Recent Posts
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The completion of Amy’s Book
A twenty year project of writing a page of poetry each Birthday for my God-daughter, Amy, has been completed.All the pages are now bound in a book for her 21st.
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Eland Antelope Study.
It was an enjoyable exercise, getting familiar with eland antelope again, before the watercolour study for a recent order.
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ATC’s. – Artist Trading Cards.
ATC’s , or Artist Trading Cards are a popular trend of miniature artworks and collages. This batch was my latest Sunday play session, to see if I could make some too,
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The Christmas 2011 Painting-a-Day Challenge.
During the holidays around Christmas 2011 & New Year 2012, John and I made a 13-day Painting-a-Day challenge, to test our ability to cope with plein-air painting conditions on a regular basis. It was great fun !!
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The Big Mondplaas Nguni Oil, – Revisited
November dawned with a new challenge and a big order with a deadline; even if it was a repeat of the 2009 Nguni oil painting. Some small changes were made and Makatini and his family were completed in time.
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Burgersdorp’s Spring Somerfees.
Our exhibition at the annual Burgersdorp Spring Festival was an enjoyable and worthwhile in the end, despite the disastrous weather on the first day.
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Road through the Mopanes
The beautiful woodland trees of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) bring back wonderful nostalgic memories; and this Mopane forest is so reminiscent of those travels during my youth.
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A little Study of the Cape Hare
The Cape Hare has been a regular garden visitor lately, so it was an enjoyable task studying him through these sketches.
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Eland Antelope Study.
I don’t often paint eland, so with a recent order I felt the need to do some drawings before the final painting. It was quite an enjoyable exercise.
Pencil drawing of an Eland's head. 290 x 210 mm.
Eland sketch. Pen & Pencil crayons. 290 x 210 mm.
Four Eland. Pen & wash sketch. 360mm x 280 mm.
Kruger's Kop with 3 Eland. Watercolour. 520 x 350 mm.
ATC’s. – Artist Trading Cards.
Now for some light relief from the stresses of the Challenge. I little drawing and painting for Sunday relaxation. I have been fascinated by a trend I discovered on the internet, swapping ATC’s. They are diminutive creations that swappers exchange with others all over the world. So I decided to make some cards that have to be 3.5 x 2.5 inches precisely. I made a template and then cut up an old watercolour painting from years ago and started creating. It was great fun !! Here are the 12 that I squeezed out of the cards cut from that one painting. I don’t think that mine compare favourably with the elaborate embellished works of art that the true ATC swappers produce, but then these are a first attempt.
Artist Trading Cards
The Christmas 2011 Painting-a-Day Challenge.
When John came home for the Christmas holiday on the 21st December, we decided to try and do one plein-air painting each day during the holidays. It was sometimes difficult to find the time with all the busy organization around Christmas but we managed to achieve it pretty successfully. I think there was one day, that was just too busy, for me to go out with John, so he did 2 sessions on that day, alone. It was a really enjoyable experience! I will add the paintings in the order of the days of the challenge, and please note that my paintings are on the left, while John’s are on the right: -
Day 1. 22 Dec. The Garden Artichoke in flower.
Artichoke in flower.
Day 2. 23 Dec. These are both John’s paintings. Pen and ink and watercolour.
John's ink and watercolour drawings of a poplar tree, and an agave.
Day 3. 24 Dec. A scene facing north, from the road outside my studio. A nice shady spot to sit.
Day 3. View north to the ploughed land in front of the house.
Day 4. 25 Dec. Christmas Day. A very windy day made this a challenging task. The old pepper tree leaning against the pig-stys.
Day 4. Windy Christmas day. The old pepper tree.
Day 5. 26 Dec. Boxing Day. We took the truck to a spot at the entrance to our farm. It was also windy there, but such a beautiful view down the valley towards Spitskop and the distant Freestate hills.
Day 5. View down the valley to Spitskop.
Day 6. 27 Dec. Went to Excelsior, a distant part of the farm, for a lunch braai (barbeque). We painted from the same place but chose different scenes.
Day 6. Excelsior braai, two different tree studies.
Day 7. 28 Dec. Painting in the big shed. The old wool scale etc. A nice change from the endless green vistas.
Day 7. The old wool scale in the shed.
Day 8. 29 Dec. Took the truck again, up to the little dam where reeds grow and the bird-life is fantastic. We were serenaded by a variety of water fowl and nesting weavers. We even had a Leguaan pass by. We managed to find a small spot on the dam wall, in the shade of a white stinkwood tree.
