Whitefronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides)

That little bird has chosen his shelter.
Above it are the stars and the deep heaven of worlds.
Yet he is rocking himself to sleep without caring for tomorrow's lodging,
calmly clinging to his little twig,
and leaving God to think for him.
- Martin Luther

W & N watercolours on Visual 200gsm - 12" x 8" - unframed

The White-fronted Bee-eater, Merops bullockoides (endemic to Africa), is a species of bee-eater widely distributed in sub-equatorial Africa. They have a distinctive white forehead, a square tail and a bright red patch on their throat. They nest in small colonies, digging holes in cliffs or earthen banks but can usually be seen in low trees waiting for passing insects from which they hunt either by making quick hawking flights or gliding down before hovering briefly to catch insects.
From "Wikipedia"

Rooikeelbyvreter [Afrikaans]; Sitembandayi (generic term for non-Carmine bee-eaters) [Kwangali]; Muhladzanhu, Muhlagambu (generic terms for bee-eater) [Tsonga]; Morôkapula (generic term for bee-eater) [Tswana]; Witkapbijeneter [Dutch]; Guêpier à front blanc [French]; Weißstirnspint, Weißstirn-Bienenfresser [German]; Abelharuco-de-testa-branca [Portuguese]

These birds are monogamous, strongly gregarious colonial nesters. It has one of the most complicated societies of all birds, with each colony comprising a number of groups, known as clans, each clan containing 3-6 "families", each containing one breeding pair and 1-5 helpers. The nest is built by both sexes and sometimes a helper, consisting of a tunnel 1 - 2m long, ending in an oval chamber. The burrow is usually dug into riverbanks or gullies by moving sand with its bill or, if it finds a more serious obstacle, using a bicycling action with its feet. (Oh, how CUTE!)
Info from "Bidodiversity Explorer"

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.”

ITEM ID : WhFrontedBeeEater
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Summer heat

“Ah, summer - what power you have to make us suffer and like it!”
- Russell Baker

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gs multi-media paper - 12" x 8" unframed

So far we've been experiencing a very hot summer here in Tarlton (south Africa), with temperatures deep into the 30's Celsius. If I want to do any gardening, it starts at about 6am and the rest of the day I spend in my studio, in front of the aircon, painting.

ITEM ID : SummerHeat
PRICE : R850.00 including postage

Symbol of Adoration

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8" - unframed

Vibrant and strong, Sunflowers are symbolic of adoration.

I see you there in glory shining bright,
Following the sun and its path of light.
Standing tall above all others in the field,
You grow, conquer, and do not yield.
The little birds take great delight
In playing round you, from day to night.
With your petals of yellow and leaves of green
How very easily you are seen!
- Extract from 'Poem to a Sunflower' By Katherine R. Lane (April 19, 1995)


ITEM ID : SymbolOfAdorationSunflower
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

The Poinsettia and the Daisy

Watercolour and Acrylic on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8" - unframed

Did you know that the poinsettia has a special day all its own? By an Act of Congress, in the U.S., December 12 was set aside as National Poinsettia Day. The date marks the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett, who is credited with introducing the native Mexican plant to the United States. The purpose of the day is to enjoy the beauty of this popular holiday plant.
So, be sure to give someone you love a poinsettia on December 12, National Poinsettia Day!

The star-shaped poinsettia has become one of the best known floral symbols of the Christmas season and is considered the most popular potted plant during that time of year.

They were introduced to the United States over 125 years ago when they were brought here in 1828 by America's first ambassador to Mexico, Dr. Joel Poinsett. Native to Mexico, the “Flor de Noche Buena” - flower of the Holy Night, was thought by many eighteenth century Mexicans to be symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem.
http://www.santasearch.org/texts.asp?Do=4&TextID=531

A charming story is told of Pepita, a poor Mexican girl who had no gift to present the Christ Child at Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked slowly to the chapel with her cousin Pedro, her heart was filled with sadness rather than joy.

"I am sure, Pepita, that even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes," said Pedro consolingly.

Not knowing what else to do, Pepita knelt by the roadside and gathered a handful of common weeds, fashioning them into a small bouquet. Looking at the scraggly bunch of weeds, she felt more saddened and embarrassed than ever by the humbleness of her offering. She fought back a tear as she entered the small village chapel.

