Shepstone Gardens

On Monday a group of us went to Shepstone Gardens, a Heritage site and a busy wedding and events venue. It is a whole conglomeration of stone constructions - houses, chapels, pathways, walls, a garden shed and a studio, commissioned by the Modderfontein Dynamite Company and built around the turn of the century by Afrikaners after the Anglo Boer War - from 1 000 tons of quartz rock. Apparently Mahatma Gandhi stayed on and off in the encampment at the foot of the ridge, while his friend, the architect Kallenbach was building.

The first sketch I did there is on its way as a postcard in the Postcards from my Walk project, so I won't show it yet. (my last one never reached its destination in California, so holding thumbs for this one!)

I had another prepared splashy watercolour sheet in my sketchbook and the blues and browns fitted well into the shape of the wedding chapel, so that was my next subject.

There was a little boy looking like he needed something to do (he was on school holidays and his dad was working in the Gardens) on the lawn next to me so I offered him a sketchbook and pencil, which he shyly but eagerly accepted. He told me his name was Gift, and he spent the next hour or more drawing intently - watching me looking up and down and sketching, and then following suit. I think he indeed has a gift, to be so young - in Grade 2 so not more than 6 or 7 - and concentrate for so long on his carefully observed drawing. I left him my pencil, I think I'll go back with a sketchbook - a possible young urban sketcher/artist/architect in the making!

Tennis Rules, OK?

A lot of time spent in front of the TV watching tennis lately and when I'm not too wrapped up in the match to think of it, I sometimes pick up a pen and try and scribble down the action. This time without rewinding and stopping on frames as I did four years (four years!!) ago in this post, I hardly looked at the paper as my pen tracked the movement resulting in some strange but descriptive postures. Not very flattering to the players, but fun!
Much as it would be nice for a Brit to at last win, in this Jubilee and Olympian year, I have to stay loyal and yell once again.... Go Roger!!

Symphony Choir and Orchestra

I went and sketched at a rehearsal of the Johannesburg Symphony choir and Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday. They were practising for a performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, a celebration of the Queen's Jubilee and the 80th birthday of Prof Mzilikazi Khumalo on Sunday. These two Ebony pencil sketches were done last, after I'd tried first my rollerball pen with Ecoline watercolour-filled waterbrushes - the blue one is still working well, but the brown one has clogged up badly! - and then a disposable fountain pen with waterbrush to wash in the tones.

Members of the choir and orchestra setting up the stage

Warming up and tuning the instruments



Conductor Richard Cock with part of the orchestra

 

A section of the 100-strong choir



soloist Siyabonga Maqungo singing "Onaway! Awake, beloved!" from Hiawatha's Wedding

Beautiful music, a warm Linder Auditorium and sketching on a cold winter's afternoon - what could be nicer?

Melville Koppies

Just up the hill from my house, is a heritage site, Melville Koppies Central, where Stone and Iron Age artefacts have been discovered and preserved. It's not generally open to the public, but they have Open days for walkers and hikers, birding days, and for the first time last Saturday, a sketching, painting and photography day. John, Anni and I jumped at the chance to spend a morning in this wild spot of nature in the middle of Joburg, and we really felt as if we were out in the bush, apart from distant sounds of traffic and boys playing soccer down at Marks Park.

 I had planned to move around, sketching from the top of the koppie, down to the forested area lower down, but ended up sitting at the same spot, just turning my chair around to face South, then East, and finally North, before two of the hardworking custodians of the site, Wendy and John came to tell us they were locking up. I became fascinated with the thatching grass all around me - long and dry in the middle of winter, at first it seemed a uniform blond ochre, the more I looked, the more colours I saw. Pinks, golds, mauve and blue, shots of luminescent green - impossible to put them all in without drawing each stalk individually - and glimpses of the city looking soft and gentle through the waving strands  - I felt I could paint there for weeks on end.

We've been told we can go back and paint when the Birders are there - really look forward to another escape to the country - so close by!

Johannesburg City Library

 Joburg Sketchers went to the newly renovated and revamped Public Library in the city on Saturday. We had an anxious start with parking hassles and misunderstandings, and then in the library some of us being told we weren't allowed to sketch there... but after some negotiations it was all sorted out - we've evn been invited back to give a workshop! The library is beautiful, restored to its former glory and more.

