Shark Party

One of my great-nephews had his fourth 'Shark' themed birthday party last week (still not quite keeping up). That means three years since I did this post on his first birthday party... I'm not sure why I haven't sketched at any of his older brother's birthday parties, possibly just too much to take in and put on a page. At least at this one, they were more or less contained in a swimming pool for some of the time! It seemed appropriate to colour my quick pen sketch with children's felt tip markers... I should have got there earlier to draw the terrific food table with sharky birthday cake, watermelon bowl, brownies with fins etc - they didn't last long after the little guests arrived!

I recently added a Search widget to A Sketch in Time... why didn't I do that years ago? Within seconds I found all references to "birthday party", and the other day when I wanted to remind myself how to make a home-made scraperboard - pop - there it was. I sometimes despair of ever keeping up with all the techie stuff available, but this one was worth the head-scratching!

Goodbye Sweet Gucci

The eucalyptus tree was not all we lost in June - two days before that we had to say goodbye to our beloved dog, "the oldest weimeraner known to man" as a vet friend of my daughter's said. I haven't been able to bring myself to post this up till now, but I want to commemorate a beautiful, brave, naughty and irrepressible part of our home for the past 16 and a half years. 

Our son, now 23 was 7 when he came into our lives - a silky blue-eyed pup who immediately recognised me as 'mom' and curled up on my lap to sleep after exhausting himself playing with the kids. Anyone on the floor was fair game to be chewed, rolled-over onto (head over heels, not sideways) and determinedly edged away from the heater, while he was a willing pillow for weary or TV watching heads once he had worn himself out. 

He was wild - crazy - we could have done with the Dog Whisperer's help throughout his uncontrollable life. I have scars from where he yanked me down steps to launch himself at the meter-man, or the postman or the sandwich men ringing at the gate. So much for 'Foods you Must Never give your Dog' - he helped himself to avocados that dropped off the tree next door, unripe plums within his reach, entire chocolate Easter egg stashes, fillet roasts, anything whatsoever edible (except peppers and chilli) that he could reach when standing on his bandy back legs. Doors were no obstacle unless they were locked - he opened them in- or outwards and preferred them all open, come rain, shine or freezing wind.

When our daughter brought a kitten home, we were quite sure that she would be swallowed whole in an exuberant gulp and kept watch to make sure she didn't wander into 'Orc' territory - till one day our vigilance slipped and we rushed, panicking, to find the kitten contentedly tucked under a bemused Gucci's chin - where she more or less stayed, in innumerable yin-and-yang poses for the rest of his days (she shows remarkable, cat-like unconcern about his sudden absence, though perhaps slightly more affectionate towards her humans lately). While rats, strange cats and hadedas were in great danger if spotted, and he refused to ever give back a ball thrown for him - when my son's pet rat's many babies all escaped into the garden, he gently retrieved every single one without so much as a bruise and brought them to us to put back into the cage.

He was my constant companion unless his adored 'dad' was home when he was the preferred target for underfoot and in-your-face attention. As I do the most mundane things now his image rises before me - sweeping, nobody trudging doggedly through the dust pile - vacuuming the floors, no one lying hopefully in my path wanting a vacuum-massage - eating an apple, no one behind to toss the core to (the Best Catcher in the World) - the ways to miss him are many and painful, but we are so grateful that he was ours. RIP dearest Gooch.

Anniversary Special

                     

Bruce and I astonishingly reached 35 years of marriage last week, and celebrated by taking a trip -♫♪♩♬ just the two of us ♫♪♩♬ - to the little town of Clarens in the eastern Free State, just 4 hours drive from Joburg. It's a place I've always wanted to visit, being renowned for its scenic beauty and its bounteous artistic community. No wonder artists gravitate there, the surrounding countryside is breathtakingly magnificent and I certainly felt the pull of becoming a landscape painter. From the car window I did attempt one quick sketch of some of the enormous sky, which looked like a supremely adept artist had wielded a giant paintbrush of infinite blues across it. How inadequate were my little bag of materials and dabbings.

       

 It was, however, our anniversary, so I couldn't spend our time sketching while my beloved amused himself, but did a couple of hurried scribbles here and there, mostly for my own memory banks (if I don't sketch it, how will I ever remember it?)

We hiked, and drove, and explored the nearby Golden Gate national park where I tried to capture some shy baboons. Not as used to cars as some troops we've seen, they lolloped off as soon as they sensed they were being watched. I could watch and draw them all day, such characters, so full of human characteristics!

Another few opportunities snatched while we sampled the Clarens Craft beer, a cup of tea in a café (the Artist's Café of course!),

one of three delicious dinners we had in different restaurants in town... this table appeared to be of brothers and their spouses who eat out a lot together - hardly a word was exchanged! And the couple on the left only had eyes for each other...

and some local residents from the car while Bruce did something useful and necessary. So very much more to draw and paint - one would have to move there to really have a chance to do a fraction of it. But a wonderful trip in every way, not least of all spending dedicated time alone with my very special man! 