As she approached the alter, she remembered Pedro's kind words: "Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes." She felt her spirit lift as she knelt to lay the bouquet at the foot of the nativity scene.

Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into blooms of brilliant red, and all who saw them were certain that they had witnessed a Christmas miracle right before their eyes.
From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season. Today, the common name for this plant is the "poinsettia!"

................................................................

See more of my Flowers on RedBubble

ITEM ID : PoinsettiaDaisy
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Winter moving in

Brew me a cup for a winter's night.

For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;

Spice it with love and stir it with care,

And I'll toast our bright eyes,

my sweetheart fair.

~Minna Thomas Antrim

Acrylics on canvas panel 12" x 9"

South Africa is famous for its sunshine. It's a relatively dry country, with an average annual rainfall of about 464mm (compared to a world average of about 860mm). While the Western Cape gets most of its rainfall in winter, the rest of the country is generally a summer-rainfall region.

The Western Cape gets most of its rain in winter, with quite a few days of cloudy, rainy weather. However, these are always interspersed with wonderful days to rival the best of a British summer.
The high mountains of the Cape and the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal usually get snow in winter.

Winter in South Africa (May to July) is characterised in the higher-lying areas of the interior plateau by dry, sunny, crisp days and cold nights. So it's a good idea to bring warm clothes.
The hot, humid KwaZulu-Natal coast, as well as the Lowveld (lower-lying areas) of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, offer fantastic winter weather with sunny, warmish days and virtually no wind or rain.

A subtropical location, moderated by ocean on three sides of the country and the altitude of the interior plateau, account for the warm temperate conditions so typical of South Africa - and so popular with its foreign visitors.

At the same time, temperatures in South Africa tend to be lower than in other countries at similar latitudes - such as Australia - due mainly to greater elevation above sea level.

On the interior plateau the altitude - Johannesburg lies at 1 694 meters - keeps the average summer temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius. In winter, for the same reason, night-time temperatures can drop to freezing point, in some places lower.

South Africa's coastal regions are therefore warmest in winter. There is, however, a striking contrast between temperatures on the country's east and west coasts, due respectively to the warm Agulhas and cold Benguela Currents that sweep the coastlines.

Being in the southern hemisphere, our seasons stand in opposition to those of Europe and North America, so, yes - we spend Christmas on the beach!
From "South Africa Travel Info":http://www.southafrica.info/travel/advice/climate.htm

ITEM ID : WinterMovinginAcrylic
PRICE - R1200.00 including postage

The Magical process

"Painting is a magical process that I like, where you conjure something out of nothing; you get a little idea that leads you through ... You can go into a trance while you're doing it, so it's a nice contrast to real life."

- Paul McCartney

Watercolour on Arches 300gsm 12" x 7" - unframed

Stuck indoors again, lots of rain, so no field sketching at the moment! This is one of the 6 paintings I did while it poured outside and being without electricity (and therefore internet as well!) - having to boil water for coffee on the little gas burner and sitting close to the window (for light). Did this from my imagination, taking inspiration from the blue, wet hues outside, the bright green of all the grass and all the muddy patches everywhere.

ITEM ID : MagicalProcess
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Her Majesty the Cat

"With their qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, patience, dignity, and courage, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats?"

- Fernand Mery Her Majesty the Cat

Cat sketch - W&N watercolour - on Bockingford 300gsm 8" x 12" - unframed

We all know the superstition about a black cat crossing your path. It is said that, to reverse the bad luck curse of a black cat crossing your path, first walk in a circle, then go backward across the spot where it happened and count to 13! Here are some more superstitions about cats.

Dreaming of white cat means good luck. - American superstition
To see a white cat on the road is lucky. - American superstition
It is bad luck to see a white cat at night. - American superstition
If a cat washes behind its ears, it will rain. - English superstition
A strange black cat on your porch brings prosperity. - Scottish superstition
A cat sneezing is a good omen for everyone who hears it. - Italian superstition
A cat sleeping with all four paws tucked under means cold weather ahead. - English superstition
When moving to a new home, always put the cat through the window instead of the door, so that it will not leave. - American superstition
When you see a one-eyed cat, spit on your thumb, stamp it in the palm of your hand, and make a wish. The wish will come true. - American superstition
In the Netherlands, cats were not allowed in rooms where private family discussions were going on. The Dutch believed that cats would definitely spread gossips around the town. - Netherlands superstition
To reverse the bad luck curse of a black cat crossing your path, first walk in a circle, then go backward across the spot where it happened and count to 13.

