Historic Glenshiel

 My friend Anni arranged for us to go and sketch in the beautiful gardens of Glenshiel on Saturday, one of Johannesburg's historic Randlord homes, housing the Order of St John which ran it as an auxiliary military hospital during World War Two, and now as an ambulance service. I chose a view with plenty of flowers and foliage in the foreground so as not to have to tackle all that architecture, just having a manageable corner peep through. Even so, it took me most of the afternoon to get that little bit of building down.

After that effort I turned to a tiny house that I thought had been some lucky little girl's wendy house, but which I now read is 'Polly Ann', one of many similiar Tudor Style cottages that were built as a a fundraising effort during the war, forming 'Olde England" with a Wishing Well and a Town Sign Post - I was wondering what those were doing there!

And last, with my architectural skills exhausted, I sketched a gnarled old tree trunk before going on a stroll around the rest of the property, finding a rose garden, a waterfall with a pond, plenty of nooks and crannies and a beautiful view over the Northern suburbs - plenty to go back for if we get another chance.

Jacaranda Joburg

Purple, purple everywhere right now - the jacarandas breathtakingly taking over the city - above our heads, below our feet as the fallen blossoms cover the streets, and wherever you turn. Trying to photograph and paint them, it seems impossible to really portray their glowing abundance of colour. On the left I tried splashing and dropping it on, emulating the flowers that drop constantly onto my page, and above, rolling the brush loaded with the staining dioxazine violet around the page to build darker tones but still trying to keep them light and luminous.

We're having a heat wave, and these scenes of women walking with umbrellas and pushing the prams of the babies they take care of are everywhere up and down the shady avenues - pure summer in Johannesburg!



Roaming around Rosebank

Wow, this blog has hit 300 followers and I can't see any of them on this page or in my dashboard - I still haven't figured out why - but thank you! Sorry for another long break, I've been doing a bit of work, and dithering around with all sorts of projects, getting out to sketch now and then...

 Cranks restaurant in Rosebank, from under a lovely jacaranda tree that I squeezed onto the edges. The jacarandas are out all over Joburg now, not as prolifically flowering as usual, but still magnificent.

Then I had lunch in another sidewalk café, sketching people in the restaurant opposite

 A few days later - a booksale in a Rosebank courtyard - my friend Anni, and I tried sketching from another viewpoint and were chased away by a security guard, so we asked the book sales people if we could sit close to them - next to another security guard - if we promised not to raid the till, and escaped the 'loiterer police' long enough to get down some browsing figures

After which we were ready for a cup of tea- and we drew the Friday after-work crowd gathering around us in peace

And an attempt to sketch people walking briskly past - still loving the waterbrush filled with Ecoline for this!