Rocks, Pools, Waves

I'm back from a wonderful, relaxed ten days down in the Eastern Cape - in the little hamlet of Kidds Beach where my family have been spending holidays for generations and which holds many happy memories.

It was quiet after all the holiday-makers had returned to work - we are rejoicing in no longer having to stick to school holidays to take our breaks!

As you can see, I had time to sketch, as well as walk, read, swim, sleep... I found a great watercolour book at our extended family's home, 'Mastering Color & Design in Watercolor' by Christopher Schink, which I studied and took copious notes from, and tried to use some of his exercises in these sketches (using mostly watercolour, with some Inktense crayons). The colours in that rock pool are exaggerated, but when you stare at them for ages, they seem so brilliant! There were beautiful long white beaches too, where we walked and swam, but my husband and son fished from the rocks so that is where I sat too. Trying to paint the sea and rocks is completely absorbing, time flies and I felt I'd just begun when it was time to leave. I can see why some artists spend a lifetime trying to capture it.

After Lisbon... France

After the anticipation, preparation and high excitement of Lisbon, it was a different kind of joy to unwind in the northern French countryside of Pas de Calais. Our daughter and her boyfriend welcomed us to their lovely farmhouse home and we proceeded to enjoy all the charms of a tiny French village - from the noisy next-door rooster to the cow who craved human company, the visiting Dutch orchestra, the family jam-producing homestead, and the drives to surrounding Somme battlefields, village markets and sea and riverside towns, it was a feast of new, blissful and picturesque experiences. I would have to spend weeks, slowly, to sketch even a tenth of it, but this was a sociable, and mobile - lots more walking! - time with family and friends, so these were the few scenes I did get into my sketchbook. I hope to get the chance to do lots more some day.  

Sitting on the doorstep of the house, looking out of the gate to 'The Cité' - all of ...six? houses in a row, with the cow's field behind them.

The gateway to The Abbaye, where we gathered one evening with the villagers to listen to the orchestra and choir from Holland - heralded by a march through the town with bagpipes (?!) and a very quaint sort of barrel orchestrion.

The garage housing a very old Landrover that valiantly transported its travellers most of the way round Europe, but depositing them rather suddenly near Barcelona, and needing to be towed back to its resting place under the grape vines.

Happy Thanksgiving

...to my dear American family, and friends, many of whom I've made through this virtual window to the world, and viewers known and unknown - though we don't formally celebrate, I am thankful for you all. I have to confess to being relieved that I don't have to produce a large meal with pumpkin pie, when major festivities are coming up in a months time, but I am extraordinarily thankful for my husband (who would probably have to cook the Thanksgiving meal if truth be told), family and friends here at home, and those that soon will be home again.
The watercolour is one I did years ago from a photograph of my daughters at a funfair (the blond one at the back is returning home from seeing the world in less than a week - whee!) and wasn't very pleased with at the time - the painting that is, not the daughter - but now I've unearthed it again, it brings warm, happy feelings of nostalgia, and gratitude that these little girls have grown up into the wonderful independent young women they are. Their little brother wasn't born yet when this was taken, but I think I feel a blog post of his own coming on, as he moves from one life stage into another and my maternal role goes through churnings and adjustments.

A Family Wedding

At last, sketches of my niece's wedding in England in May. In the comments in my previous post about sketching at weddings, I said how much harder it is when you have an emotional involvement, when you're trying too hard, and when you're a guest and not just an onlooker. The wedding, the bride, the setting, were all so incredibly beautiful that I really couldn't do them justice, but as a memento - to dearest Jo and Steve, this comes with love and best wishes for a wonderful future...
(I added the text for this Issuu publication as a brief explaination and link between the drawings)

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.

What I love

I've received this Award - again! - from Adam Cope, someone with a real, palpable passion for painting and everything to do with it, including teaching it to others. Do visit his blog Dordogne Painting Days and have a look-see.

The award involves naming seven things that you love, but I decided that instead of composing a written list, I'd spend the time drawing the 'things' with this dip pen, which I've re-discovered and love, and sepia ink, ditto...

My studio - still in a mess, but I love it anyway!

Sushi Sisters

The other night our daughters were presented with all the ingredients by their super shopper-and-chef Dad, and requested to make second daughter's specialty, sushi, for our supper.
They did an amazing job and brought in all their sushi-eating experience, and culinary and artistic talents, and made what looked like a mountain of fish, rice and veggie creations... my sketches really don't do them justice! They were absolutely stunning to look at...

...and we managed to polish them all off, bar four little rolls (I'm sorry, I don't know all the names given to the individual morsels), which their sibling had for lunch the next day. So scrumptious!!