ITEM ID : HerMajestyTheCat
PRICE - R500.00 including postage

Struthio camelus

“An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster.”

W & N Watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm 8" x 12" - unframed

The Ostrich (struthio camelus) is a member of a group of birds known as ratites, that is they are flightless birds without a keel to their breastbone, and are native to Africa. Of the 8,600 bird species which exist today, the ostrich is the largest. Standing tall on long, bare legs, the Ostrich has a long, curving, predominantly white neck. The humped body of the male is covered in black patches and the wings and tail are tipped with white. The female is brown and white. These huge birds, which sometimes reach a height of 2.6 m and a weight of 135 kg, cannot fly, but are very fast runners.

Ostriches were almost wiped out in the 18th century due to hunting for feathers. By the middle of the 19th century, due to the extensive practice of ostrich farming, the ostrich population increased. The movement changed to domesticating and plucking ostriches, instead of hunting. Ostriches have been succesfully domesticated and are now farmed throughout the world, particularly in South Africa, for meat, feathers and leather. The leather goes through a tanning process and is then manufactured into fashion accessories such as boots and bags.


ITEM ID : StruthioCamelusOstrich
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Gentle Giant

“Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.”
- Indian Proverb

Acrylic on Acrylic Gesso primed un-stretched acrylic canvas sheet 12" x 8"

With a height of just over 3 - 4m (measured at the shoulder), a length of between 6 to 7.5m (that's the length of an average motor car garage!) and weighing in at 6 tonnes, these mostly gentle giants of the African bush are highly intelligent with a strong sense of family and herd, and a complex social structure.

Elephants are incredibly social animals: they form strong, long-lasting bonds within their herd. They adopt orphaned calves, help injured elephants and work together. They have surprisingly complicated behavioural patterns and interactions. An injured member may be helped to its feet and supported by other herd members: if it is badly wounded, it may be vigorously defended by the herd, with even the calves taking part. Although elephants are normally peaceful individuals, they can be aggressive and extremely dangerous, especially if they are sick or injured. Females in groups with young are particularly unpredictable, as are males in musth.

Here in Africa they are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the Asian species.

For this sketch, I looked at many different photographs from a great many angles, and developed this stance from all the 'information' I had gathered in my mind.

ITEM ID : GentleGiantAcrylic

PRICE - ORIGINAL SOLD

As the Sunflower turns her head...

Thomas Moore :
It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear!


Oh the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose!

Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 8" x 12" unframed

One of the more interesting facts about sunflowers is that they turn their 'heads' to follow the sun.  That's why they're called sunflowers!

ITEM ID : SunflowerturnsHead
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Prints of this painting for sale at RedBubble

African elephant

"You know ... they say an elephant never forgets.

What they don't tell you is, you never forget an elephant."

- Actor Bill Murray

Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8.5" unframed

With a height of just over 3 - 4m (measured at the shoulder), a length of between 6 to 7.5m (that's the length of an average motor car garage!) and weighing in at 6 tonnes, these mostly gentle giants of the African bush are highly intelligent with a strong sense of family and herd, and a complex social structure.

Here in Africa they are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the Asian species.

From Alma's beautiful photograph "Time to Retreat" with her kind permission.

Framed prints, canvas prints, posters and greeting cards for sale on RedBubble

ITEM ID : AfricanElephantRetreat
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Veld fire over the Mountains

"Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."

~ Rachel Carson

W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm, no sketching - 11" x 7.5"

Winter is looming and soon it'll be time to be cutting our fire-breaks again. Every Winter we have this veldfire (bush fire) phenomena, spectacular, yet devastating at the same time. Such a great loss in animal life, yet so necessary for the health of our ecology... Many of our plants will not flower until they have been ravaged by fire and many of the fires ARE naturally caused by lightning, but it is man's carelessness that causes fires in areas that are not ready for it yet that is the most heart-breaking.

This is a depiction of the fires raging over the hills of Magaliesburg and Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa), where I live.

Framed Prints, mounted or Laminated and Canvas prints as well as Greeting cards and Postcards available on my RedBubble Site

ITEM ID : VeldfireMountains
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Winter Bullrushes Greeting Cards, Framed Prints, etc., for sale

Winter Bullrushes

“Never cut a tree down in the winter time. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.”

