A beautiful fence - Maree

“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land's inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery.”
― Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food  

Ink sketch and colour wash in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Last month, on a public holiday, I took a drive with my husband to a customer's farm to go and have a look at a classic car the gentleman was selling and thank goodness we were in my husband's 4x4, the road was atrocious! 

I've got a thing about rickety old fences and asked hubby to stop so I could do a quick sketch. I added the colour once we were home again. The day was fruitless as far as buying anything was concerned but I was entranced by the natural beauty of his farm and managed to get in quite a few sketches while the men were talking cars.

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Golden Bishop (Euplectes afer) - Maree

“Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.” 

- Doug Coupland

W&N watercolour on in my Moleskine Nature Journal

For years I’ve been entertaining and been entertained by the Red Bishop in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and yesterday, for the first time ever, I had nine new visitors – Golden Bishops! My heart fairly bounced when I saw the splashes of golden yellow amongst the red of the Red Bishops at the feeding table – it looked like a colourful table setting for the festive season, mixed with the softer green-yellow of the Weavers. I immediately fetched my Bird Book, just to make sure, and to make notes, which I always do when I find somebody new in my garden.

I did a quick sketch while he was on the reed at my pond and then referenced the colours from one of my bird books. This is the Golden Bishop’s breeding colours and he is difficult to distinguish from the Red Bishop when not breeding, but is generally much paler below, with faint streaking confined to the sides of the breast and the flanks.

This bird is known as the “Goudgeelvink” in Afrikaans and when not breeding, is nomadic in large flocks over grasslands. They prefer to breed in reed beds surrounding dams and near rivers.

It is locally common in the Eastern half of South Africa, with more localised populations in northern Namibia, northern and south-eastern Botswana and Zimbabwe. In the breeding season it mainly occupies marshes or seasonally flooded areas, but when isn’t breeding it can move into dry habitats such as cultivated areas.

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Stanhopea Tigrina

That's a stanhopea tigrina orchid painted in the first page of my orchid sketch book (moleskine) i love rare orchids!

Buggy about Bugs: My First Post

I love to closely examine natural forms. Nature objects, picked up on walks, are scattered about my house. Sometimes I'm moved to draw them. I have followed and admired this blog for quite awhile, enjoying what other nature lover/artists focus on. I am excited to have the opportunity to share my apropos work here.  I post all my work, as it comes forth, here.

I found this bit of wasp nest on a trail that borders the Cedar River, not too far from my house, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA.  It prompted this drawing, done in a collaborative sketchbook for  moly_x_international. It's in Masha Kirikova's, theme book, Those Who Live. Masha (from Moscow) is also a contributor to this blog.

pencil and colored pencil in a Japanese-fold Moleskine

In my basement, I found an old collection of insects my daughter had put in a shadowbox for a junior high school science project. (She's now in her 20s!). It was fascinating to examine what specimens were still intact and to draw them.

watercolor and pencil in pocket-size watercolor Moleskine

Buyers' Corner - Maree

“Art is not a thing; it is a way.”
- Elbert Hubbard

Ink, wash and collage in my Moleskine 200gsm "Country Diary"

I started a Country Diary a while ago, which consists of paintings, sketches and collages depicting nature, rural and farm life. This was my first entry and it was a nice break from my regular landscapes and sketching. I'd forgotten how wonderful it feels to play again! This is one of my roosters, Artemis, and he actually makes quite a willing sketch subject, not minding standing quietly close-by as I sit and sketch in the garden. I've actually got far too many roosters for the amount of hens, so I've put some of them up for sale.

I sometimes think I'd rather crow
And be a rooster than to roost
And be a crow. But I don't know.
A rooster he can roost also,
Which doesn't seem fair when crows can't crow.
Which may help some. But I don't know.
Crows should be glad of one thing, though;
Nobody thinks of eating crow,
While roosters they are good enough
For anyone unless they're tough.
There are lots of tough old roosters, though.
And anyway a crow can't crow,
So maybe roosters stand more show.
It looks that way. But I don't know.
~Unknown

From the Forest - Maree

I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?
- James Thomson

Ink, wash and collage in my Moleskine 200gsm "Country Diary"

A couple of months ago I collected some leaves and acorns from a friend's tree (unfortunately I don't have an Oak any more and I really miss him) and it's amazing how well they dry and stay preserved. I actually have them displayed on a wooden bowl and they absolutely last for ever. A bit difficult to dust! but well worth the effort!

A Restaurant and an Endangered Blue Butterfly--Vickie Henderson

This doesn't look much like a nature sketch, but it was my intro to a fun nature adventure that began here in this little coffee house.  

