Irish fields

I love Ireland, and its green, green fields. I like standing there sketching what I see, listening to the birds cawing, making out the jackdaws from the crows by their calls. These were carrion crows. As I was drawing the fog descended and by the time I finished the trees on the horizon were not visible anymore. So beautiful.

Views from Italy

A little town in Central Italy, in Umbria, the same region where Assisi is. The town is called Amelia and we have a small house where we occasionally manage to spend a few days. The view from the windows is enchanting, since they're at the top of the high ramparts that support the buildings, towards the valley . It's a typical position for medieval italian villages to be high up and walled, against invaders. Unfortunately the new towns built outside the walls are more practical and commercial; old, romantic towns are void of life nowadays.

The hills are soft, but limestone rocks emerge from the thick ilex woods.
Down below the town, spring and afternoon light combine in lovely shades.

I had to quit before the wind blew my sketchpad miles away!

The worst is over... Maree

Ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

… but still the weather teases, keeping Spring just around the corner.

The end of winter at the bottom of our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

Rain, rain and more rain - Maree

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

It has been raining solidly, every day, for over two weeks now and the landscape is saturated with water, forming large pans of water everywhere. Some days my rain gauge overflows, meaning more than 120mm in just a few hours! My chooks are bedraggled and wet, choosing the safety and dryness of the coop. While all this water is excellent for our ground water tables, it has caused massive flooding and damage in large parts of South Africa. I think we're getting a spin-off from all the ice storms and flooding in the Northern Hemisphere, because this is most unusual weather for us.

.

Cumulus humilis (Cu hum) - Maree

“We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better.” 

― Walt Stanchfield

W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

While sketching this landscape, I was fascinated by the colour of the clouds. So as soon as I finished, I decided to research some clouds and came up with some interesting information.

Cumulus humilis (Cu hum) is the smallest non-ragged cloud and usually shows a light-grey shading underneath.

These are small fair-weather cumuliform clouds of limited convection that do not grow vertically and generally do not produce rain showers. Being at or near the beginning of the convective cloud’s daily life cycle, they lack the moderate vertical extent of cumulus mediocris. Consequently they are commonly classified as low clouds. Cumulus mediocris (Cu med) achieves moderate vertical development, has medium-grey shading underneath, and can produce scattered showers of light intensity.

Striking cloud colorations can be seen at many altitudes in the homosphere, which includes the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesophere. The first recorded colored cloud was seen by Nathan Ingleton in 1651, he wrote the event in his diary but the records were destroyed in 1666, in the Great Fire of London. The color of a cloud, as seen from Earth, tells much about what is going on inside the cloud.

Cloud droplets tend to scatter light efficiently, so that the intensity of the solar radiation decreases with depth into the gases. As a result, the cloud base can vary from a very light to very-dark-grey depending on the cloud’s thickness and how much light is being reflected or transmitted back to the observer. Thin clouds may look white or appear to have acquired the color of their environment (cloud iridescence).

Colors occur naturally in tropospheric clouds. Bluish-grey is the result of light scattering within the cloud. The bluish color is evidence that such scattering is being produced by rain-size droplets in the cloud. A cumulonimbus cloud that appears to have a greenish/bluish tint is a sign that it contains extremely high amounts of water; hail or rain.

Yellowish or brownish clouds may occur in the late spring through early fall months during forest fire season. The yellow color is due to the presence of pollutants in the smoke. Yellowish clouds, caused by the presence of nitrogen dioxide, are sometimes seen in urban areas with high air pollution levels. This info from Wiki

So, either our veldfire-season has started already or I’m living in a highly polluted area!

. 


. 

No rain yet... - Maree

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. 

- Ashley Smith 

 Ink sketch and colour wash of a scene in Magaliesburg in my Moleskine Nature sketchbook

It's the first of October, heading for mid-summer here in South Africa and we've had no rain yet. Normally we have the winds in August clearing up old growth and our first spring rains early in September, but the wind has been blowing right through September, seemingly blowing the clouds back to whence they came from.

I'm having to water my garden every day, we've had some very high temperatures, but nothing seems to give life like even just a couple of millimetres of rain...

::

The place where I live - Maree

This little stream flowing through Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa) near where I live provides me with hours of enjoyable sketching. It’s mostly dried up now, but with strong rains the water still flows, passing under the R24 and some telephone lines, meandering through Oaktree and Sterkfontein, ending up joining the Crocodile River in Muldersdrift on it’s way to Hartebeespoort Dam. 

