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

Seal Point. Cape St Francis

With exactly a month to go before we follow the masses down to the coast for our annual December holidays, I can't stop thinking about how much there is to do still before we go. All these things are taking preference in my mind right right now so I decided to help slow it down by painting  a watercolour of our favourite holiday destination...... St Francis Bay.
This is actually a view of Seal point where the old light house (1878) still burns daily and lights up the Eastern Cape craggy points of Cape St.  Francis.
We love coming to this beach as it is so wide and scenically beautiful. My boys love surfing here and spend most of the day at Bruce's Beauties. So named for the stretch of 'perfect' waves along the eastern side of the lighthouse which were used for a movie called 'Endless Summer' made popular in the 60's by surf enthusiast Bruce Brown.  "The crown jewel to ten years of Bruce Brown surfing documentaries. Brown follows two young surfers around the world in search of the perfect wave, and ends up finding quite a few in addition to some colorful local characters" (IMDB -  Internet Movie Database).

To Market

I have painted this mother and child before but added a different background. I took this photo when I was in Mozambique and was intrigued by the way these busy woman work all morning on the shore-line catching shrimp, crab, and small delicacies to sell at the market. The whole time keeping their babies fastened to their backs.

Naughty Twins

A sketch I did a while ago trying desperately to be loose.Think I achieved that but lost the dimensions of the one ellie's face. Just went in with the brush, no initial sketching. Would love to recreate this sketch as the two elephant have such a mischievous look to them.....

Zebra

I took some lovely photo's of wildlife when I was away last week.. one being a Zebra.....Got my blacks by mixing copious amounts of UMB and B Sienna so I wouldn't run out of my (black) shade. This guy had lovely white eyelashes, which is not always the case. Done on Waterfords watercolour paper 27x38cm. No initial pencil sketch just went in with paint!

Aloe

I quietly painted this the other day... we have just had our flush of different aloes flowering up the driveway to our house..... this is one which is quite botanical to my eye.... not sure if it needs a bit of a back-ground colour which will give it that edge!! Any suggestions.....?

Just Marley

My sister has a Lab puppy, Marley, who has such character! I just HAD to photograph him with visions of painting this loveable poochie before he gets too big. In this sketch, I was playing with colour ideas for a larger piece which I hope to paint after I get back from my trip to Pilanesberg Game Reserve....

Mama Africa.

I tried something different the other day! This is a design in watercolours from my head. I wanted to portray numerous elements of Africa. The elements which brings this picture together are the cornerstone which strongly define this continent's balance in nature of Africa today. I brought components from the whole continent into the painting. A Zulu woman from Southern Africa (Mama Africa), the landscape in the painting is more that of arid, harsh, sweltering north Africa. The animals represent the prominent wildlife which are found in parts of Africa.

The (African) lady with a zebra pattern on her clothing is representational of the people of Africa. She is the balance between nature and man. The elephant and seed pod with foliage are the symbols of nature which live in harmony. Below the trees on the top left, are the roots which anchor the elements firmly in the African soil. The arid landscape depicts the decay of nature, emphasizing the need to preserve what we have or it will be destroyed, hence the dead tree and Buffalo skull.


It's not very visible on the screen... but in the bottom right of the painting is a tiny dung beetle rolling his dung ball to it's nest! :)

Empty Room

I was trying to play with light in this painting... The girl could have been a lot darker as the light  was coming in through the window behind her but I was afraid of over working the darks on her body, so I left her as she was. Will have to work on achieving darker skin tones for these slightly silhouetted Paintings with strong light.

Venice Afternoon.... amended

After looking at this painting on the screen, I could see something was missing. I have gone and done some amendments on it which have helped a bit.

The blue wall above the middle doorway was really bugging me as well as the tone of the water. I added a window to the blue wall and created a balcony. I also darkened the water a bit more with Cobalt Turquoise. Hope this does the trick and makes it more balanced.

BTW.... this is the first Architectural watercolour I have done. Painting buildings have always scared me!!!!!!

Venice Afternoon..... completed!

I have to admit the texture of this paper (Saunders 200lbs)
was so different to work with. I normally work in Bockingfords
or Fabriano or if I'm feeling generous, Arches. This paper is very
spongy and handles paint well. You have to add a lot of pigment to
the paper to get dark effects and tone.But it has wonderful flow,
I loved working with this quality! I might have to splurge out and
invest in some on-line sometime as we don't get it here in South Africa.!

Anyway here is the final painting..........

Venice Afternoon

I was scrummaging through my old washes I had done some time
back on a workshop I did when I was in the UK earlier this year,
and came across this wash I did, I had obviously had something
in mind with it, but couldn't remember what. I was in the mood
for trying out paper I don't use often and found this sheet with
washes on it just begging to be finished! I have never been to
Venice but have seen some wonderful pictures of the beautiful
canals from friends. After studying the washes I had laid out
on the sheet I saw a 'Venice' scene, so started making up as
I went along.

I should have taken a photo of the sheet with just the washes
on to show you where the inspiration came from, but I got a
bit carried away and managed to only take the photo halfway
through!

 You can see some of the washes on the left and bottom

of the painting.