Pastel Shades

 I've had soft pastels hanging around for years in my studio, but never really used them. I've been exploring them and learning to like them more (they are dusty, and a bit unruly!) with the guidance of Greg Kerr's online course. This was based on photographs I took of the Boomslang treetop pathway at Kirstenbosch gardens in Cape Town  - ended up in wild fantasy colours... perhaps I should have stopped at some earlier stage!

 And an 'urban' sketch - a storyboard of a typical day under lockdown, which was a virtual challenge by James Richards. In fact it's a typical day most days, except I'd be going to actual Tai Chi, and there'd be more visits to and from family, and the odd coffee or sketching with friends.

And a Grey Lourie in a Plum Tree

A day late for this Johannesburg version of a Christmas tree, but hoping all who visit here had a very happy day, if you celebrated - and peace and goodwill to all!

Not a pear tree with a partridge, but the greengage tree outside my studio, which was vibrating a couple of weeks ago with all kinds of birds gorging and feasting on the not-quite-ripe-yet fruit. We still have pots of jam from last year's crop so I let them get on with it and spent a happy couple of hours watching and sketching them... The thrush thinking he's lord of the manor and trying to chase everyone else off, the barbets bright and fierce looking but quite wary of the other birds and of eyes peeping at them through the window; the little grey mousebirds with raggedy tails and punk hairdos come in cheeky flocks; my favourite bulbuls (they make such sweet, clear calls to each other, "what's for tea Gregory?") and the grey louries  - or Go-away bird - one semi-tame who comes and squawks at me outside the kitchen if there's nothing to eat and to bring out some paw-paw please.

I never used to be much into birds, it was what my mom, aunts and gran did. At last I'm mature enough to appreciate the small, precious things, some positives to these years passing ever faster by!

Poplars and Pétanque

 Well, a very Happy Not-so-New Year to everybody... I have badly neglected my blog as I've become slightly enamoured with Instagram (it's so quick, and instant!) as well as really busy with the usual end-of-year festivities and making plans for the series of 10 years x 10 classes Urban Sketching workshops that we in Joburg have decided to take part in. (If anyone reading this is interested in signing up, click on the link and do it. We start our classes on the 25 March and spaces are limited...you can also email me at the address in my sidebar). And we made another trip to Franschhoek, where I managed to do quite a lot of sketching while my husband, Bruce, was working hard.

It was blissful to do some relaxed watercolouring from the shady stoop of one of the beautiful Forest Cottages that we stayed in at La Cotte Farm. Gardeners were taking a lunch break, with ubiquitous cellphones, from digging out undergrowth from the poplar grove on a hot, hot day.

On the right, done earlier in Johannesburg, a strongly back-lit man sketched at the airport.

On Saturday mornings in summer, Franschhoek has its local market with food, wine, music, lots of stalls to browse and a regular Boules match, just as in real France. A vintageTriumph pulled right up to the cleared patch where the game takes place and a very handsome, cool guy (far right), with two young friends, got out and joined the game. Every now and then an oblivious person strolled across the court, taken with good humour by the otherwise serious pétanque players.

One of the boules participants got stranded on the recto side of a double-page spread - from our parked car the next day I filled the empty space (I was worried I'd run out of pages) with figures outside Pick'n Pay supermarket where someone was selling boerewors (farmer's sausage) rolls at a great rate - hardly any time to sketch his customers so fast was he.

Supper one evening, again, at the Station Pub, where I've sketched before and am now warmly welcomed by the two waitresses I drew, whenever they see me (with good, reasonable food and just down the road, we go quite often - plus, as I've said, Bruce's grandfather was Stationmaster there about a century ago, so we feel quite at home!) This visit had a lively, noisy crowd that I could have sketched all night without them noticing. Revellers coming and going and the two on the right engrossed in long and earnest conversation.

Lastly, a very quick sketch of one of the angel cleaning ladies who come in while you pop out and whip around your cottage, leaving it sparkling for you to come back to and start all your eating, drinking and messing up again. I could get used to that!

Spring in Black & White

 We were down in Franschhoek again last week, mon mari (a little French to suit the location) very busy with meetings, so I had plenty of time to chill - and there is no better place to do that - reading books, drawing and just gazing at the amazing scenery. The house we stayed in has a number of beautiful old black and white drawings and prints of trees in it and I was inspired to try using just pen and ink (my Lamy pen with a fine nib, and Noodlers black ink) to sketch in spite of the seductive brilliant greens just beginning to sprout from every dry branch and vine.