- Robert H. Schuller

Winter Bullrushes - W & N Watercolours on Arches 300gsm - 7" x 10"

I absolutely LOVE Bullrushes and used to have them growing at my pond until I discovered how quickly they take over an area, killing everything in its path. I also used to cut the velvety flowering spikes to arrange in a vase, absolutely gorgeous!, also only until I discovered that, when they're ripe and ready to disperse their seeds, the velvety spike would burst open, covering the house with bundles of dense, cottony fluff! Only the female flower does this, the male withers and dies once it has dispersed its pollen.

Typha _Typhaceae_ is found in a variety of wetland habitats. These plants are known in British English as bulrush, bullrush, or reed mace, in American English as cattail, punks, or corndog grass, in Australia as cumbungi & also bulrush, and in New Zealand as raupo.

Some interesting information : the dense cottony fluff was used for stuffing Futons in Japan before the advent of cotton.

ITEM ID : Winterbullrushes
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Unusual Winter in South Africa

Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon like a magician extended his golden want o'er the landscape; tinkling vapours arose; and sky and water and forest seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This was done from my imagination, no preliminary sketching - 
W & N watercolours on Arches 300gsm - 10" x 7"

A couple of years ago, in August 2006, South Africa was struck by an unusual phenomena, snow! It is something we rarely experience and it therefore always creates great excitement as well as hard-ship. Especially in the farming community, as livestock is always at risk because of the vast sizes of our farms and the large numbers of livestock we farm with - no barns really big enough to house all of them. No protection against the freezing temperatures and also a great problem with feed supplies. Luckily, people like us on smallholdings (8.5ha, which is 10 morgen or 21 acres), have fewer animals, making winter much more manageable, but still not worry-free.

ITEM ID : UnusualWinter
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Why the environment has to be preserved

Every time I have some moment on a seashore, or in the mountains, or sometimes in a quiet forest, I think this is why the environment has to be preserved.

- Bill Bradley

Done from my imagination, no preliminary sketching - W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8"

We're still having a lot of rain here in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa, and my palette is definitely being affected by this - I'm drawn to all the wet and cool colours as we haven't being seeing much of the sun at all. Our dams are filled to capacity, rivers are swollen and causing flooding and, of course, the gardens are smiling!

I'm not sure whether us humans are all to blame for 'global warming' and the strange weather patterns, because Mother Earth has her own natural cycles of warming and freezing, but the mess that us humans make on this planet is of major concern to me. Isn't a beautiful landscape enough incentive for each and every one of us to take responsibility for our mess in order to preserve it....?

ITEM ID : EnvironmentPreserved
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

A Farmhouse somewhere in the Karoo

I had to live in the desert before I could understand the full value of grass in a green ditch.

- Ella Maillart

W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8"

'n Plaashuisie êrens in die Karoo.

The Karoo (a Khoisan word of uncertain etymology) is a semi-desert region of South Africa. It has two main sub-regions - the Great Karoo in the north and the Little Karoo in the south.
The Great Karoo has an area of more than 400,000 square kilometers. From a geological point of view it has been a vast inland basin for most of the past 250 million years. At one stage the area was glaciated and the evidence for this is found in the widely-distributed Dwyka tillite. Later, at various times, there were great inland deltas, seas, lakes or swamps. Enormous deposits of coal formed and these are one of the pillars of the economy of South Africa today. Volcanic activity took place on a titanic scale. Despite this baptism of fire, ancient reptiles and amphibians prospered in the wet forests and their remains have made the Karoo famous amongst palaeontologists.

Western people first settled in the Cape in 1652, but made almost no inroads into the Karoo prior to about 1800. Before that time, large herds of antelope, zebra and other large game roamed the grassy flats of the region. The Khoi and Bushmen, last of the southern African Stone Age peoples, wandered far and wide. There were no Europeans and no Africans of Bantu extraction.
Info from "Wikipedia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoo>

ITEM ID : FarmhouseKaroo
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Come walk with me

W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm - 8" x 12"

"Are you feeling, feeling, feeling like I'm feeling
Like I'm floating, floating, up above that big blue ocean
Sand beneath our feet, big blue sky above our heads,
No need to keep stressing from our everyday life on our minds
We have got to leave all that behind.
- The Avett brothers

ITEM ID : ComeWalkWithMe
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Looking Forward (Boat in the Harbour)

“A lot of people go through life like they are rowing a boat. They look at where they have been (the PAST), rather than where they are going (the FUTURE).”