It was my son's day off and instead of resting, he asked me, "where do you want to go"?  We were in his home town, Los Angeles, CA, in early November.  Naturally I searched the internet for a local birding hot spot and found Rockweiler Beach where Snowy Plovers had been sighted.  So I asked if he knew where it was located.  His response, "It's under the LAX runway,"  (Los Angeles International Airport)   

This gave me pause.  Besides wondering what that meant, it didn't sound very appealing.  

Later as we were leaving, he said we were headed for El Segundo.  I thought that meant the beach idea had been nixed, and frankly, with the noisy, concrete, no-sky image that popped into my head, I was relieved.  It was while in the community of El Segundo, which happens to be adjacent to LAX (!) and in the coffee shop that I first heard the story of the endangered El Segundo Blue butterfly--a butterfly on the brink of extinction in the early 70's.    

This inch-size butterfly lives only on the El Segundo dunes along the Santa Monica Bay and feeds solely on one native plant, the Seacliff Buckwheat.  And when I say, "only", that literally means that in every stage of the butterfly's life cycle, it depends on this plant.  The butterfly nectars on the buckwheat flower, lays its eggs on the flower; the larvae eat the flower, and the pupae are formed at the base of the plant, where they emerge in the spring as butterflies.  An amazing life-cycle that is perfectly timed with the blooming of its host species.    

The butterfly itself emerges in June and July and has a life-span of only two months before it morphs into the pupae stage of its life cycle.  There are many more fascinating bits of information about this species and what was driving its extinction in my post, A Story of Survival at Vickie Henderson Art.  Also you will find cool videos that show what scientists learned about this butterfly and what it took to bring it back from the brink.    

And to finish my story about Rockweiler Beach, it IS positioned below the runways of LAX, lying in the direct path of departing and arriving flights as they fly over the Pacific Ocean.  In fact, my son observed that my in-coming flight had crossed this beach.  However, the only thing real about my imaginary sky-less beach was the noise of low flying planes--BIG low-flying planes.  

The birds on the beach don't care, however, and I discovered a life bird foraging in the surf--the Marbled Godwit--found above and in the second sketch above.  

A footnote about the moleskin sketchbook that I mentioned in my previous post, the Long-billed Curlew at El Matador Beach.  The above sketches were also created in the same Moleskin sketchbook with pencil, ink and watercolor.  The paper in this sketchbook is designated for all-media but does not work well with watercolor because of its delicate nature and a surface that frequently causes beading.  Even though the visual result can be satisfactory, the process of working on the paper is not enjoyable for me.  The fun of watercolor is its movement and fun is one of my requirements for painting and sketching!  However, the book has a smooth surface that works well with ink, graphite, color pencils, etc. and of course journaling.  Moleskin does have a sketchbook that contains paper meant for watercolor sketching, however, the only choice available is a smaller landscape arrangement.  I have one, but I've never used it.  That tells you something!  

What would make a great edition to the collection of Moleskin brand notebooks--a portrait sketchbook like the one linked above filled with hot press 75-90# watercolor paper!

You may also want to visit, A Restaurant, an Endangered Blue Butterfly and a Life Bird at Vickie's Sketchbook.

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!

Leaf Spread - Carolyn Pappas

I have a certain moleskine that has been ongoing since 2005 and it is really irking me that I haven't finished it off yet. I never really enjoyed working in it, and I just want to get it finished so that I can move onto other sketchbooks that I like better. So this weekend I decided I am going to fill up the last ten or so pages quickly to get it over with. I went out into the garden yesterday and made these line drawings of some of the different leaves that can be found there. My family spends a lot of time working on our garden, and we even keep our garage heated all winter to keep our mini fig and orange trees alive. I guess being Greek and all, we like our patio to look like the Mediterranean even in Massachusetts.

Tarlton Scenery - Maree

“May brooks and trees and singing hills join in the chorus too, and every gentle wind that blows send happiness to you.”
- Irish Blessing



A scene not far from where I live - a gravel road through Tarlton on the way to Randfontein. It's a short-cut we often take past all the veggie and flower farms, the rubbish dump where all the Seagulls (600km from the coast!) gather and where tall Blue gum trees flank the road.

Redpoll - Maree

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.”


Common Red-poll {Corduelis flammea}

I was visiting a friend last week to see how it's going with the Red Bishop she took over from me - he somehow lost a WHOLE wing as a fledgling in my garden - and I saw this little unknown bird (to me) in her aviary and enquired what it was. Turned out it's a Common Red-poll from the US, which she had bought at a pet shop. If I had my way, all pet shops would be banned from selling anything besides cats and dogs, and even that is a stretch for me.