A pair of Egyptian geese had produced a family on the pond outside the house - last time my husband was here there were seven goslings, now reduced to three with a sighting of a rooikat (caracul or lynx) with a little feathered body clamped in its jaws reported! I sketched the survivors grazing on the lawn - their ruthless parents were now dive-bombing them to chase them off the premises - oh to be a bird!

I did try one little watercolour sketch of some indigenous watsonias against the fields, trees and mountains but my sketchbook paper and clumsy waterbrush conspired against the beauty I was trying to portray (well that's my excuse anyway).

Trees in the City

On a gorgeous Spring morning last Friday, a few sketcher friends and I met in Braamfontein to record a 'Parking Day' event where artists and activists were supposed to take over parking bays and transform them. It had been cancelled at the last minute and not an activist was to be found. Lots of cars in the parking bays, students to and from nearby Wits University, some vigilant security guards steering a few beggars away from the streets and cafés - I decided to try and draw the row of public art tree sculptures that runs all the way up Juta St, but all these things got in the way. I added the colours so you can spot them among the other activity!

EVERY DAY in May!

I signed up for the annual 'Every Day in May' challenge on Facebook and Flickr. Am already thinking, Oy what was I thinking!?... I decided to brush up on my watercolour skills while doing this and really enjoyed the first three days - maybe watercolour is my medium after all. I've been faffing around with oils for a while now and still don't quite feel the love.

Day 1 was a favourite food, and the only appetizing things in my kitchen were some grapefruit and avocados that we'd bought at the roadside on a recent trip to the bush. Just come into season, fresh and delicious!

Day 2 - a nearby Tree -  so I looked out of our front window and lo, there was a beautifully autumnal Pride of India (or Crepe Myrtle) that I'd hardly noticed was turning. Nothing like painting something to appreciate your surroundings.

Day 3 was Curtains and as I'd left all my painting clobber by the window and had room on the side of the page, I added the sitting room curtain plus more of the rather unkempt background garden (top of this post)







Day 4 - Bottle/s of spice or herbs. Not really inspired by this one and left it till late in the day to pull a common old bottle of Robertson's cinnamon out of the cupboard and tackle it.  Drawing it took me right to my days as a 'renderer' in an ad agency - back in the day when there were no computers, digital cameras or google. We had shelf-loads of reference magazines and racks of Magic Markers and I drew for eight hours a day and sometimes more and all weekend if there was a big campaign on - no extra pay! 'Pack shots' similar to this one were where I stared intensely at glass, plastic, ellipses, shadows and logos to work out how to recreate them 2D on paper.

Day 5 - Something Hot. Seeing as my husband wouldn't pose :) I settled for my morning coffee in a hot orange mug. Thoroughly overworked in places, I seem to be getting worse at this as I go along. Should be good for me though, if I persevere!

I'll try and post every day for the rest of May to prevent having to write so much the next time - short and sweet to get bum off seat.

End of a Eucalypt

These sketches tell their own story - the end of the long life of a beautiful eucalyptus tree at the entrance to our home. It was leaning dangerously towards our neighbour's car park so it had to be done, but I'll so miss its silvery leaves cheerily shimmering in the sun amongst the darker greens of other trees.
These treefeller guys were something else though - just amazing stamina, strength and agility climbing (without safety harnesses!) up and down while wielding a chainsaw in one hand or the other, only sometimes both when they could get a good grip with legs alone. Systematically removing huge limbs and slicing off log after log from top to bottom, avoiding power lines and precious plants, being flung around as branches sprang back from releasing a weight, they were truly awe-inspiring. I felt exhausted after standing in my nice warm kitchen all day, sketching them from the window, I can only imagine how weary they must feel at the end of a day like this - -just another working day.

Artists Under The Sun

After the noise and bustle of the Children's Day in my last post, a couple of us crossed the road to Zoo Lake to have a look at Artists Under the Sun. A hot steamy day, Barbara and I found a bench under a big shady tree and decided to carry on sketching the relaxed scene around us. After a while one of the artists in this little group came over to have a look, and was captivated by the idea of sketching from life, in public. When I suggested that she try it, she said she felt she didn't have the 'skill levels'! I wish I'd encouraged her further, but somehow my linguistic brain goes into neutral while I'm concentrating on drawing and I only think of these things later. The word travelled though, and a little trickle of artists came wandering over to visit us, all very complimentary and enthusiastic - I think other artists really appreciate the challenges of sketching from life. I did spot one woman later, looking up and down between the view and a book on her lap - so maybe we've started a trend at the outdoor art market...