For this painting I was inspired by Elizabeth Kendall's beautiful photograph "A boat in the harbour"

W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 8"

ITEM ID : LookingForward
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Winter setting in

“People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.”
- Anton Chekhov


"Winter Setting In" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size - 11" x 8" unframed

Although the lawn in my garden is still thick and green from all the rain we've had, the veld and roadside is starting to show the effects of Winter - all the Cosmos is gone and the tall thatching grass is yellow and dry, just waiting for the first careless cigarette to be flicked out of a car window - this Black Wattle tree still hasn't recovered from the ravages of last year's fires and got a second dose when the property owner did his fire-break this week. Pity, but fire-breaks are a necessary evil if we are going to be protecting our properties from these, sometimes dangerous, fires.

ITEM ID : WinterSettingIn
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Autumn in Tarlton - Commission

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolour, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.”
- Stanley Horowitz


"Autumn in Tarlton"

This painting was a commission from a friend to do another painting of her garden after I did a small sketch of her garden "Autumn setting in" (which you can see in the previous post). It was my first commission for years and I was scared out of my wits that she wouldn't like it, but luckily she was absolutely thrilled!

The original is watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 30" x 18" - (SOLD)

A print of this painting is for sale with the permission of the owner of the original - click below :


Framed print for sale on RedBubble

Autumn setting in

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”
- William Cullen Bryant


Autumn Setting in - this is a small watercolour on my Moleskine 200gsm -
8" x 5.5" - SOLD - Maree©

Autumn is in full swing and the trees in my garden were slowly starting to change colour last month - this is actually a friend's garden on their plot here in Tarlton, South Africa, and I just had to capture her Japanese Maple in all its glorious orange splendour amongst her mostly indigenous trees. She commented that she never knew her garden was so beautiful and that she will be looking at it differently now!

Daisies for Mother's Day - 9th May 2010

'Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!
~William Wordsworth, "Lines Written in Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads, 1798



I did this sketch of some Asters in my garden last month - these Shasta daisies are real die-hards and sometimes carry on right through winter, but require quite a lot of work dead-heading or else they can really look messy.

I received a wonderful Mother's Day card from my daughter in Ballito (on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, S.A.), but no flowers this year! so I picked a bunch of these Shastas for the kitchen table for myself and they looked quite perky in my white enamel jug!

This is watercolour done on Moleskine 200gsm - 8" x 5.5" - SOLD

Daisies from my garden

"Earth laughs in flowers!"
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"


"Daisies from my garden" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size - 11" x 15" unframed

When it's freezing outside and threatening to rain any minute, and I can't make a field trip to do some sketching, I always turn to my garden for inspiration. Even under the most dismal conditions there is always something to be found - some flower left-over, a few Autumn leaves clinging to a branch or the birds and insects who seem to cheerily carry on, no matter what the weather.

Inspiration taken from my garden - the Shasta daisies are now long overdue on trimming and rather tall and lanky, but they make an ideal study for a quick sketch on a cold and windy day.

ITEM ID : DaisiesGarden
PRICE - R1250.00 including postage

African Storm Brewing

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather."
- John Ruskin


"African Storm" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size - 11" x 7.5" unframed

It's already April, way past our rainy season, and on one of our recent trips to Harties (Schoemansville), I captured this Autumn storm brewing over a farm on the banks of the Crocodile River, which flows through Broederstroom on it's way to Hartebeespoort Dam in the North-West Province of South Africa.

When a storm is brewing (in your mind or in your life), embrace it as just another delicious experience, like a summer shower. See what you can learn from it, take a lesson from it, because soon the clouds will have a silver lining again as the sunshine bursts through. Nothing lasts forever - not the rain, not the sunshine, not the storm - so might as well accept it into our lives as just another "bad weather" phenomena.

