Tuesday 15 December 2015

My art, my joy!

I enjoy all the new products available on RedBubble! There are many products in my portfolio to give as Christmas gifts and special greetings over the festive season, like scarves, studio pouches, tote bags, T-shirts, leggings, pencil skirts, stickers, throw pillows, duvet covers and much more, so why not head on over and have a look?

Here are a few examples :
A hardcover journal. Click Somewhere and discover all products for sale. Acrylic paint on canvas: 41 × 52 cm.

Old houses also fascinate me. This is an example of a laptop sleeve:
  • Custom front print and black rear
  • Polyester cover and foam padding protects from scratches and minor impacts
  • Black edging, black zip, black plush padded inside
  • Easy clean with a damp cloth

  • You can view more available products here !
    Happy children! While we try to teach our children all about Life… Our Children teach us what Life is all about….. On this occasion.. give your precious one’s the priceless gift of Time…
    Example of  an available t-shirt in my shop on RedBubble
    "The girl with the pearl earring" (after Jan Vermeer)- I love the work of the old Masters and tried to paint the Pearl-earringgirl. The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Het Meisje met de Parel) is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s masterworks and as the name implies, uses a pearl earring for a focal point. The painting is in The Mauritshuis in The Hague. It is sometimes referred to as “the Mona Lisa of the North” or “the Dutch Mona Lisa.” This is an example of a throw pillow. Click here.

    Wednesday 4 November 2015

    “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ~Pablo Picasso

     We do get snow in winter sometimes! Heavy snow falls occurred over the high-lying areas in the south-western parts of Western Cape and Northern Cape, while it was extremely cold over the interior of the two provinces. 
    However, wonderful days are spread throughout winter that rival the best of a British summer. Acrylic painting.


    Near Kruisrivier in the Klein Karoo between Oudtshoorn and Calitzdorp, South Africa. The magnificent and famous Red Hills (mountains) in the background. 
    Oil painting from a fb-friend Erna Conradie’s photo.

    Both paintings are for sale. Contact me at ekendall1402@gmail.com

    Thursday 8 October 2015

    In the shade

    Summer in South Africa and maximum temperatures are between 34 - 37 degrees. How wonderful it will be if the rain comes tomorrow! I painted trees, water..... a place to hide from the heat!


                                                                                                                                                                         37

    Tuesday 29 September 2015

    To fiddle or not to fiddle

    Nobody knows how a day will be. You wake up in the morning and do the things you have to: small chores like making the bed, helping your husband to get dressed and put on the arm-sling after his operation, go to town, buy the paper, fetch the new "Weg" magazine at the Post Office, think what to cook for lunch....take a photo of some beautiful flowers in your garden and then....paint!!
    A few weeks ago I painted autumn trees on a blocked canvas. It called me back this morning. I kept looking at it, "it needs more depth and detail" I thought.
    In Maree's Saturday Chat  on Redbubble she explains: Photography allows us to express ourselves through an art form. We notice a beautiful landscape or an old man’s lined face and we want to capture it. Each of us will have a different reason to do so but, essentially, we want to create something. However humdrum our nine-to-five lives may be, the creation of an image makes us an artist. It feels good.
    The same can be said about ART: the creation of an image makes us to feel good!!

    The picture above made me think of the Bushveld, mopane trees in autumn, dry grass and crickets singing. (Acrylic on a blocked canvas, for sale)

    Wednesday 23 September 2015

    Inspiration from facebook

    I have friends and I have friends on facebook. Friends I know and friends I don't know very well. Like all people nowadays have, I suppose....  ;-)
    A real friend from long ago posted a picture to my facebook-page a few days ago: "A picture that asks to be paint." Something like that. She knows me well. She knows I love challenges. She knows I love pictures with trees and warm colours. I looked at the pic for three days, wondering if I would be able to paint it as lovely as it was on the screen in front of me. Then I realised it is an oppotunity to do something new, something bold, something beautiful.
    Autumn is a favourite season. I agree with Sarah Addison Allen: “It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.”


    This is my painting. I'm happy! I would love to walk into it and smell the leaves and listen to the birds singing their unique songs. 

    Sunday 20 September 2015

    A different view

    Who said trees must have green leaves or brown leaves or orange leaves? My trees have blue leaves and they grow in my imagination! Palette knife and acrylic paint.