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.

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!

Acacia trees

I've been sketching exotic trees up till now - most of the trees at Emmarentia Dam and around the suburbs were imported from around the world and planted in an area that had few, if any indigenous trees a hundred and twenty or so years ago, being mostly Highveld grassland.
This morning I had a long wait in the car for my son, and was happy to find some acacia trees in the parking lot - I don't know their names, but someone once made an effort to have quite a variety of the species planted here, in an otherwise stark and industrial sort of area. So naturally I spent the time sketching them - boy, trees are difficult! I tried first with Pentel pen and watercolour, and then with just watercolour and the brushpen, which is a bit ungainly to render all those fine twiggy bits and feathery leaves. I meant to pick some of the leaves and pods to draw later at home, but forgot.
Instead I sketched the pods I picked up at the dam a few weeks ago, which I thought were from an African tree, but have since discovered are from a Honey-locust, which comes from North America. When I picked them up I described them as 'ebony', but actually they are rich shades of red and burgundy - I think I will be painting them again - better next time I hope, on proper paper with a proper brush. I'm getting a bit too reliant on that handy waterbrush!

Look at this beautiful poem sent to me by a dear friend, when she saw I was drawing trees...

'WHEN I AM AMONG TREES'
by Mary Oliver (from 'Thirst')

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
Equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness,
I would also say that they save me, and daily,

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
And call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
Into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

More trees

It never rains but it deluges - I sometimes don't have illustration work for months and years at a time, and then it arrives by the container-load! So I'm neglecting the blog a bit, and I'm sure it's very disjointed and erratic to read -I will get to posting about materials and process, as I've promised some of my visitors - just when I have time to engage brain and try and be logical, and methodical!

I am finding it essential to get out and move my limbs occasionally though, and happy to have the extra incentive of the tree challenge and sketchercise. It was -1°C when I got up this morning, so I did some work first, and then walked when the sun had thawed things out a bit. I sat and drew the base of a cork oak, couldn't resist adding the duck as he came poking his head round the side, and then added more and more around the tree-trunk - it was supposed to be a quick, simple study of the bark...

On the left is a corner of the neighbour's garden I did after vacuuming a few days ago - the only physical jerks of the day - as the sun was going down, so everything was getting more silhouetted by the minute. That was with a water-soluble felt pen and waterbrush - the cork oak was with water-soluble graphite and my little Cotman set in the small moleskine w/c notebook. That trunk base looks like a dinosaur foot, doesn't it?!

Winter garden

Hello there! I'm back in the land of watercolours, trees, walks in the park... I think there are more work projects on the way, but for now... wheee! I must say discipline and deadlines do me good every now and then and I'm glad my 'work' is almost as much fun as my 'play'. Just so much of it at a time!
But this morning I got up, free as a bird, and put on my walking shoes and my new pedometer and went on my usual route around the dam - 5613 steps including an extra bit to the supermarket to buy some yoghurt to put on my breakfast. Only 220 calories burnt - a bit downcasting, but I'm not sure if I've set my new toy properly. I'll have to figure out a way that the walk at least cancels out the breakfast. I didn't stop and sketch, it was bracing to say the least, but when I got home I had a hot shower and sat in the sun in the garden to sketch the branches of our big jacaranda. As purple as the flowers are in early summer (see sketches here and here and oil paintings here) the foliage goes golden in winter before it all falls off - W&N Quinacridone Gold and Green Gold are the perfect match.

I very quickly sketched my neighbour's jacaranda to get a bit of distance on the subject - on the original Emmarentia farm rows of them were planted, along with avocado trees which you can still see dotted around. Tragically, lots of recent immigrés to the suburb are chopping down every big old tree on their new properties and building vast palaces and concreting what's left - what kind of mindset is that? Joburg, as I've mentioned before, has the biggest manmade Urban Forest in the world, but I don't know for how much longer at this rate!

Sawtooth Oak

Just a quickie posting of this tree I sketched on my walk today - took some Time Out from computer colouring. I'm planning to join in Vivien's Tree Challenge when the rush is over - you can never have enough tree practice!