There were lots of concientious students using the reading and reference rooms. I did a quick sketch of the huge windows with a floating level halfway down them, then looked down to some people working below - of course as soon as I started on the guy (that is a guy!) on the right he began packing up to go. It was a freezing cold day, and though some of the library is heated, swinging doors let icy blasts through every room, so many of the readers kept their coats and hoodies on.

Fingers freezing, I did a very fast sketch of one of two enormous, ornate book presses in the entrance foyer, the coldest room of all while waiting for the others to finish. I thought that my Pentel Pocket Brushpen wasn't working very well on the paper I had, but discovered when I got home that it had run out of ink - darn! It gave me some interesting textures I guess. We found a fast-food place nearby to have coffee, a bite to eat and look at everyone's sketches. You can see most of them here on Facebook.

Spear March

Today a march was held in Rosebank, quite near to where I live, to protest against the Goodman Gallery displaying a "derogatory" painting of the president. I thought that I should be brave and go and do some reportage sketching, though was pretty sure I'd safely chicken out at some stage. But I told my sketching friend Anni about my thought, and she was very enthusiastic, saying she'd meet me around 12... and so there we were!

At first there were mostly mounted guards, riot police and ANC marshalls gathered around, which made me nervous enough, but I started drawing them from behind as they gazed expectantly up Jan Smuts Avenue. Then we heard singing and chanting in the distance, coming closer, the mounted police lined up and my heart beat even faster - but there were plenty of relaxed and jovial people milling around, including a cheerful looking ANC protester chatting on her phone on my left - so we carried on sketching as the street ahead filled up. Soon it was apparent that speeches and the odd "Viva" call were all that were on the agenda - it was to be a peaceful, restrained occasion, much to my relief.

When it looked like the main event was over, we walked around the block to see if we could get closer, and found ourselves weaving our way right through the thick of the protesters - all friendly and approachable, two women readily agreeing to sit for us (but don't put the picture in 'that' gallery, they said!) I wish I could have sketched faster and got lots more of the colourful outfits and lively characters. Almost back where we started, we had a last opportunity to sketch the flamboyantly dressed elders, leaders and politicians on the back of the broadcasting truck before the crowds dispersed and we headed for a much needed drink and some lunch.

Autumn show

We're having glorious autumn weather at the moment - I took time yesterday to sketch these cymbidiums that come up every year without fuss or gardening attention in the shade at the bottom of the garden. You hardly see them unless the sun catches some of the yellow and rust-coloured blooms and you go a bit closer.

Drummies and Roundabouts

 I'm slaving away with clay at the moment for my Dinner Party project, and enjoying it immensely - takes me right back to my plasticine days and making tiny bowls of fruit to feed my tiny make-believe family. But I'm not ready to show and tell yet, so here are some sketches I did with our Joburg group at Marks Park just before we went away.

A junior baseball tournament was about to get under way, and there were drum majorettes directed by a rather camp coach, children (I'm sketching a lot of children lately!) playing on a roundabout and the players lining up for their march past. Some dads kept going over to the roundabout and telling the boys to get off in case they hurt themselves - and then wouldn't be fit to play baseball - no such concern for the girls and tiny tots who were whizzing around! 

 

If you go down to the woods today...

...and you haven't been around 20 or so tots for a while, it is a big surprise! I'd forgotten how non-stop full-on go-go they can be. It was my nephew's baby's first birthday party on Saturday and I set myself an impossible task trying to capture all the little people that were toddling, crawling and dashing around, while negotiating some sticky hands grasping at my pen and offering me spitty sausages - but I got a few, and a couple twice.

photo: Huw Morris

We brought teddy bears for the Nkanyesi Day Care Centre for children with cerebral palsy in Soweto, a little way to share the happiness of this occasion with babies who aren't so lucky.

Chinese New Year in South Africa

 Brightwater Commons had a Chinese New Year festival on Saturday, and some of our sketchers decided to join the throngs and see what there was to draw. There was plenty! I don't think I've ever done so many sketches in one session.. I started off quite slowly, with the beautifully serene Thai Massage tent - a great subject for an afternoon, all on its own.