    Saturday 19 September 2015

    Always a joy!

    I need to paint. I need to hold a palette knife or brush in my hands. Often. Not only on Saturdays or even once or twice a month. I need to do it almost every day. It is like drinking water. The desire is always there. It is in my genes, my fingers, my soul. It makes me happy. It is good therapy.
    Art is a necessary aspect of any society. It would be difficult to imagine a world without art, because so many things are considered to be art. The visual language is a very important communication style. Many people are very visual learners, and thus need art as information and inspiration. Two of my latest paintings:
     Houses in the bush. 
    Nature: leaves in the wind. 

    Saturday 12 September 2015

    Inspiration from within

    Today I did what I love most! I painted. My very own naive impressions.

    When you go out to paint try to forget what object you have before you - a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think... here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it emerges as your own naive impression of the scene before you. (Claude Monet)


     A rough road leads to the heights of greatness.

    Colours are the smiles of nature.

    Monday 7 September 2015

    Autumn trees

    Autumn trees tell so many wonderful stories. Colourful stories: red, orange, brown and yellow stories. I spent most of my weekend to paint this picture. Acrylic on canvas. 41 x 41 cm. 
    Two lovely quotes about autumn: 
    "It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon." ― Sarah Addison Allen
    “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” 


    Friday 28 August 2015

    Trees

    "There's nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend." - Bob Ross.


    Waterpaint on 200gsm paper.
    How to create: (I don’t mind sharing at all!)
    1.Use thick waterpaint paper. Paint it red/ bright yellow/ orange. Use a hairdryer, blow dry from the middle.
    2. Paint one thick and very watery…wet!!!…stroke of paint at the top of the paper. Then turn the paper so that the paint runs down. Use lots of newspaper on your table, it can get very messy.
    3. Now turn your paper the other way round and paint another colour at that end, let the paint run down again. Repeat these two steps until there are enough lines (trees) on your paper.
    4. Wrinkle up a plastic bag, put it in wet paint the colour you want the leaves and press it at the top.
    5. Use a white or black pen to put some finishing touches in. Let it dry…frame and sell!
    Available products on RedBubble.


    Wednesday 26 August 2015

    Sing like the birds

    Some days there won't be a song in yourt heart. Sing anyway.
    Emory Austin. 

    South Africa has eight regularly occurring and breeding vulture species, from the southern African endemic Cape Griffon Vulture (Gyps coprotheres), to the wide-spread and wide-ranging African White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus)
    The Cape Griffon Vulture (Gyps coprotheres) is a very large vulture, similar in size, coloration and habits to the Eurasian Griffon. The Cape Vulture typically nests communally on cliffs, restricting their breeding distribution, but wanders huge distances in search of carcasses. A majestic and powerful bird.
    Pen-and-ink sketch on Bockingford 300 gsm paper.  


    We have lots of doves in our garden in South Africa, I love them all!

    In ons tuin in Suid-afrika is daar baie duiwe: tortelduiwe, lemoenduiwe, kransduiwe. Ek het hulle lief!

    Waterpaint and ink on 300gsm paper. We
    have 
    uck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a If it walks like a k
    If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck

    This painting has a history: I took a photo of two geese in Lydenburg, South Africa…then I decided to change the geese into ducks, because I can! 
    The joys of art! (pen, ink, pencil, waterpaint)

    Saturday 22 August 2015

    Birdlife

    “The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.” ― J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird

    My art: Birds of prey are, like eagles, birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds.
    Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh. In most cases, the females are considerably larger than the males.
    The term “raptor” is derived from the Latin word rapere (meaning to seize or take by force) and may refer informally to all birds of prey, or specifically to the diurnal group. Because of their predatory lifestyle, often at the top of the food chain, they face distinct conservation concerns.
    Pen and ink, gouache paint on waterpaint paper.

    The grey-headed kingfisher (Halcyon leucocephala) has a wide distribution from the Cape Verde Islands off the north-west coast of Africa to Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, east to Ethiopia, Somalia and southern Arabia and south to South Africa. My love for birds was the inspiration to paint this colourful bird. Watercolour on 190gsm paper.

    Keelvlekvlieëvanger / Chinspot batis. Waterpaint on 300 g/m Daler Rowney paper.

