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 : FourSeasonsWinterTarlton

PRICE - R250.00 ea including postage in South Africa

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 : FourSeasonsSpringTarlton

PRICE - R250.00 ea including postage in South Africa

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 : FourSeasonsWinterTarlton

PRICE - R250.00 ea including postage in South Africa

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 : FourSeasonsAutumn

PRICE - R250.00 ea including postage in South Africa

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King of the (new) Roost

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.”

- Isaac Bashevis Singer

"King of the Roost" watercolour on Visual 140gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8.5" unframed

'Kingston', the above rooster, was saved from the dinner pot when I bought him, together with a couple of his hens, from Solly, who was going to slaughter him for supper. Hopefully, with the money I paid him, he will now go buy something else for supper!

The above quote made me think... shall I become a vegetarian...?

ITEM ID : KingOfTheRoost

PRICE - R350.00 including postage in South Africa

The Black Pirate - SOLD

"If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens."

- Grandma Moses

"The Black pirate" - watercolour on Moleskine 200gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" unframed - SOLD

This guy might be the reason for one of Solly's other roosters hanging out with only one hen and not associating with the rest of the crowd - as this chap struts past my gate, giving me the beady eye, and not condescending to enter, he seems pretty sure that no-one in the yard is going to challenge his authority - ever!

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Breakfast is served! - SOLD

robins | worm-hunting | in the snow

A Twitter poem from WATERMARK

"Breakfast" pencil sketch and watercolour on Visual 140gsm - Maree©
Size : 11.5" x 8" - unframed - SOLD

This little chap was giving me the beady eye while I was sketching him, waiting for me to disappear so he could feed his young - aren't people just a nuisance?

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The Fledgling

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

"The Fledgling" pencil sketch and watercolour on Visual 140gsm - Maree©
Size : 11.5" x 8" - unframed

My favourite subject to paint - birds. Their expressions say more than a thousand words, and body posture warns of the next move - relaxing, taking flight, being vigilant or not feeling so well. Whenever I see a bird sitting puffed up (a sure sign of illness), I'm immediately relieved if it's feathers return to normal upon my approach.

This baby seems to be waiting patiently for breakfast to be served!

ITEM ID : BirdFledgling

PRICE - R350.00 including postage in South Africa

First Light (SOLD)

early dawn | two-note, two note | who are you?

A Twitter poem from WATERMARK

"First Light" - Acrylic on Canvas - Maree©
Size : 12" x 9" unframed - SOLD

Sunrise or sunset in the Kalahari Desert in the Cape Province of South Africa is always a spectacular affair. Here I have tried to capture the mystery of the desert as the sun rises over a landscape of golden grass and small red dunes.

The name Kalahari is derived from the Tswana word Kgala, meaning "the great thirst", or Khalagari, Kgalagadi or Kalagare, meaning "a waterless place". The Kalahari desert is part of the huge sand basin that extends some 900 000 square kilometers from the Orange River up to Angola, in the west to Namibia and in the east to Zimbabwe. The sand masses were created by the erosion of soft stone formations. The wind shaped the sand ridges, which are so typical of the landscape in the Kalahari.

In the southern Kalahari desert, which is the driest part, the Kalahari desert takes the form of a stationary dune veld. To the East and to the North of this, the Kalahari desert becomes a flat park-like terrain or savannah.

The Kalahari is not a true desert as it receives too much rain, but is actually a fossil desert.

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Lonely Shores

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
there is rapture in the lonely shore,
there is society where none intrudes,
by the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

- Lord Byron

"Lonely Shores" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree©
Size - 12" x 8.5"

I've been missing the coast for a while now, haven't been for several months. Miss the sand between my toes, watching the sun rise over a brilliantly turquoise sea, the waves washing up little treasures to sketch... I love just sitting on the rocks, the breeze in my hair, the crabs scurrying around before the tide comes in again.

The beaches in Ballito, on the North Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, stretch flat and smooth for long distances, ideal for long walks, and some stretches have lots of rocks, offering a place to sit and ponder, but way up the North Coast, at St. Lucia, the beaches are wild and undulating, covered with vegetation. The Loggerhead and Leatherback turtles breed in these waters and lay their eggs on these shores.

If you're interested in seeing a bit more of St. Lucia, click HERE

ITEM ID : Lonely-Shores

Tarlton stream at sunrise

“An ant may well destroy a whole dam.”

- Chinese Proverbs

"Tarlton stream at sunrise" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8"

Tarlton and surrounds in Gauteng, South Africa, offers a wide variety of landscapes for the artist to sketch - from flat Savannah to rolling hills covered in indigenous trees and tracts of Blue Gum forests planted originally for the mining industry to flower, vegetable, cattle and ostrich farms. I managed to capture the sunrise on yesterday morning (yes, I was out there at 5am! doing a rough sketch and finishing it off once I got home).

This stream in Tarlton was once again flowing after the vast amounts of rain we've been having, but with no hope of filling the dam as it disappeared through the broken dam wall.

ITEM ID : SunriseTarlton1

Tarlton Stream

“To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future.”
- Bertrand Russell

Tarlton Stream - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size - 12" x 9"

The little stream feeding the Tarlton Dam has been dry for years, but after the recent good rains we have had, it is once again flowing, rushing forward as if looking forward to its destination. Sadly, the dam will not fill up this time, as someone thought it wise to break the dam wall down and allow the water to flow into nowhere, drying up quickly as the feed slows down. It is sad that a part of Tarlton's landscape is forever changed through this action and soon it will be nothing but a dry watercourse again.