But there was lots more to see, so I moved off to some of the stalls, selling parasols and fans, very popular in the baking sun.  I started adding colour to my sketches, but things were happening on the stage, so off to find a spot to sketch...

 The Dragon Dance first of course, being it's Year. My pen had to start flying across the page as the pace increased, and accuracy gave way to just trying to capture a feeling, a rhythm, a movement - or ten!

After mixing some muddy reds for the Lion Dance in my haste, I gave up on the colour, taking a few notes here and there so I could remember them later

An eclectic mixture of cultures started to emerge on stage - first came the Zulu dancers in sort of traditional dress, with some adaptations of bright pink and blue beads

and then a rather bizarre combination of Pedi men in Scottish kilts, with the women in a modernised version of the traditional Pedi dress

- after these thumping, , drumming exuberant local dancers it was the turn again of the Chinese, with the graceful, flowing Fan and Flower Dances

Then came the high-kicking karate students from the school in the shopping centre

- and lastly, before we went off for a break to see everyone else's sketches and looking forward to some Chinese food and a drink, the slow precise and meditative movements of the Archers.

Unfortunately most of the food was sold out and shortly afterwards the rain came belting down, so the Chinese acrobats carried sportingly on without us in the slippery wet - Just as well, I think I was sketched out!

Railways and Bridges

 Joburg Sketchers ventured into the city on Saturday - well, the gateway to the city - where the fairly new Nelson Mandela bridge spans the railway lines, connecting Braamfontein and the Northern suburbs to Newtown, Johannesburg central and the South. We parked in the grounds of the Holy Trinity Catholic church, which Barbara and I tried sketching while waiting for everyone to arrive (right), which was the start of a challenging few hours drawing architecture and lots and lots of lines!

We worked our way towards the bridge, some of us getting very successful sketches along the way. I had a huge truck obstruct my first view of the bridge so only really got to work again once we were on it. Looking down, the converging and swerving lines of the railways and trains, the bridges and highways, the verticals, diagonals, horizontals and criss-crosses were so intricate it was almost impossible to see what was what and I kept swopping implements to try and capture it all. Then a quick look up and a half-hearted, not very hopeful attempt to get that soaring perspective above me (left).

We then decided to look for a more distant viewpoint, eventually landing up on the 4th floor of a parking garage, where we had a panoramic view of the bridge, the railways and part of the city. I managed to stick to just one drawing tool this time - my aquabrush filled with Ecoline watercolour.

You can see everyone else's sketches here on Facebook, and Cathy, Barbara and John's posts on their blogs.

Here are five versions of the same scene, from slightly different angles on the bridge, from left to right, Barbara, John, Anni, me and Cathy Giordini-Bricka - I love seeing the different treatments!

Happy Christmas!

 On another jacaranda-painting expedition a few weeks ago with our sketching group, I ended the session with a couple of sketches of  the thousands of fallen bougainvillea blossoms at my feet. I found the brush shaped petals and forms so enjoyable to paint, even roughly and quickly as I did them then (below), that I collected a hatful to take home. Yesterday I got to spend another happy hour or so painting them, now dried, more carefully, but still trying to keep them carefree. I think they'll do to wish every one of you a wonderful, joyous and peaceful festive season, however you celebrate it, wherever you are.

Carols by Candlelight

This is the line drawing I did last week at the Zoo Lake Carols by Candlelight on Wednesday. I started sketching in late afternoon sunshine, when Simba the Lion and Father Christmas did their thing, and ended in the dark, lit by candles and spotlights as the Salvation Army band, the choir and the Nativity play swung into enthusiastic action.

After a while my Lamy pen was running out of ink and I couldn't see my page any more, so took the line drawing home and tried different techniques - wax crayons, watercolour wash and black and white pens and markers - to try to capture the sparkles, shimmers and glows of the night scene.

Carol concerts and Christmas Fairs have to be held early in Johannesburg. From now on, everybody starts packing up to go on holiday and from the 16th when the Builder's holidays start, it's practically deserted. Carols by Candlelight is an old tradition here, where families pack picnics, presents for needy children, blankets, granny and the kids, and gather in their hundreds on the grass under the stars.
The little girl in the middle seemed to find the drawing lady more interesting than all the entertainment behind her, but when the candles were lit she joined her mom to sing - there at bottom left.