Day 8. The little dam with reeds and birds.
Day 9. 30 Dec. Painted in the farmyard near the shed. We were well attended by many curious sheep, who investigated all our painting equipment, and sought shade under my painting table.
Day 9. Farmyard near the big shed.
Day 10. 31 Dec. Took the truck up to the fountain. A small lush area where a spring occurs naturally and there are many trees, long grass and reeds. It was a beautiful quiet spot. We both planned to paint the dead tree in front of us, as a contrast to the background. John worked on the dead tree and ran out of time, so he gave an impressionist view of the background. I started on the background and the detail took up all my time leaving me no time for the dead tree !
Day 10. The lush fountain view.
Day 11. New Year’s Day. 2012. In the shade of 2 ample gum trees, we sat, to draw the scene facing east. However we chose a slightly different aspect so the only element that we have in common, was the orangey soil of the potato land in the foreground.
Day 11. The Potato land and beyond.
Day 12. 2 January. Painting in the shady north doorway of the big shed, facing north. John started on the sheep lying just infront of us, which soon moved away, so his first attempt remained a simple tinted drawing. I avoided the sheep and concentrated on the scene beyond. John then turned slightly and did a nice pen, ink and wash view of the garage and store room. No oils on that day.
Day 12. Veiw north-from-shed's doorway.
Day 13. 3 January. Our last official day of painting. We went to a spot in the shade of the pig-stys, and painted the Agave aloes on the end of the dam wall. The curious sheep came visiting once again.
Day 13. Agaves on the Dam wall.
Most of John’s paintings were done in oils whereas mine were all watercolour. You may like to go across and visit John’s Blog for more of his beautiful work, and his own interpretation of the challenge. He managed to fit in 3 extra pictures when I was busy with cooking and other chores, here are they are:
John's extra paintings.
Here are a few photos taken during the daily outings:
Day 8.Our little patch of shade.
Day 7. John working on one of his extra paintings.
Day 6. the Braai site with husband, John doing the cooking.
Day 10. Our beautiful lush spot at the fountain.
The Big Mondplaas Nguni Oil, – Revisited
Mondplaas Ngunis. 1502 x 953 mm.
An order came in recently for another version of the big Nguni oil that sold at Walmer Park in 2009. So I made a small change and embarked on it once again with some trepidation, as there was a deadline for the 28th November. That gave me a mere 2 weeks to complete it, and make sure it would be dry for packaging and sending off to the framers in Pretoria.
Fortunately John had made me a couple of big canvases some time ago, and one was big enough for the requirements.
I did have some clear time fortunately, and was able to get it done by Friday 18 th November . Which means it has an ample 3 days to dry before packaging & sending off; and in our hot and dry karoo weather, that is quite enough time.
Here below are some of the early stages, if anyone is interested.
The process was accompanied by the superb sermons of R.C.Sproul on the Gospel of John,
that I had downloaded for the occasion. It is a truly inspiring series !
Mondplaas Ngunis revisited. Oil on Canvas. 953 x 1520 mm.
The completion of Amy’s Book
Those of you who have followed my Blog from the beginning may remember the 20th January 2009 post entitled, “All the way my Saviour Leads Me” ; well that post referred to one of the pages from this project that has now come to an end. In 1992, after being named as Amy’s Godmother, I decided to send her a poem every year on her birthday, starting at age one. I tried to choose poetry that was either fun or inspirational, and ultimately to support her growing faith. I wrote all of them with my normal italic nibbed fountain pen. Sometimes they included illustrations and all were done on watercolour paper that measured 320 x 210 mm in size. Three of the poems were too long for one page, so they were continued on the reverse. Here below are most of them, all except the last 2 which were more personal in nature. The last one was mailed to her for her 20th birthday, and this year she turned 21. For this special occasion, the pages were all returned to me for them to be bound into a book. I made the cover this weekend and will be posting it off to her soon. It is not a professionally bound book, and has many of the hallmarks of a very home-made effort; however there is a whole lot of love bound in to its imperfect simplicity.
Amy's Book, cover
Pages 1 – 4
Pages 5 – 8
Pages 9 – 12
Pages 13 – 16.
Pages 17 – 20.
I quite realize that these pages are hard to read with the reduced size and dpi, necessary for posting on this page. If, however anyone would like a better copy of a particular page, please send me an email and specify which one you would like. I will gladly forward it to you. Send your request to : silvermere@gmail.com