Christmas Past

Gosh - it's over, and I didn't even wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, but I do hope they were and are, how ever you are spending them. We've had a lovely mini family gathering, with our daughter/sister home from London for a few days. Sunny days and hot summer nights with the occasional thunderstorm to freshen things up, its been pleasantly relaxed - except for the big cook-up on Christmas Eve (that every fly in the vicinity looks forward to with glee), which brings flushed cheeks and flustered stuffings and stirrings, and too, too much of everything. This is a sketch of Alex (I've made her look grumpy, which she isn't) done with the wonderful Pentel Brush Pen she brought me from London and some watercolour - soaking up some sun after the snow and cold she left behind. In the pool is Rob, our other daughter's boyfriend, floating blissfully after a Boxing Day lunch of - you guessed it, cold turkey and gammon and leftover trifle. And the post-Christmas table with the decorations slightly wilted, the Pimms all gone, and much clearing up to be done A night swim where the water is as warm as the air, one of the great pleasures of Christmas in South Africa - the sea is the best for this, if its safe - but a big old swimming pool comes close.

Christmas fare

The smell of peaches and plums is an instant reminder that Christmas is coming, and these with all the other bright and beautiful fruits in season now feels like wonderful abundance. The one Christmas we spent in the USA in glorious snow, with holly and mistletoe and jingle bells, also felt especially blessed, so I suppose one just appreciates the joys of whichever setting you're in at this time.
It is very hot here now, with a leisurely cricket match on TV in the background, a slow, sleepy feeling as Joburg empties out to the coast, with an occasional splash as someone cools off in the pool. All very laid back, but a busy shopping, cooking, preparing week ahead - with a daughter arriving from London on Monday for the holidays - thanks BA for holding off the strike!

ChristmasTree

...Southern Hemisphere style... this is the yellowwood (our national tree) which my husband planted about ten years ago in our garden, full and lush from all the rain we've had, and looking like it just wants some fairy lights and an angel on the top to fit in perfectly with the season. I painted this on Sunday with watercolours and a bit of gouache, when the sun was baking down and the last thing you want to think about is roast turkey and rich pudding - which we will, nevertheless, come sun or high temperatures, gamely manage to wolf down in in a week or two's time. But Christmastime here is of course very different from the festive, snowy and cosy scenes I'm seeing on overseas blogs lately - if I can find time to paint them and you have time to look, I'll bring you some glimpses of Christmas a la Joburg in the next few posts.

Virtual paintout, Mexico City

Inspired by Charlene and Laura, I took a little trip to Mexico City, thanks to Google Maps and Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout. I searched for ages to find a place that struck me as particularly Mexican and exotic-looking, and at last landed here at 130 Alvaro Obregón, Roma Norte - a very complicated building that made me wonder if I really am a sucker for punishment. Its not at all accurate and now I've done it, I think I should start all over again and do it differently. I just loved looking around though, what a colourful place - another destination to put on my wish list.

Greengages galore

A quickie watercolour sketch of the greengage plum tree in our garden - it's laden with fruit and the grey louries and other fruit eaters are gorging themselves - watch out washing (which hangs next to the tree) here come the dive-bombers... worse, though, is that it's mulberry season too... do you know what damage flying mulberry missiles can do to white sheets?!
The fruit eaters include the dog, who is very pleased that he can help himself to plums whenever he likes, which he obviously doesn't connect to his condition of lying around groaning with tummy-ache. Do other dogs eat fruit? He also loves the avocados that fall off the neighbour's tree. When I was a child we had a dear silly old squat dog called Dagwood who tried to climb the mulberry tree to get at the fruit and got himself well and truly stuck one day.
Now why am I sitting here drawing cartoons of a long-gone pet? Because I'm procrastinating, that's why - with holidays and Christmas coming up there's so much to do and I don't know where to start, but start I must!

Night of a 1000 drawings

On Thursday evening my daughter and I went to the Night of a 1000 Drawings at the old Park Station in the city. I've been to 'new' Park Station before, to catch or meet trains to and from Cape Town, but I didn't even know about this old section to the south of it, abandoned and disused apart from the odd party event. I can find very little information about it, but I think it dates back to the Gold Rush. It is a magnificent building with soaring arches, beautiful wood and tilework, marble steps and pillars - I sincerely hope there are plans to restore and preserve it, though I can't find any reference to it on the net.
The event was great fun - the public had been asked to donate A5 drawings to be sold for R100 (less than £8 or $14) each on the night and the funds raised go to city charities. I only heard about it a day or two before, so didn't draw - next year! You had to buy envelopes with stickers, then peruse the drawings and choose the ones you liked, then at 7.30 there was a signal and a mad rush to put your sticker on your chosen artworks. There was some stiff competition for some of them - we got the ones we picked, though Dominique had somebody begging and pleading with her to part with her treasure.
As for my sketch... oh, buildings are a challenge for me!.. I found a nice secluded vantage-point but got confused with all the arches and what you could see through them, and completely overworked the watercolour. Those stars were projected onto the ceiling - it started pumping as the music got progressively louder but I was happy to depart with a sketch and my two purchases - I think the daughter would have liked to stay and party.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just to wish all my blogging friends, and family in the USA a very Happy Thanksgiving - I am thankful for this blogging platform where I've got to know and share so much with so many of you!
(this is the Graffiti app on Facebook - press Play to view the whole message)