like that. I must say that it does have an unnerving feel about it. Hope she does not think that I was portraying her people as sinister and villainous!

The look I am trying to portray is one of rough rural Africa. The earthy tones just worked well with this subject and gave it a 'wood carving' feel. We have a lot of African sculptors here in South Africa who do the most amazing wood sculptures from the trunks of trees.

What I love about this is how the brown earthy colours meld so beautifully together and frame the subject, giving it a mystical touch.

Second wash - 'Face in the Shadows'

After looking at my painting and studying the shapes that appeared on the paper from the first wash, I was getting a feel of where the features were going to be placed. This was done minus any pre-drawing. After the features were in place I added more structure and depth around the features still adding copious amounts of water to my paper and letting the colours run into each other.

Colours used at this stage were - Burnt Sienna, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Yellow and French Ultra Marine Blue. I still don't know whether this is a male or female..... will have to wait and see.......

I love watching the colours mingle and the appearance of blooms forming on the paper. I quite enjoy these two sections here... hope they are still visible on the completed piece.

First wash - 'Face in the Shadows'

The hiatus is over!
I am sitting here working on my desktop whilst my laptop is in for a facial, manicure and clean-up . She was acting up and performing incredibly slow and needed a little boost. The frustration of not being able access my blog these last couple of days was so infuriating to say the least but we found the problem and it's now something of the past.

Today I finally got round to painting after a long hiatus. My holiday down at the coast for our summer break was magic but just not the right kind of weather to be indoors painting, . I did however take my watercolour travel kit down to the beach with me in the hope of doing a few sketches to paint larger pieces when I got back to our holiday home. Instead I got so engrossed in a wonderful book.... I did manage to do a few rough sketches one morning under the umbrella after I got a little too sunburnt the day before. I'm also not one for sitting on the beach with people peering over my shoulder to see what I'm are painting. I had lost my muse a bit there as life was just too busy and to crown it all, I had left my quality watercolour paper back home and was saddled with inferior paper.

Sheepishly, I felt justified that the my bag of art supplies took preference over the hubby's golf clubs in the trailer, as I got a few sketches in and it did get used. Anyway, I have decided that this year is going to be MY year and I'm going to paint and paint and paint!

Hope you all have a wonderfully fulfilling 2010 and achieve all you have set out to do this year. Thank you all for your support in my blog, I'll continue to keep you up-to-date in all I achieve this year.

This is a first wash of something I have in mind..... working from my imagination, I am going to see what develops here.....................

Happy 2010

I made it! Another year gone and so much achieved, art wise. Actually, I can't believe how far I have come with my painting generally. Barely 18 months ago I  made up my mind that I was going to pursue my love for watercolours. I had huge amounts of encouragement from friends and family, and want to thank everyone who were involved in my progress most sincerely for the ongoing support, love and inspiration this last year.

I have not painted as much as I'd have liked, but this year I have the opportunity, so I'll take advantage of this time to get stuck in and paint and paint and paint, or, practice, practice, practice!

Here are a few rough sketches I did in the journals I purchased..... what horrible paper! Think I'll have to use it for sketching in pencil and ink.

Ok, Today I bought myself an early Christmas stocking filler. Weather turned a bit miz this afternoon so I took the boys to do a bit of last minute Christmas shopping. I found 2 faux 'pleather' covered small journals for sketching in.

 2 Pleather bound Journals

It is not the best paper for watercolours but I thought I'd like to take the journal and an ink pen to the beach with me and sketch the scenes on the beach. A classic example yesterday was a Jack Russell puppy chasing the shadow of a Frisbee two people were tossing to each other. I didn't even have my camera to capture the moment!

This will also be a wonderful way to record incidences of my holidays!

Bying art on -line saves time and money!

A blogger Maree Clarkson had an interesting article on her blog which I thought I share with you.... food for thought! http://artandcreativity-maree.blogspot.com/2009/12/save-time-and-money-buying-art-online.html
Thanks Maree!!!!

St Francis Bay - East Cape Coast

As I sit here in what seems to be an Idealic part of the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa where the sun calls us all to come down to the beach to watch the waves roll in and the children building sandcastles in the sand, teenagers strutting up and down on the shoreline wearing Santa hats or surfing in with the waves, or just simply catch the summer rays. While I soak up the sun, my thoughts are transported to all my friends and family in the Northern hemisphere where at the moment they seem to be having their first heavy snow falls. I must say, I do envy them in a way but I do enjoy our sunny Christmases, with the wonderful warm evenings sitting on the patio with a glass of wine watching the sun go down and enjoying a festive evening with friends around the braai (barbeque). The mood is happy, everyone looks healthy and full of life.....

But one thing I would love to experience is a white Christmas. I picture it as in the movies or on chocolate boxes, where you see families wrapped up warm collecting their live Christmas trees, and warm glowing fireplaces in cosy homes with the snow softly falling outside. Is that too idealistic? Am I just kidding myself?.... I don't know, but I would like to think it's like that anyway. And I'm sticking to that thought!

I snuck this in........ "Breakfast"

Phewww! Can someone please stop that clock!!!!!!!!! I am just not getting done what I ought to be doing. That's getting ready for our annual holiday. I've taken the trailer in to get the electrics sorted, picked up the mail, ALMOST finished the Christmas shopping, organised the dogs and now...... this morning the swimming pool motor gave up the ghost!!! Arghhhhh! I'll have to over ride it and have it switched on daily by hand when we're away as it won't be fixed before we leave on Tuesday!


But I am managing to paint bright and early in my day when the house is still quiet. Been working on a few animal paintings lately......thought you might like to take a peek at the first one I did. I have made adjustments to the eye as it was (in your face bold) as well as adding warmer colours to the skin to subdue the eye a bit more.

What! 15 days to Christmas?????

The pressures of life have really put me on hold art and internet wise. I have managed to sneak in a painting or two though, which I will post tomorrow!

What a wondrful Surprise!!!!!!!

I can't pop in for long, but I just wanted to share with you my 2am surprise!!!!!! I have had a manic few days lately and been unable to get online. But last night after our last guests left, I developed a second wind. I thought a quick 'catch up' on-line would help me relax. Besides a mountain of responses I had, I also discovered that my painting "Bearded Iris" was featured on the RedBubble Home Page!!!!

Click to see page!
http://www.redbubble.com/people/debadoodle/art/3086665-3-bearded-iris

I'm really over the moon about this......and want to thank all those wonderful people for their overwhelming support! I appreciate it enormously!

Till next week......





Oh! Just found the RedBubble home page blogger page....
 

Lion at Heron Marsh

Some days you just need time to play..... here I was playing with a lion.... and added and added and added. Until...... I realised that there was far too much pigment on the mane and I lost the lovely layered hair. Their manes are not as long as I have painted it and looks a bit strange. But I'm posting it anyway, just so that I can come back in time and compare it to something newer or perhaps THAT master piece!!!!!


Till later......

Art comes in many voices….it is up to us to hear it… C Moses