Friday, February 26, 2016

Autumn

Candle wax and W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm 

Autumn, oh autumn! How you enchant me with your wonderful colours and cool days! How you inspire with your falling leaves, your magical diversity of combining the best of all four seasons in just a few weeks! Your changing fall foliage never fails to surprise and delight me, getting us ready for winter in the most beautiful way! 


Framing suggestion - Black frame with white matting




Saturday, February 20, 2016

The Red Bishop

W&N watercolours on Visual 200gsm 

Southern Red Bishop Euplectes orix
Indigenous to Africa (south of equator)

My Red Bishops have just come into their breeding colours and some of the juveniles are a decidedly mottled lot! There’s a lot of fighting and chattering going on, trying to establish dominance and vying for the best spots in the garden.

This little chap obligingly sat for a session while I did a quick outline sketch and then hurriedly added some colour before he flitted off again on some serious business or another.

What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around!
- Georges Bernanos







Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Trees on a hill


W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Some Blue gum trees on our property (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa). The hill is a bit of artistic licence as our smallholding is as flat as a pancake, with deep, rich top soil and nary a stone in sight.

The bottom third of the property consists of a lovely blue gum bush which provides me with hours of sketching material. The rest of the property surrounding the house area is planted with Eragrostis grass (Love grass) which provides lots of nesting areas for the Fan-tailed Cisticolas in summer. I spend hours watching them doing their dipping flights over the grass while constantly chirping.



Framing suggestion




Sunday, February 14, 2016

Red-chested Cuckoo (Piet-My-Vrou)

W&N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm 

30th October 2015, 8.04am, and I’ve just heard the Piet-My-Vrou (Red-chested Cuckoo – Cuculus solitarius) for the first time this season! It’s rather late, I normally hear them at the beginning of October, but it’s as if they’ve waited for the first rains before being heard! (We had 20mm of rain last night and 15mm the night before, so the world around here in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa) is looking and smelling sparkling clean!) They’re extremely shy and very hard to spot, but I managed to get a quick (not-so-good!) shot with my camera before he disappeared back into the thick foliage. Had to use my bird book to complete all the colours.

I have held most bird species in my hands at least once, but with the Red-chested Cuckoo I have not had that pleasure…

Piet-my-vrou [Afrikaans]







Thursday, February 11, 2016

Parsley in a pot

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm mixed media paper – no preliminary sketching 

Some Parsley in a small terracotta pot on a shelf in my bathroom garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa).

Parsley is the world’s most popular herb. Derived from the Greek word meaning “rock celery” (it’s a relative to celery), parsley has been cultivated for 2,000 years, and was used medicinally long before that.

Parsley is also rich in vitamin A, well-known for its effects on vision, plus can mitigate risks of atherosclerosis and diabetes.

Parsley is one of the most important herbs for providing vitamins to the body. It’s like an immune-enhancing multi-vitamin and mineral complex in green plant form. It grows in most climates and is readily available throughout the year.

So next time you get some parsley on your plate, eat up!


Monday, February 8, 2016

Guineas are winged wonders

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

After years of not seeing any guinea fowl around our property (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa), I was lucky enough to have a visit from them a couple of weeks ago and I was totally thrilled!

a guinea fowl
molting polka dot feathers—
I see
handmade earrings

Friday, February 5, 2016

Echeveria imbricata in terracotta pot

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

This popular and vigorous succulent has 4 to 8 inches wide, tight rosettes of flat grey-green leaves that, when mature, form offsets freely to form large solid clumps 4 to 6 inches tall. It has a branched arching inflorescence bearing clusters of red and yellow flowers in the spring and early summer. Plant in full sun, even in hotter inland gardens, to part sun/light shade in a well-drained soil and water regularly. Although it is is cold-tolerant, it does not do well in heavy frosts, therefore most of mine are planted in terracotta pots for easy winterizing.

This plant is often listed as a species or as E. x imbricata but is a hybrid cultivar created in the early 1870’s by Jean-Baptiste A. Deleuil of Marseilles (Rue Paradis) that resulted from crossing Echeveria secunda with E. gibbiflora ‘Metallica’ and was listed for the first time in his 1874 catalogue.

It has been argued by some that the correct pronunciation for the genus is ek-e-ve’-ri-a, though ech-e-ver’-i-a seems in more prevalent use in the US.

Category: Succulent
Family: Crassulaceae (Stonecrops)
Origin: Mexico (North America)
Evergreen: Yes
Flower Color: Red & Yellow
Bloomtime: Spring/Summer
Synonyms: [Echeveria x imbricata]
Parentage: (Echeveria glauca x E. gibbiflora ‘Metallica’)

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Amethyst Sunbird female

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Black Sunbird feeding on the Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker) flowers in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa).

