Marimba Band

Here are sketches I did a few days ago that I've been hestitating to post because they are just so rough and scribbly - a quality I really like in a lot of other people's sketches, but to me it just emphasises the agitation I was feeling at the time - trying to be inconspicuous, annoyed that what I was trying to achieve and show wasn't happening... maybe I'm just too shy to sketch in public... or maybe it's that I need to do it more... I was happier with the second sketch on the right than the first one, and maybe if I'd done a third...? Anyway! Enough with this introspection and the constant self-criticism (I truly am not fishing for compliments, which my blogging friends are always so generous with, it must be getting quite painful - will get over it soon. Maybe.) This was a lovely sunny happy group called the Soweto Marimba Youth League playing outside the African Market in upmarket Rosebank, one of the entertainments put on for World Cup visitors, who were actually the subjects I was after at the time. There were a few foreign languages and accents around and beaming faces thrust into the band for photographs, but they didn't look too different from any other shoppers. I'm going to have to daringly go into one of the fan parks or towards one of the stadiums before a match to catch them fully decked out in supporter's gear and filled with the Fever. This event is changing Johannesburg and South Africa in that most of us middle-class, middle-of-the-road citizens who don't venture anywhere unless it's in the seclusion of our own cars into a secure parking lot, are suddenly taking buses, trains and walking, walking! If the services continue and the 'gees' continues (you have to say that with a guttural gghhh and to rhyme with fierce, it means spirit, goodwill, vibe), I sure hope it does.

Scattered

I'm sorry once again for the bags of hush from here - I'm kind of chasing my tail, lots of projects on the go but not getting too much done on any of them... a bit of tapestry here... (a long, long-term project that needs to come to fruition now)

a bit of illustration there.. a special book for someone very special and very new but not really something I can put up here, yet anyway...

a feeling I should be out there grabbing the World Cup in sketches but where to go, how to get there, and dang, its cold!

Another little illustration to make me feel as if I'm helping the Gulf with one teeny drop in the ocean... this a postcard sketch for Kelly Light's Ripple project, which is now winging its way to Minnesota

some other work that I'm expecting any day now, the wedding sketchbook that deserves some undivided attention, as do most of these undertakings...

...and the odd wander around the garden and a watercolour sketch of an orchid that was blooming unnoticed all by itself and which has now been blackened by frost before I got to paint the whole thing.

Plus other life, family, friend things that take time, care and energy and a lingering cold that is at last, I think, moving off on its wicked way. I'm hoping for a blast of energy, a shot of inspiration and some clear thinking to proceed with the next logical, useful step along my tangled path.

Do I sound scattered, or just plain scatty?

I think I'll make a list!

Viva vuvuzela viva!

Yesterday the United We Shall Stand parade swamped the streets of Sandton - tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people came to show their support for our team, but also to celebrate the fact that the World Cup is here, and demonstrate just how incredibly happy we are that it is. A sea of yellow jerseys interspersed with the South African flag colours, bouncing, throbbing, swaying - accompanied by the deafening, but sometimes reasonably melodious when played well, sound of vuvuzelas, and the odd kudu horn. Groups burst into song and dance, gathering new fans eager to learn the words and steps. The buses eventually made their way past, carrying the press and Bafana Bafana to rapturous greeting. What a wonderful day and spirit of everyone pulling together for this once in a lifetime event.

Standing up and sketching in a lively crowd like this was challenging to say the least, and I was squirmy as some came to peep over my shoulder, all I seemed able to make were illogical scribbles - and I do apologise to viewers and the architects for my buildings! I floundered with my pens, abandoning the fine Pitt pen halfway through the second sketch for the bolder Pentel brushpen and I gave up on colour until later at home, though I did it as fast and sparingly, with Pitt colour pens, as the quick sketches warranted. I'm feeling rather beholden to record as much of the World Cup activities as I can for Urban Sketchers, as there doesn't seem to be another sketcher attending. I'm not a huge soccer fan - though I'm certainly coming round - and I haven't even got tickets to any of the games. If anyone who draws anywhere in South Africa (Liz? Maree? Marie? Debbie? Cathy?) would like to attempt to capture some of the World Cup action, please do - you can share them on the USk Flickr site, or Facebook, or email them to me at catgat at mweb dot co dot za (small files) and I'll post them for you - bear in mind point #1 of the USk manifesto:

We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. - not from photographs or memory.

Prayer for the Gulf

Sometimes words, and images too, just fail... the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is appalling beyond description, but, on the day after World Environment Day, a small contribution to Suzanne McDermott's Spirit of the Gulf Challenge. I've only had a brief glimpse of this coastline on a visit to New Orleans some 17 years ago but have spent much of my childhood happily near the sea, which is all one precious, irreplaceable body of water, as Suzanne points out. Not having my own sea photos to work from, but looking at pictures on the internet and Flickr, and this one in particular I thought of those perfect white wings encircling the gulf and all it's creatures, healing, comforting and restoring. It will take many years and much more physical labour than such a wishful thought could conjure, but... may it be so.

THE SPIRIT OF THE GULF CHALLENGE:

• 
  
  Find a photo or other resource depicting some living aspect of the Gulf of Mexico before the oil disaster or

• 
  
  Tap into your spirit and use your imagination

• 
  
  Make a drawing, painting or other piece of creative work with love and gratitude for the beautiful life of whatever you're depicting.

• 
  
  Post what you make on your website, include a link to this post: Spirit of the Gulf Challenge (or the facebook group — (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127832103901693) and put the icon below in your sidebar with a link to this post (or the facebook group). Send me a link to your post and I'll add the link to bottom of this post.

• 
  
  Now a facebook group at Spirit of the Gulf facebook group. You can link to your work there! (If you're not on facebook, just email Suzanne your link and she'll post it.)

Invite 5 of your friends or favorite artists to accept this challenge, include a link to this post, the facebook page, copy this description of the challenge and the icon below for their sidebar.

                                            

I'm so bad at choosing and passing on, and it takes me forever, so please if you read this, join in!

"Hope" is the thing with feathers -

that perches in the soul -
and sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.


Emily Dickinson

Flags, flags, flags!

Things are hotting up for the World Cup (cooling down as far as the weather goes) and flags are busting out all over Joburg, on buildings, cars, restaurants - these flag-sellers at almost every traffic light and street corner are doing a roaring trade. I had an hour or more yesterday waiting for my son's exam to be over to sit in my car and sketch them. See a couple more over on Urban Sketchers.