    The White-winged Flufftail (Sarothrura ayresi) is a very rare African bird in the Rallidae family. Despite efforts over the last few years by conservationists in South Africa and Ethiopia, there is still a lot that is not known about the critically endangered White-winged Flufftail.
    Waterpaint.

    Monday 4 May 2015

    My personal diary!

    Winter

    Winter is coming,
    I smell it outside
    but the days are still bright...

    and my heart feels so light
    for the sunrays are spreading wide.


    Late summer so mild, 
    creeps deep in my heart -
    but in autumn I dance
    with the leaves
    on the grass
    say welcome to winter at last!

    Maureen Grobler 1920-1993.

    My late mother wrote this lovely poem many years ago. I can agree: "but the days are still bright..."  Here are my latest paintings, hope you enjoy as much as I did. 

    There are so many awesome places to enjoy the thrills of sand boarding in South Africa. Our beaches are gorgeous and so many are home to the most beautiful and awesome sand dunes that growing numbers enjoy conquering with their sand boards.
    Paletteknife painting, acrylic. 




    Apples, avocado, bananas, figs, grapes, gooseberries, guavas, lemons, mangoes, oranges, paw paw, peaches, pears, plums, pomegranates, pineapples, quince, spanspek, tomatoes, watermelon, winter melons are all in season at the moment in South Africa. (March, April and May)
    Painted on an x-raysheet, palette knife, acrylic paint.


    I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.- Og Mandino 




    Art is your personal diary where you may color your thoughts and emotions on a page. ~Sara, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999.



    I cannot agree more with the famous words of Sara! 

    Sunday 22 March 2015

    Online Exhibition

    My own online exhibition ....my latest paintings! Hope you enjoy as much as I did! 
    Ladismith (550m) nestles at the foot of the Klein Swartberg mountain range in the Klein Karoo, South Africa. A wide variety of scenic routes are accessible from Ladismith. If one travels east through the beautiful Hoeko Valley, breathtaking views of orchards in the spring and autumn can be experienced. It serves an extensive farming area with ideal climate for the production of apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, figs, pomegranates, olives and grapes. Approximately 30% of the total apricot export market comes from the district. 
    A watercolour painting from a photo of one of my fb-friends. 

    One single cosmos flower

    Pastels on paper. 

     A painting from my imagination, somewhere in Africa. Palette knife, acrylic paint. 

     COSMOSFLOWERS ALONG THE ROAD. 
    Waterpaint on 300gsm paper

    Something different: abstract art....a sunny day in South Africa. 
    Acrylic on paper. 

    Friday 27 February 2015

    My art, always my joy!


    “Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.” (Barry Finlay)

    Acrylic on canvas. Size: A5, palette knife



    Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.
    - Albert Schweitzer


    “There is no season such delight can bring,
    As summer, autumn, winter and the spring.” – William Browne, Variety, 1630


    Autumn is on it's way, lovely weather and beauty all around us. 


    Wednesday 4 February 2015

    Time to paint

    How wonderful! I have time again, time to paint and paint and never ever get tired. "Like emotions, colours are a reflection of life." - Janice Glennaway said many years ago. Here are three of my latest paintings, done on canvas sheet, A5 size. I used a palette knife and did only a little bit of brushwork here and there.

     God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.~ Martin Luther
    Today was wonderful. My husband prepared our lunch and I had time to paint my favourite subject: trees. My soul was alive, I could understand the message that nature gave me.

    In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes, so with time present.- Leonardo da Vinci
     The mountain ranges of South Africa are some of the oldest and most beautiful in the world.

    Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.- Barry Finlay

    All three paintings are for sale, unframed. 
    T-shirts and hoodies, throw pillows, tote bags , duvet covers and many more products can be bought at my online shop at RedBubble, please have a look and enjoy!  

    Saturday 31 January 2015

    Pastel art

    Pastels are pigments mixed with a binder. Traditionally chalk was used as a binder, but today other materials are also used. Pastels allow you to layer and blend vibrant colors to create a soft look.
    • Soft pastel sticks allow for better blending, while hard sticks are better for details. Pastels also come as pencils for making fine lines. I used both pencils and sticks. 
    It was quite a challenge, because I never used pastels before, but once I started, I enjoyed it so much! 
     A simple daisy, one of my favourite flowers.