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.”