ITEM ID : AfricanStorm
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Black Wattles in Tarlton

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson


"Black Wattles in Tarlton" - watercolour on Moleskine 200gsm - Maree©
Size - 12" x 8" unframed

The Black Wattle trees on our smallholding in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa, which we are trying our utmost to eradicate, have put up the most spectacular show of browns with their millions of seed-pods in between the greens. How can we even begin to think to destroy such beauty? Yet, for the survival of our own indigenous flora, it is a task we undertake every year in a bid to save some of our own natural growth.

Read more about the Black Wattle struggle HERE.

ITEM ID : BlackWattlesTarlton
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Beach Fantasy

I am forever walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain
Forever.
- Kahlil Gibran


Beach Fantasy - watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" unframed

When one is longing for the beach and not able to get there for another few weeks, the next best thing to do is to sketch it! This one is done from memory of the time I spent at St. Lucia, up the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

ITEM ID : BeachFantasy
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

At the edge of the Quarry

Life is like a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.
- Samuel Butler


"At the edge of the quarry" - watercolour on Moleskine 200gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 6" unframed

About 2km from us is the Tarlton Brickyard - hectares of ground that have been dug up and soil removed for the making of bricks, leaving the earth pitted with deep holes and piles of heaped ground and smoking kilns where the bricks are being baked.

Some might say it's an eye-sore or a scar on Mother Earth's crust, and I could agree, but besides providing the building industry with the necessary raw materials for our housing needs, this quarry provides endless hours of pleasure to off-road motorbike enthusiasts who race along the holes and over steep mounds of earth, flying through the air like movie stunt men! Horse riders also like to visit, putting their steeds through their paces, using it as a cross-country course. Not all's bad that seems bad!


A brick-making kiln in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

ITEM ID : Quarry1
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

"Keep Out!"

"Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are timeless."
- Julia Cameron


"Keep Out! - watercolour in Moleskine Folio 200gsm - Maree©
Size : - 12"x 8" unframed

This farm gate scene is not far from us in Broederstroom, a farm bordering on the Crocodile river, on our way to Hartebeespoort Dam. We stopped to give our puppy a chance to go to the toilet and I was faced with this wonderful gate right in from of me! To hubby's utmost frustration, I actually hauled out my paint set, collected water from the river and quickly started doing the sketch. The frustration was because it took a bit longer than normal, actually putting in the colour right there - normally I would do a preliminary sketch and finish it off at home - this took me just over half an hour, while Dave and Jacko explored just inside the fence, but we were soon on our way and I fiddled a bit when we got home.

ITEM ID : KeepOut
PRICE - R850.00 including postage


Frame suggestion

Winter Scene

“Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.”


Winter in Tarlton - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" unframed

Winter in Gauteng, South Africa, brings raging veld fires, lands that lie fallow on farms and, in certain areas like Tarlton, frost that wipes clean any memory of green, except for the evergreen Black Wattle trees, which put up a spectacular show of brown seed pods, brightening up an otherwise bleak landscape.

ITEM ID : WinterTarlton
PRICE - R850.00 including postage


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Spring Scene

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.
~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth


Spring scene - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" unframed

Spring holds a special place in my heart - the sight of the first tiny green buds on a tree is like magic unfolding after months of bleak landscapes and an earth blackened by raging veld fires.

ITEM ID : SpringScene
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Summer Scene

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”
- James Dent


Summer Scene - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size " 12" x 8" unframed

Summer - a time of activity - tending to the garden, going out on picnics, going to the beach, fishing or perhaps taking your sail boat out on the lake. And of course, here in South Africa, celebrating a hot and snowless Christmas!

ITEM ID : SummerScene
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Autumn Scene

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.”
- Albert Camus


Autumn scene - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" unframed

To me, Autumn is the most powerful season of the year, a slowing down of the senses after summer's rush of activity. Here in South Africa, our Autumn days offer the best of all worlds - lovely clear skies, mild temperatures, a burst of colour and windless days.

ITEM ID : AutumnScene
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Trees on the beach

As artists, we must learn to be self nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them – to restock the trout pond, so to speak.
- Julia Cameron


"Beach and trees" - Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 10" x 7" unframed

ITEM ID : BeachTrees
PRICE - R750.00 including postage

Magaliesberg Mountain landscape

“You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself.”
- James Whittaker


"Magaliesberg mountain landscape" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size - 12" x 8" unframed

For this wet-on-wet scene, after wetting the paper, I sketched the main outlines of my scene using my Rigger and Cerulean Blue. I'm sure many artists use this technique, but I've always been somewhat of a sketchy person, using my pencil, going into great detail with a lot of erasing happening. It's only been the past couple of months since I started practicing painting with no sketching beforehand that I feel confident enough to consider doing this.