This area is rich in sketching material as we border on the Cradle of Humankind, the Sterkfontein Caves and the Wonder Caves, with many game reserves, dams, lakes, rivers, airports and other tourist attractions. You can see a map of where I live and some of the attractions HERE and things to do HERE.

:: 

Under A Telephone Pole - Maree

W&N watercolour and black ink sketch in a hand-made sketchbook with linen, satin-finish paper 

Here in the rural area where I live in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa, telephone poles are becoming a thing of the past. The copper wire has been stolen so many times that Telkom has abandoned the land-line system and resorted to a satellite telephone system. I’ll miss the poles and lines in the landscape, they provided great perches for birds of prey and congregating swallows before they leave on their great winter migration up North. 

I AM a copper wire slung in the air,

Slim against the sun I make not even a clear line of shadow

Night and day I keep singing—humming and thrumming:

It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and the

tears, the work and want,

Death and laughter of men and women passing through

me, carrier of your speech,

In the rain and the wet dripping, in the dawn and the

shine drying,

A copper wire.

- Carl Sandburg

::

A 'crash' and enjoying the scenery - Maree

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” 

- Eddie Cantor 

Well, I've had the biggest 'crash' in history (and I know Kate has been through something similar?) - Windows crashed on my MAC and as I had not done a back-up on my Seagate removable back-up disc for about a month, I lost quite a bit of information. So I've been MIA for a while, trying to sort it all out. 

I don't often work on the MAC side of my computer, was so used to MS Windows XP and it had some programs which I used often which was not available from Apple. So I re-installed Windows, but couldn't install any programs because I needed the program drivers to install internet connectivity, and I couldn't connect to the internet to down-load the drivers because I didn't have the drivers to install internet connectivity! Does that make sense?! 

Anyway, the outcome was that I was forced to start working in MAC and oh my word! I am totally hooked! I was able to find some similar programs I so much loved on Windows from Apple, installed those and after a couple of hiccups, I'm up and away. 

This is the dam at Spring Farm and is always full and I've often wondered where the water comes from. Yesterday I was told there's a natural spring further up on the property that has been slowly running at the same, unchanged pace for years. This is also the place where I often sit and watch the cattle and do some quick sketches - there's always something new to discover. 

::

 

Seascape

This February I spent in Thailand with my boyfriend, enjoying friendly environment there and endlessly snorkeling. Most of the time we spent on Koh Tao, small island, famous by their seascapes. It is amazing how variable the sea formations are and how harmonious they blend together

I took my sketchbook with me, but it is seemed that my usual way of drawing wouldn't work, as it was rather too controlled for such a subtle flow of beauty. I tried ink, markers, watercolors, but my usual materials turned useless as my sketches looked rather decorative and emotionless. It was until I discovered monotyping, which was unpredictable, messy, but gave those feeling of the chaotic harmony, space and fullness of life.

Anna Cherkasova Anna Cherkasova

Soaring fire - Maree

“Life has loveliness to sell, all beautiful and splendid things, blue waves whitened on a cliff, soaring fire that sways and sings, and children's faces looking up, holding wonder like a cup.” 

- Sara Teasdale 

We've had our first veld fires as early as the beginning of April, but this one was a bit closer to home - our neighbour's smallholding had a small fire yesterday, luckily distinguished very quickly. 

  

:: 

View from my Studio window - Maree

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.  

~Doug Larson 

We've had some lovely Autumn days, but I think winter is now really settling in. And when it's too cold to go outside and sketch, the next best thing is the view from my studio window. I've used some artistic licence here and left out the tractors and implements I sometimes have to stare at (but it is our bread and butter, so I don't really mind!) and instead enjoy the Dandelions and birds that forage around in the grass.

  

::

A Northern Harrier Hunting--Vickie Henderson

The Northern Harrier is categorized in a bird family all its own because of its unique habits and body structure.  Unlike other hawks, they hunt from sound, as well as sight and have stiff facial bristles, similar to owls, to help conduct sound.    

Besides appearing enormous because of their slender bodies and 40-46 inch wing span (102-118 cm), these birds are amazing acrobats, able to hover in place to hone in on their prey.  The duration of this hovering is unique to Northern Harriers and the American Kestrel in North America.  

