Warm Autumn Days

The hot, humid days of summer are gone now. The sun shines warm and friendly and glistens bright on rainless clouds and sugarcane. This is the best time of year in Zululand. The (still) green outdoors beckons and that explains why I had to take a roundabout trip on the district roads surrounding our town after dropping off a parcel at a farm. The following three small watercolours are a result of that:

Canefield Contours near Vuma

Watercolour, 190 x135mm 

Matchstick Hill

Watercolour, 190 x 135mm

Farmhouse with Cane & Cabbage

Watercolour, 190 x 135 mm 

TEA GARDEN

Every Saturday there is a tea garden (and market) in our small town in a private garden. People come to buy homemade treats and crafts contributed by the community, or find themselves a treasure amongst the used goods for sale. They meet friends and sit down to enjoy true German hospitality and generous helpings of delicious, decadent cakes and quisches over a cuppa.

I felt inspired to paint this warm meeting place. I jumped straight in, but when my painting was this far:

I decided that I needed to loosen up. Some areas also bothered me. So I made a sketch - which I should have done in the first place!

Then I did a second, smaller painting, forgetting about recording the exact details, but rather trying to capture the mood:

watercolour and ink, 195 x 135mm 

I then returned to the original painting to finish it. I washed out some foreground, splashed in some foliage and added structure and detail.

watercolour and ink, 260x165mm

SOLD

Greeting cards with both the above designs

will also be available at the abovementioned market. 

IMMATERIAL INTERLUDES

In between other art, I always find myself playing around with collage, colours and textures. Not all of these end up as artworks, but I do discover things - colour combinations or media that work well together. And it makes me relax! Here are two recent ones:

"Autumn Art"

( We don't see much of a change in seasons near the coast in KZN,

so I had to make my own autumn leaves! :-)  )

Mixed media on paper. 135 x 195mm

"Expectation"

Mixed Media on paper. 195 x 280 mm

"Expectation" - detail:

SPLASHING A WAVE

Some time ago I experimented with some pouring and splashing of paint, with a view to create interesting abstract patterns. One of the boards, however, developed (after some painting and meddling) into a more realistic rendering of a wave throwing itself onto the beach with wreckless abandon:

The WAVE

Mixed Media on Board - 1030 x 480 mm 

  

MORE FUN!

I started a series that I called "FUN FLOWERS" last year and have just recently completed two more paintings in the series:

Daisies in an African Pot (II)

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas - 505 x 405 x 15mm

Roses in a Copper Pot

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas - 505 x 405 x 15mm

Something that is not visible on the digital images, is that the paint was applied in an impasto manner, which adds a vivacious texture to the otherwise flat colour.

As an afterthought -  some dictionary meanings gleaned for "fun" :

1 : what provides amusement or enjoyment;

2 : a mood for finding or making amusement


Fun usually implies laughter or gaiety but may imply merely a lack of serious or ulterior purpose. 
 
 
HAVE FUN!!