The Amethyst Sunbird, also called the Black Sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystine) mainly occurs in Africa south of the equator. Its natural habitat is dry savannah but it is extremely fond of gardens.
It goes out of its way to visit a large clump of nectar-bearing plants. Here in my garden, it feeds on nectar from the Aloe, Kniphofia, Halleria lucida (Tree fuchsia) and a nectar mix in one of my bird feeders. It’s diet is supplemented with insects and often hawks flying insects from the trees or bushes, also gleaning them from leaves and branches. Nectar is obtained either from flowers or from garden feeders, which it uses readily (note that in feeding experiments it was found to prefer sucrose rather than sugar).

This Sunbird is not threatened, in fact its range has increased recently due to the spread of wooded gardens.

Swartsuikerbekkie [Afrikaans]






Sunday, January 31, 2016

Red-billed Quelea Juvenile Male

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Rooibekkwelea [Afrikaans] – (Quelea quelea)

Oh my! The Red-billed Queleas have moved into my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)! When I feed in the mornings, they descend on the feeding tables by the dozens! They are very wary and skittish and the slightest movement will send them fleeing, taking off like one body and returning as one in waves of motion, absolutely fascinating to watch. But the rest of the garden birds have a problem getting to the food and every day there seems to be more and more of the Queleas.

At the moment the males are in their full breeding plumage, with their bright red bills and black face. The juvenile males stand out amongst the other birds like a beacon with their pre-adult little cream caps. Within 2-3 months of hatching, juvenile birds complete a post-juvenile moult to resemble non-breeding adults, but with cream head, whitish cheeks and buff edges to flight feathers and wing coverts, followed 1-2 months later by a pre-nuptial contour moult, when they begin to assume the adult breeding plumages.

Queleas are the most abundant wild birds on the planet, with an estimated population of 1.5 billion birds, occurring across much of sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the lowland forests of West Africa, arid areas of southern Namibia, south-western Botswana and the southern half of South Africa. It is most prolific in semi-arid habitats such as thorn-veld and cultivated land, but it may also occupy exceptionally wet or dry areas. Not threatened, it is so abundant and such a pest that millions of birds are culled annually using explosives at roost sites and aerial spraying, but even that doesn’t have any long term affect on its population.









Euphorbia cooperi (SOLD)

An Euphorbia cooperi in a pot in my garden – W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Euphorbia cooperi (or Lesser Candelabra Tree, Transvaal Candelabra Tree, Bushveld candelabra euphorbia), is indigenous to South Africa. Found in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Swaziland up to Messina in the Limpopo Province, prefers well-drained soils and is mostly found in rockier places, often on granite outcrops and in rock cracks or in wooded grassland and thorny scrubland, in planes and in steep hillsides on north-facing slopes. This spiny succulent grows 4-7 m tall and produces small yellowish-green flowers in spring and summer. 


Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Together we make a difference

Done from my imagination – W&N watercolours on Arches 300gsm

One of the paintings I did, stuck indoors during a week of rain. No field sketching, so painting in my studio is the next best thing. (Read the story that inspired this painting)




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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The corner plot

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Not far from us on the plots in El Jessee (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) quickly referred to by some as LJC plots! is a smallholding known as “the corner plot”. It is well-known for its seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables which are available direct from the owners. And if what you are looking for is not in their store room, they send someone to pick it for you direct from the lands.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

I go to Nature...

... to be soothed and healed . and to have my senses put in order 

These earrings have been SOLD - thank you Debbie!

Hook Earrings from my 'Earth' range of jewellery. Inspired by my White Karee (Rhus viminalis) tree, the leaf is crafted from copper with patina (I use BlackIt) added for a vintage look with White Karee seed-pod earring, an Indian Silver bauble hanging from a short chain. Displayed on a large Rose Quartz crystal.

Hand-crafted from copper and silver solder . the copper assists in energy flowing more freely

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Sunday, October 18, 2015

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 

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.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Echeveria imbricata in wooden crate (SOLD)

 W&N watercolour on small Bockingford 300gsm (5½" x 7½" – half of A4) (SOLD)

Echeveria imbricata in a wooden crate.



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Friday, September 18, 2015

Electric blue hanging basket


W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Do you have a favorite garden flower that always seems to have its head in the dirt, especially after a heavy rain? This flower may be the perfect candidate for a hanging basket!



Thursday, September 10, 2015

Warthog sketch - Special!


A fun sketch done in ink with Pilot Black Calligraphy Lettering Pen and watercolour on Ashrad sketching paper

The most commonly seen wild pig of the African Bush, Warthogs (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) are day animals and spend most of their time looking for food and are normally found in family groups. They feed mainly on grass and roots, but also take bulbs, fruits, carrion, insects, scorpions, earthworms, centipedes and bones.

They are members of the same family as domestic pigs, but present a much different appearance. These sturdy hogs are not among the world’s most aesthetically pleasing animals—their large, flat heads are covered with “warts,” which are actually protective bumps. Warthogs also sport four sharp tusks. They are mostly bald, but they do have some sparse hair and a thicker mane on their backs.

Buy a Greeting Card on RedBubble!

 Warthog sketch Greeting Card (also available on other products)

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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Amber Stained glass pendant


Who can resist a beautiful piece of stained glass? Buffed into a symmetrical shape, encased in silver solder and adorned with silver wire. Comes with a silver rope chain.

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