Sushi aside - good grief there are a lot of 'S's cropping up in this post! - I'm dashing through everything that I'm painting or sketching so fast lately, it's making me feel quite unsettled and jittery. I have so many ideas on what I would like to paint and do, a very pleasant change from a year or so ago, when I couldn't think of a thing!... but I need to slow down and take a more considered, leisurely and contemplative approach. I'm busy spring-cleaning my studio - a major undertaking - so I can get back in there and settle down to some serious work, I hope!

Morning at the airport

Our daughter who went to Dubai returned today (hooray!) and the plane was delayed. Since rediscovering sketchbooking, almost an occasion for jubilation - a chance to observe and sketch from life... I had to wait a while for a seat, and then of course had mostly back views, except for people staring up at the arrivals screen, who soon turned away again. I started with the man to the right of middle, very shakily, then became surer as I went along.

By the time I got to these figures on the right, I was beginning to enjoy myself trying to capture the essence of each individual, then someone came to watch over my shoulder and I got all flustered and started chatting to her instead (an art teacher from Vereeniging), then the plane and lovely daughter arrived, then we went home and had some tea.

A Holiday to remember

I'm killing two birds with one stone (if they'll forgive the expression!) with this post, by submitting this watercolour sketch to Adam's 'Paintings of Painters Painting Project', and as a comment to Katherine Tyrell's serendipitous post 'Why choose a painting holiday' that appeared yesterday. The painting is of my sister, Vivienne, who suggested and arranged that she, our younger sister Gillian, and I meet in Bergerac, France for one of Adam's painting holidays in the magnificent Dordogne two years ago, which she had found cruising the internet, and which she thought looked picturesque, pleasant and relaxed.
We converged with huge excitement from our various continents - Australia, America and South Africa and spent ten blissful days relating (being close relations and not having been together for a very long time!), eating the wonderful French meals Adam had organised (my sketch journal of the time is mainly descriptions of food), and of course happy hours of drawing, painting and sketching as I hadn't done since leaving art school 30 years before. We had some formal teaching sessions, which occasionally brought about some groans as Lafayette-with-no-nose was presented for loosening up on, and - especially from me - as I finally learnt what it was that artists actually did when squinting at that pencil held up in front of them (the art school I went to was more into Dada and other isms than perspective and proportion) as I tried to get the great Chateau de Lanquais onto my little piece of paper. (Which has since helped me with my tendency to go off the edges, thanks Adam!)

What I found most useful were the tutor comments on what I was doing, the colour and tonal suggestions - and on when to stop - and I like the group 'crit' when you see what everyone else has done... all the differing styles and subject choices, and get some interaction on the day. I really appreciate the kick-start I got into re-kindling my own art vision and ambition (basically just to DO it), which has been further stimulated by this great art-blogging community that never fails to inspire me. It was great to meet other people drawn together by this common enjoyment, and with varying motives - at least two others came as a means of upliftment out of sad times. We 3 sisters ourselves carried with us the memories of our late artist mother and eldest sister, who would both have so loved such a holiday, which seemed to make the trip all the more poignant and significant. But also huge fun, completely different from normality, and liberating - Katherine is right when she says some of the older participants provide the most laughs and we had one irrepressible ball of fire and fun from Arizona(/New Mexico? - not old, but a baby-boomer like us - not old, I said!) who prevented us from taking ourselves or our dabblings too terribly seriously. Which was a very good thing.

Undercover operation

I wouldn't usually infiltrate a bunch of 17 year old boys, but when my son brought two friends home last night for supper and a movie I thought I'd risk it for the sake of Art. They dress themselves in a way calculated to repel and intimidate (it seems), but really they're quite nice, happy to chat to the old fogeys and take their plates to the kitchen and say please and thank you.
I sunk into a corner chair with the crossword as a cover, and sketched them from the corner of my eye. They didn't notice they were being drawn, so busy were they texting messages while watching a rather inane movie (another reason we generally slink off out of eye and earshot).
I added the wash and colour this morning, so they haven't seen themselves yet, but I hope (at least one being a keen art student), they'll appreciate the role they've played towards honing my skills!

Sugarland is Sweet...and so are you!

I just happened to spend some time sitting in the gorgeous autumn sunshine today, and just happened to find a sketchbook next to me, with some coloured pencils, and just happened to find a print in the sketchbook of a photo of my sister Gillian, so naturally picked up the pencils and tried to sketch it... Then later this afternoon, she called on Skype, and we chatted about this and that, and I said I was trying to think of a blog to do with Sugar is Sweet...etc (following on from my two previous posts, Roses are Red, Irises are Blue - which she hadn't cottoned onto - is it that obscure?) and she suggested Sugarland (where she lives) is sweet and so was she, being the cheeky sort and not shy in coming forward. So it all seemed meant to be, and she is quite sweet, really, and pretty!