Because they breed in northern states and are just arriving on wintering grounds in east Tennessee, placing this bird in this painting this time of year presented me with a challenge.  But I am always encouraged by the amount of information that gets stored away in our memories while we are observing nature.  And even more amazing, it's ready to be retrieved and guide us when we need it!  

I used many reference photos to help with the finer details on the bird and a generous amount of imagination to create the landscape, one that I'm familiar with from having seen this bird gliding over fields many times, and as recently as last spring.  Above you see some initial sketches I made to work out the body position before beginning the painting. On the left, a male hovering, and to the right a female gliding.  You can see the owl-like appearance in the sketch to the right and also the difference in gender color.  The male has grayish plumage above, and is white below, gaining him the nickname of ghost bird, while the females are shades of golden brown.  Both have banded tails.    

To see more of my explorations while creating this painting visit:  Northern Harrier Hunting at Vickie's Sketchbook.  More information about the Northern Harrier can be found at Cornell's "All About" page.

Winter with Attitude

Today I will resist
pessimism and will conquer
the world with a smile,
with the positive attitude
of expecting always the best.
- Unknown

Have a good day
and a better one tomorrow!

W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm sketch-book.

Winter in the Magaliesberg in South Africa is always spectacular, no half measures, crisp brilliant colours, the black charred veld from the recent veld fires contrasting sharply with rock and earth, creating a beauty of bright light and long shadows. I just love stopping on our travels through the North West Province to take in all this breath-taking beauty, trying to etch it deep into my mind for future recollection...

Image to go with my post - A walk in the snow!

A walk in the snow

I hope all of you in northern climates are keeping warm! We had several days of terribly cold weather, twenty below zero F with the wind chill, but it finally warmed up enough so I could wander around outside a bit. I used a crowquill and my new bottle of FW transparent sepia ink for this sketch, and added white Winsor & Newton gouache for the snow.

A Merry White Christmas to everyone! - Maree

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days;
that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth;
that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away,
back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!"
- Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836



One of my rare sketches of snow - I have to find pics of snow scenes to sketch, or use my imagination - what a wonder to be able to walk in this scene and a White Christmas here in South Africa would be wonderful!

A Merry White Christmas to all my overseas friends and I wish you lots of JOY and INSPIRATION in the years to come!

That dam on Spring Farm again! - Maree

“If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
- Kahlil Gibran



Another perspective of the dam on Spring Farm that I sketched on the 6th May when I took the short-cut to do some grocery shopping, this time I did the opposite bank on my way back. I got a bit heavy-handed with the watercolour pencils, but I wanted to capture the late-afternoon shadows as the sun was heading for the mountains. This little 'secret' place of mine is so peaceful with only the cows grazing as companions and never a soul in sight. I am, however, very aware and careful and ready to lock my car's doors at any sign of something amiss. Lol! Sign of the times we're living in...

Olifantsnek waterfall - Maree

“Romance often begins by a splashing waterfall and ends over a leaky sink!”
- Author unknown



Earlier this year I accompanied hubby to Rustenburg (South Africa), to view a vintage car he was thinking of buying and the scenery on the way to the owner's farm is absolutely spectacular, with the road meandering through the mountains. We passed this little waterfall and on the way back, we stopped so that I could photograph it. Alas, I left the camera at home! Next best thing (actually the best thing, I think!), out with my Moleskine and watercolour pencils, but no water! But I did manage to capture most of the shading and finished it off when we got home.

'Olifantsnek' is the name of the area we visited, and means "Elephant's Neck". There is also a large dam in the area which was established in 1928, but I can't seem to find any reference as to why it would be called "Elephant's Neck".

Our Blue gum forest

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease,
avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods.
But he cannot save them from fools.
- John Muir



This is the blue gum forest on our smallholding, and comprises about a quarter of the 8.5ha. I quite often take a walk down to the bottom of the plot, looking for something interesting to sketch and this time decided to do a bit broader view of the trees in stead of just focusing on one.

But I'm afraid my favourite sketching haunt might be in danger - hubby is threatening to call in the tree fellers to remove most of the bush, as we've been having trouble with vagrants lurking there, cutting our fences and chopping down many of the trees for fire wood. I've been putting up quite a fight, giving many ecological reasons as to why the bush should stay, and so far the exorbitant price the tree fellers want to charge seems to have stopped this plan in its tracks! Whoot whoot!