ITEM ID : TarltonStream

Africa's Wonder

"Let a Person Walk Alone With Few Wishes, Committing No Wrong, Like an Elephant in the Forest"

"Africa's Wonder - Elephant" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 9"

I sketched this young elephant at the Elephant Sanctuary Hartebeespoort Dam, where they provide a “halfway house” for young African elephants in need of a temporary home.

African elephants are bigger than Asian Elephants. Males stand 3.6 m (12 ft) tall at the shoulder and weigh 5,400 kg (12,000 lb), while females stand 3 m (9.8 ft) and weigh between 3,600 and 4,600 kg (7,900 and 10,000 lb). However, males can get as big as 6,800 kg (15,000 lb!).

Some interesting info :
Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 5 kg (11 lb) and measures about 30 cm (12 in) long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair shifts forward and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.

ITEM ID : AfricaElephant1

Distant shores

"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star."

- Nietzsche

"Distant Shores" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
SIZE " 11" x 7.5" 

A bit of imagination and blue gum trees become pines along the shores of one of our local dams.

ITEM ID : DistantShores

Early morning landscape - SOLD

"With each sunrise, we start anew"

"Early Morning Landscape" - watercolour on Moleskine 200gsm - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" - unframed - SOLD

The sun rising gently behind our Blue Gum forest and, with some imagination, the fields are turned into a wonder-wetland.

This painting is one in a series of paintings done by painting directly onto the paper, no sketching done before-hand. Lately I have found that, unless I am doing something very detailed, like the feathers of a bird, I am eager to get the image onto paper or canvass and don't feel like restricting myself with pencil lines.

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Blue Gums & Black Wattles - Acrylic SOLD

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease,

avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods.

But he cannot save them from fools.

- John Muir

"Blue Gum and Black Wattle trees" Acrylic on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree©
SIZE : 11" x 7.5" - unframed - SOLD

In this painting I experimented with acrylics on a good, thick Bockingford watercolour paper and decided I just LOVE how the acrylics feel on the paper. It's amazing! I think I'm falling more and more in love with this versatile medium.

These trees are on our smallholding and although we are trying to get rid of all the Black Wattles, they spring up faster than you try to eradicate them. The problem is that they produce a huge amount of seeds, which can grow in the most arid and infertile of soils. Even worse, these seeds can live up to a 90 years. And after a first clean-up, even though you have removed hundreds of trees, millions of young seedling appear. It's basically fighting a losing battle. These evergreen trees were originally imported from Australia for our tanning industry.

Now the touchy subject: chemicals. One simply cannot get rid of Black Wattles unless you use a good herbicide. Cutting a black wattle and hoping it will die, is wishful thinking. We do not use any chemicals at all, with the result that we have an on-going battle, but which provides employment opportunities as we hire several casual workers every year to do another clean-up.

The spreading growing habit of the Black Wattle

The flowers of the Black Wattle also causes great outbreaks of hay fever among hay fever sufferers during spring.

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Sunset through the Blue Gums (SOLD)

"Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal."

- Elbert Hubbard

"Sunset through the Blue gums" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Size : 12" x 8.5" - unframed SOLD

The smallholding across the road from us faces West and the setting sun made a spectacular show through the blue gum trees the other evening.

PRAYER OF THE WOODS

(A poem fastened to trees in the Portuguese forests for more than a 1,000 years)

Ye who pass by and would raise your hand against me,

listen to me before you harm me.

I am the heat of your heart on the cold winter nights,

The friendly shade screening you from summer sun,

And my fruits are refreshing draughts,

Quenching your thirst as you journey on.

I am the beam that holds your house,

The board of your table,

The bed on which you lie,

The timber that builds your boat.

I am the handle of your hoe,

The door of your homestead,

The wood of your cradle,

And the shell of your coffin.

I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty.

Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer:

HARM ME NOT.

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Sunrise through the Blue Gums (SOLD)

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

- Martin Luther

"Sunrise through the Blue gums" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©
Size 9" x 12" - SOLD

The sun rising through our Blue gum forest on Sunday morning - the flowers are a wish for the New Year!

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Fine Feathers - SOLD

"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds."

- Aesop

"Fine Feathers" watercolour on Moleskine 200gsm watercolour paper - Maree©
Size : 12" x 8" - SOLD

This is my neighbour's prize bantam rooster, as far as I'm concerned, anyway. I took a photograph of him on a very windy day and he had a lot of trouble staying on his feet as the wind kept catching him from behind, sending him scurrying with fast little paces! This was painted using the photograph as reference.

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A Foray into bright colours! SOLD

"Thicket by thicket, wetland by wetland, we are losing the remaining wilderness and diversity of life. The greenbelt is stopping the loss of natural features and the species they host."

- Jim Bradley

"Wetland" - Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Size - 12" x 9" - Unframed

A foray into bright colours, showing my excitement - the Tarlton stream is flowing again! It was almost as wide as the road as it snaked its way towards the dam, dropping several meters as it flowed through the broken dam wall. We haven't seen this sight for many years, but the plentiful rains we've had must've caused it to break through the man-made obstructions further up-stream. In this view the stream is flowing from the top down towards the old dam.

ITEM ID : Wetland

(Sorry, this is SOLD)

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