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 - R350.00 including postage in South Africa

Gentle Giant (SOLD)

“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" - SOLD

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

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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 - R350.00 including postage in South Africa

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" - unframed

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 - R350.00 including postage in S.A.

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" - unframed

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 - R350.00 including postage IN SOUTH AFRICA