Bend in the river - Maree

Runs all day but never walks
Often murmurs, never talks.
It has a bed but never sleeps,
It has a mouth but never eats.

Crooked as a snake,
Slick as a plate
Ten thousand horses
Can't pull it straight.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
Mark Twain



Just before the Crocodile River flows into the Hartebeespoort Dam, it makes a quirky little bend, flowing past some houses on a hill-top. These residences don't have a view of the dam, but the view of the river must be equally pleasing. How blessed are those with stunning views like this!

The Mulder's Drift - Maree

"The Mulder's Drift" - ink sketch and watercolour in Moleskine sketch-book

The area of Tarlton is surrounded by a plethora of streams and little rivers, many originating as storm water flow offs from Randfontein, Krugersdorp and Roodepoort or from springs emerging in various vleis (swamp lands) situated all over the Witwatersrand. This little stream, known as the Mulder's Drift, originates somewhere in Strubensvalley, and flows through the sleepy village of Muldersdrift on its way to join the Crocodile River, eventually ending up at Hartebeespoort Dam, from where the overflow joins South Africa's biggest River, the Orange River, which passes the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert and winds through the Namib Desert before draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay, South Africa.

Below you can see where this humble little stream ends up!


The Orange River mouth and wetland on the coast of Namibia. At the mouth of the river are rich alluvial diamond beds. A sandbar at its mouth limits navigation, but the river is used extensively for irrigation.

Magalies River - Maree Clarkson

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

"Magalies River at Wicker" pencil sketch and watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

One of our favourite Sunday outings is to go to Wicker Tea Garden on the banks of the Magalies River in Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), surrounded by the Magaliesberg Mountains. We normally choose a table right on the riverbank from where we watch the Malachite Kingfisher diving for fish. Afterward he preens and suns himself on one of the branches overhanging the Stream.

On the other side of the river is an open-air wedding chapel which one can also access by crossing the rapids via some stepping stones when the river is not in flood.

Under the Schoolhouse Bridge - Aleta Karstad

There's no two ways about it - I just have not done a journal page recently enough to post. But I have been sketching in nature - an oil sketch, on a 4 x 6 inch canvas. On Thursday, August 13, Fred and I returned to the "Schoolhouse Bridge" over the Tay River, about 20 kilometres west of Perth in eastern Ontario, so that I could do a quick oil sketch, looking upstream beneath the bridge. This is one of the 27 spots along the Tay River that we surveyed last week for crayfish and fresh water mussels - and hope as I might, I didn't find any time for painting or sketching except this hour and a half in the early evening of the second-last day.


As my husband Fred sat beside me at the corner of the bridge abutment, looking at the sunlit scene framed by the concrete bridge, we noticed a strange black and green insect with long trailing green legs, flying up against the wall below the bridge - the wall dancing with weaving sun reflections. It was nearly as large as a hummingbird, the Katydid Killer, Spex pennsylvanicus, a great black wasp actually carrying a Katydid! It was looking for a hole or someplace to store its large green prize, and failing, dropped it on the water. A fish rose to snatch the Katydid just as the wasp swooped down to retrieve it, narrowly being fish food itself! Fred had already found a dead Katydid on the ledge below the bridge - which he now thought might be one left there earlier by the same wasp.

The pink flowers in my painting are the blossoms of Decadon, our favorite river-edge bush, that sends arching branches into the water to root their tips and spring up again - watery branches swollen and spongy and fringed with roots. During the course of my painting, a Muskrat made several trips from behind the far corner of the bridge, across the scene, carrying large bunches of bright green vegetation to the Decadon bush, and backed in beneath it.

Rio Grand River Series

Rio Grand River Series
Originally uploaded by Ricky Holtman

That famous river of every western novel I have read....'The Rio Grande'. This is the first of a series I will be doing from my recent days to the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado. Trying to do it justice is sometimes so frustrating. My memory, sketches and some photos help but it's not like setting up on the site and painting with all the smells, sounds, sights and mother nature telling you how to paint it.
This is 8" X 16", on archival/acid free board and a watermedia painting.
I hope you enjoy, I did. LOL

River Bottoms

I did this a few days ago and forgot to post it. SORRY. When I did the sketch of the Missouri River I turned around and did the view behind of the bottom ground. Lots of different colors and you can tell the clouds were getting together for the next big rain we had.

Missouri River

It was so nice out today I couldn't believe it was me in it.........thank you GOD. This is a scene of the Missouri River. Not a reporting of the river but more of the sense I had of it today. Gorgeous with spring coming on. I was so lucky to see a Baltimore Oriole and a Northern Flicker.......so exquisite. The colors were breath taking. SO , when I got back I went to Wally World and bought myself a pair of binoculars. Can't wait to see that chipmunk that Vickie posted........hahahha. Hope you enjoy the scenery here. Watercolor in a moleskine...Ricky

Misouri River on Rainy Day

Well the day was rainy and the wind blowing driving the 44 degree temp to 34 degrees windchill. My chemo was giving a rough time. Noon came and the rain let up so I took off to the Missouri River outside of Liberty Missouri.
The light wasn't the best but I was starting to feel better just thinking about getting a sketch today. Art will do that to you. I came upon the bank spot by the railroad crossing and there it was waiting on me. A big pile of concrete debris that the Highway had dumped making the area look bad. But being an artist I sat and soaked it in and then the picture came like lightening from the sky. The biggest bunch of abstract conrete blocks with perfect backdrop and nature at its best all around not minding the concrete at all. Well that did it and out came the sketchbook with 90lb paper. The colors were mute but so was the occasion, rainy and all.
I didn't have time to do it justice and we will meet again but I got my skectch and headed home. The best part was how much better I felt after a session of art. The stump brush busting through the rock was really a beautiful contrast of warm against cool and smooth against rough. Can you close your eyes and see yourself there?
I hope this is a fun sketch for you as it was for me.