It has been a busy year, and the move to Johannesburg has created many different problems for me - firstly I had to get used to city life and also moving into a much much smaller studio!!!  And then I seemed to flounder with my work - so much stimulation after being in the bush and just getting on with a painting!!!  Does anyone know what I mean?  Everywhere I looked there was wonderful art, and so many styles that I wanted to do, and somewhere I lost me!!!!  Eventually I had to sit back and say whoa, what are you doing and what is it YOU want to do.  So after a lot of meandering I hope that I am back on my path - but one good thing that has come out of this is that I have been experimenting with what appeals to me and I discovered pastels, which I am loving.  I am now going to post a few of my paintings that I have done over the year and I hope that you enjoy my journey of discovery.

Ground Hornbill Study

Lion Cub

Kalahari Sunset

Little house in the Karoo

Mr Attitude

The Hayfields

Hello again to all my viewers, if there are any of you out there.  My apologies for the lengthy silence from me, I have been having technical difficulties with my blog page.  I keep getting an error message and cannot seem to load anything - anyway, today the problem seems to be resolved.  I hope it stays that way because I am not very computer literate, and feel as though I keep running into a brick wall.

Scratchboards

Ground Hornbill

I just love seeing these big birds in the wild.  Again we found this one early one morning,  He was with a family group, but the others stayed back out of camera range.

Kudu Bull

Rhino mum with calf

We were lucky enough to see these in the wild, but with the way poaching is going in this country I have to wonder if our grandchildren will ever get to see these wonderful animals in this setting.  Makes me very sad to see these wonderful animals being butchered the way they are just to pander to man's greed - I just wish that anyone who uses the end product in any form suffers somehow as badly as these animals are suffering.

Leopard

We came across this leopard early one morning and she just stood like this and watched us for what seemed like forever, but in reality was only a minute or two.
Pastel on paper, 40cm x 30 cm

This is a pastel of  a herd of elephants crossing the Luangwa River in Zambia.  It was the dry season and the river was evaporating rapidly - and already the hippo were getting very territorial and fighting over the deeper pools that were left.

It was late in the afternoon and we were driving back to camp, when we spotted this cheetah.  He was making his way to deeper cover, and the setting sun was backlighting him a bit. 
Oil on board 50cm x 33cm

 

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a few more daily paintings

 

CHEETAH STUDY

 

 

Watercolour 50cm x 35cm

 



DAILY PAINTINGS

 

Bush Road - 30cm x 21cm

 

River view - 30cm x 21cm

 

Bush road 30cm x 21cm

As part of my development I decided that I would try to do a daily painting.  These paintings are only in 2 sizes, 30cm x 21cm and 20cm x 14cm - I have purposely kept them small and I allow myself the maximum of 1 hour from start to finish.  One of the reasons for this is I tend to get hooked up in detail, and whilst I admire photorealism I want people to know that they are looking at a painting and not a photo.  I also chose to do this with landscapes because as soon as I put an animal into the picture I tighten up again.  Maybe in time I will manage to keep the flow with the animals.

These 3 little paintings are all pastel that are started with a wet under-painting.

I would appreciate any comments or feedback from you, please just e mail me.

I am back!!!

Hello everyone, I see I have posted nothing on my blog for over a year, but all I can say in my defence is that it has not been a good year for me regarding my art.  As I said before we moved to Johannesburg, and after spending 21 years in the "bush" in Botswana arriving in Joburg was just a visual overload.  I signed up for courses, workshops and went to loads of galleries and then suffered from visual overload.  Somewhere along the way I lost Jenny and became a clone of whichever course I was on :(  And I hated the work that I was producing.  So I sat myself down and tried to rediscover me - what did I want to paint, and which was the way forward.  So after lots of hard work I think I am eventually back on my own road and can continue my journey. 
But there was a valuable lesson in there for me to learn, and that was after years of working on my own and slowly taking one small step at a time, I definitely was like a kid in a candy store who did not know what flavour she wanted.  And that I had to be careful with what courses I went on - they are great for learning skills, but that is all they are, great aids in developing YOU!!
So on I go, and will be posting some new paintings that I have done recently - and I hope that you like the new path my journey is taking me on.

Hog's Heaven

Finally here are a few images of some of my work since we arrived here in Johannesburg.  I have been doing a lot of smaller paintings, and sketching as I have been very distracted and do not always have a long period to sit and work.  I hope that you enjoy all of them, and would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for you for 2012.

Here is another acrylic pour and it looks good together with "Chimp Magic" as a pair.  This painting is done on canvas on a stretcher and is quite large - 600mm x 750mm and at present is unframed.

Zebras at the waterhole

This is an oil painting on canvas and is quite large - 1000mm x 700mm . Unframed at present.

 Here are three of the smallish sketches that I have been doing, from left to right, Victoria Falls, Over the hills and far away, First Light.  All of these are pastels.

River study II

This is another smallish study, 510mm x 360mm and is mixed media, finishing with pastel.  

Another scratchboard - 200mm x 300mm

Pensive Lion Study

Another oil painting on canvas, 400mm x 500mm

Hello all
I apologize for the lengthy delay in posting on my blog, but we have had the big move to Johannesburg.  No sooner had we arrived than my daughter had problems with her pregnancy and had to have an emergency ceasarian.  She had something called Help Syndrome which affects pregnant mums in their final trimester, so Tyler arrived 5 weeks early.  It was a scary start to Joburg for us, with both mum and baby in intensive care, but I am very happy to report that both mum and baby are doing fine. I have added a couple of pictures of my daughter with my new granddchild - a very happy gran, and makes this move all so worthwhile!!

I am happy to say that I have now unpacked my studio, (I have claimed the third bedroom in our new house) and though it is a lot smaller than my lovely studio in Gaborone, it is my own space and I have already started painting like mad.  I am not happy with a lot of the things that I have done, but will be posting a couple of the new paintings soon.

I am happy to report that I have managed to get my work into a couple of galleries, so that is a start in the right direction.  One of the galleries is in Sandton in the Legacy Mall, right next to the Mandela Square, and has a lot of traffic from the four big hotels there, so hopefully a good place for some of my wildlife art. The other gallery is in Broadacres - a lovely mall that services Fourways and surrounding suburbs.  I have also joined the Artists Association of South Africa, that is one of the big plusses of living here, and they host lots of lovely workshops and exhibitions all through the year - so I am really looking forward to moving on with my art.

Leo

This is a pastel done on paper.

Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms

Another watercolour pour - I enjoy doing these.  This painting has been bought by a very good friend 

Dust Bath

This is another watercolour done on acid free board - the photo has come out a bit more yellow than it actually is.  I have just been doing a lot of quick paintings, as I have been very distracted with all my packing.

Firstly I must apologize for the delay in getting some pictures on my site.  We have been very busy packing up and are now just about on our way to Johannesburg.  I am very excited about going, as my daughter is just about due with our first grandchild.  But I am also very nervous, a whole new beginning for us!!

This is just a small watercolour that I have done on acid free board - Guinea fowl are always such fun to do.

Bedazzled

I just love painting zebra. This is another watercolor, and is 540mm x 300mm - not too big. It has also been sold.