Water feature - Maree

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.
- John Muir (1838 - 1914)


Done in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book 8" x 5.5"

We go for supper at the Magaliesburg Hotel regularly, sitting outside under the thatch next to this little water feature. I quickly captured this little pond and waterfall in between sips of my glass of wine and chatting to hubby, using my watercolour pencils and a glass of water the waiter accommodatingly supplied.

Road through Noupoort

"A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside!"
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan



On the way to a friend's farm in Noupoort last Sunday, just the other side of Magaliesburg, I stopped to do a quick sketch of the road disappearing past a hillock and did the colour over lunch, some chatting and a glass of wine.

Wagtail - a water bird? - Maree

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
- J.G. Holland



Just outside my studio window, our resident Wagtail has been acting like a water bird - wading the soaking lawns, pulling out the insects and having a feast! She stayed, not minding the rain at all, except for the hardest down-pours, during which she disappeared for a while, but was back as soon as it cleared up a bit.

We've been having enormous amounts of rain, the garden is loving it!

Autumn setting in - Maree

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”
- William Cullen Bryant


"Autumn Garden" - In Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook - 8" x 5.5"

Autumn is in full swing and the trees in my garden are slowly starting to change colour - this is actually a friend's garden on their plot here in Tarlton, South Africa, and I just had to capture her Japanese Maple in all its glorious orange splendour amongst her mostly indigenous trees. She commented that she never knew her garden was so beautiful and that she will be looking at it differently from now on!

Seagulls in Randfontein - Maree

“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, ”you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…”
- From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull


Seagulls in Randfontein - a quick watercolour study in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"

Not far from us, about 22km, lies the gold mining town of Randfontein, about 45 km west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing in 1889, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and floated the Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company. The town was established in 1890 to serve the new mine and was administered by Krugersdorp until it became a municipality in 1929.

(If you click on the "Randfontein" link, you will also see the Hartebeespoort Dam area on the left of the map, my favourite sketching spot, and where it is situated from where I live in Krugersdorp.)



We visited Randfontein yesterday, and what amazes me about this town is the fact that you can find flocks of Seagulls there, 600km from the coast! I've tried to track the history of how these birds could have landed up there, but to no avail - I have now contacted the Randfontein Publicity Association to see if they might have some information.

Tarlton Vlei - Maree

“Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear.”
- wolfdyke



Still on the subject of rain, all the vleis (marshes) in Tarlton and surrounding areas are full and turning the landscape into a shimmering play of colours... For the past couple of weeks we've had between 15mm and 70ml rain most days, causing trees to fall over and swollen rivers to burst their banks. It's also great seeing huge flocks of water birds enjoying this abundance so late in the season.

This area, just 3km from us, is usually quite dry, with young boys charging around on their off-road bikes.

Scene at Harties - Maree

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.
- John Muir



You might have noticed that Hartebeespoort Dam (also known as Harties) holds a special fascination for me. The scenery possibilities are endless, ranging from location, to the time of day and the change of light.

Most of the time, like this one, I stop for a quick sketch on our way there, other times I will work off one of my photographs. Here I did a quick sketch in my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook, made some notes on colour and finished it off later in the afternoon.

Quacking and Squawking - Maree

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
- Chinese Proverb


Duck sketches in Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"

As I was filling the bird feeders yesterday morning, I heard a terrible raucous and as I looked up, six ducks came flying over, quacking and chatting, sounding like a busy freeway in the sky. I managed to identify some South African Shell ducks and some Mallards. Peculiar that they were all flying together, but given the Mallard's tendency to mate with anything and anyone, it's probably not that surprising. But there again, what I thought was the Shell ducks might have been female Mallards.


Duck sketches in Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"

This is done in my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook, which, when opened, is too long for the scanner to cover both pages, therefore the two pictures.

The Proud little Black Wattle - Maree

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarcely see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.
- William Blake, 1799, The Letters



This beautiful little Black Wattle tree at the bottom of our smallholding (he stands proud, perfectly formed!) is earmarked for eradication, together with a couple of others that have sprung up again since the last clean-up. It's a constant and on-going battle against this alien, Australian species which spreads like wild fire if left unattended, threatening our indigenous trees and grasses. Although it still have a couple of leaves on one branch, I decided we'll leave the dead one as it's a favourite look-out point for the Fiscal Shrike.

Read more about the Black Wattle struggle HERE.