ITEM ID : MagaliesbergMountainLandscape
PRICE - R850.00 including postage

Magaliesberg Mountains

“Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.”
- Denis Waitley


"Magaliesberg Mountains" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 15" x 11" unframed

Virtually all over the West Rand (Gauteng, South Africa) the Magaliesberg mountains are visible for miles around.

The Magaliesberg is a mountain range that stretches for over 120 kilometres, extending from Pretoria in the north of the Gauteng Province to a point south of Pilanesberg, in the North West Province, and the Bronkhorstspruit towards the east. The highest point of the Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht (1 852 metres)
25°51′30″S 27°31′48″E / 25.8583°S 27.530°E / -25.8583; 27.530.

ITEM ID : MagaliesbergMountains
PRICE - R1250.00 including postage

Four Seasons - Winter

Winter at Harties - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper - Maree©
Size - 8" x 6" unframed

A collection of four small paintings, 8" x 6", depicting the four seasons - Autumn, Spring, Summer and Winter - and are all sketched from scenes in and around my area. This is WINTER in the series of the four seasons.

These four little paintings would look good grouped together with off-white matting and Sepia frames.

ITEM ID : WinterTarlton
PRICE - R650.00 ea including postage

Four Seasons - Spring

Spring in Tarlton - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper - Maree©
Size - 8" x 6" unframed

A series of four small paintings, 8" x 6", depicting the four seasons - Autumn, Spring, Summer and Winter - and are all sketched from scenes in and around my area. This is SPRING in the series of the four seasons.

These four little paintings would look good grouped together with off-white matting and Sepia frames.

ITEM ID : SpringTarlton
PRICE - R650.00 ea including postage

Four Seasons - Summer

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”
- James Dent


Summer in Tarlton - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper - Maree©
Size - 8" x 6" unframed

A series of four small paintings, 8" x 6", depicting the four seasons - Autumn, Spring, Summer and Winter - and are all sketched from scenes in and around my area. This is SUMMER in the series of the four seasons.

These four little paintings would look good grouped together with off-white matting and Sepia frames.

ITEM ID : WinterTarlton
PRICE - R650.00 ea including postage

Four Seasons - Autumn

"Autumn in Hillside" - watercolour on Ashrad hot pressed paper - Maree©
Size - 8" x 6" unframed

A series of four small paintings, 8" x 6", depicting the four seasons - Autumn, Spring, Summer and Winter - and are all sketched from scenes in and around my area. This is AUTUMN in the series of the four seasons.

These four little paintings would look good grouped together with off-white matting and Sepia frames.

ITEM ID : AutumnHillside
PRICE - R650.00 ea including postage

Abstract - Crossing Over

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
- Pablo Picasso


"Crossing Over" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 11" x 7" unframed

Continuing on my quest to try something abstract, it seems my abstracts are going to remain orderly and structured - as soon as I put paint to paper, law and order seems to take over and my feeling of abandonment settles into a quiet and relaxed contemplation of lines.

Review from South African Artist Marie Theron

"Abstract art, I think, is even more ordered than realism. In your painting there is the play of vertical lines, repeating over and over with subtle differences in colour. In the bottom it starts to form tiny blocks of harmonious colour, and then: Whalla! A strong solid horisontal line! And then, just to prevent monotony, you added the simplified trees. Mondrian began like this and I think it is a very good picture, Maree!

This thought just came up:"The Crossing" could also mean the crossing from realism to abstraction?"

ITEM ID : CrossingOver
PRICE - R750.00 including postage

Secret Destination (SOLD)

“I am not going to give you a destination. I can only give you a direction - awake, throbbing with life, unknown, always surprising, unpredictable.”
- Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh quotes (Indian Spiritual leader, 1931-1990)


"Secret Destination" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" unframed
(Click on images to enlarge)

No sketching done with this painting - just lots and lots of colour directly onto a pristine white sheet of paper - it started off as a meadow, but slowly evolved into a little pathway, bypassing a pond, on it's way to some secret destination. I can just imagine some young lads having there secret club house somewhere behind the trees...

ITEM ID : SecretDestination
PRICE - (SOLD)


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