Underconstruction

For those of you waiting and waiting and ...still you wait for something new here.  I want to let you know that I'm working on finishing paintings long awaiting a signature and I'm also revving up for my first exhibition.  I was hoping to manage it by Christmas and this will continue to remain my goal however due to family constraints it may only be in March of 2011.

I will post the other paintings when they are signed.  The self portrait is scrapped.  I'm deciding to burn it or turn it into something...a box?  Funny...I'm always trying to get out of the box.

OH......

This is my self portrait in progress - STILL.  I'm currently under debate to put it on canvass (yes...start over).  I actually like the high colour of my most recent paint over...I just ....am thinking.

Please excuse the furry edges!  this is also an in progress from yonkes ago.  I love it, I hate it.  Those white bits are me with a plan to glaze so I have a red cloth and not so orange with highlights.  This is more likely to get finished by the end of the month.  If I'm not too distracted by .....

This is my current challenge.  A boy from Africa - I'm working to get his face oh so real and then have all else rough.  My dear husband as already organized a showing of this picture at a local restaurant that assist local Town Ship school children in paying school fees and providing uniforms and sports and school supplies.  The place is imibala. They also provide "art training" for the children and have a Gallery across from the restaurant to showcase art works.

Okay...I know you think I'm nuts but I have uploaded this photo properly and for some reason Blogger has turned it sideways.  I've reloaded it etc etc and it always comes this way.  So...I've put it up because I'm very happy with the top and middle 30second sketches.  I'm impressed at how far I've come -just about a week ago I was making lines attached to circles...now I have form.  Thank you Posemaniacs.com .  A very useful site for someone like me.  I literally have only a few odd minutes here and there to practice figure poses and I would cheat horribly if allowed.  This site has a preset space that automatically changes the pose every 30sec (or what you've chosen to be your time frame).  I could go on and on about this site but it will suite the folks it suites.

So this is where I sit with my art instructor on holiday, sports for the children starts tomorrow, my husband away for a few more days...  And I'm still painting!!!  Yipee!  I've got two other projects in the works - both with children.  You can see those when they are in the painting stages!!!

Progress 2010

This painting is of a friend of mine.  Sitting in animated conversation with my husband over that most interesting of subjects LIFE, LOVE and HAPPINESS.  The paper in her lap is a dialog about the road to finding these things.   It is unfortunate that there was a glare in the photo.  The blues are bluer and the whites...not SO overpowering.  Her toes...are fabulous.  I struggled like crazy to get my initial lines laid down but then it was such fun to paint.  I really didn't want to put the chair in ...but in the end..that was lots of fun too!  It was wonderful to paint so loose.  It was like magic to see what a stroke could do!  I'm not certain I'm finished with it.  (I thought I was...but then a better background inspiration reared it's idea at me....)

Oh...this little love boy! He is hunting for crabs in the rocks at the beach.  The painting literally fell out of my brush - with a few challenges of course!  However the rocks painted themselves, and the skin tones!  Well I just played and it seemed to work a beauty.  When I was painting it my children thought I was mad.  I painted the whole figure a shade of green so he looked like an avocado.  The photo again is not true to colours - sad but there you are.  There's a greener tinge to the figure and many finely shaded areas all through the painting.  I'm not certain how to correct my photo's to make them more true.

My next two paintings are figures also.  One mine and one the African boy from a previous post.  The ideas are bursting forth and I am unable to keep up with them at present!  Many happy ideas to you!

NOTE:  The original title of this post was Current Paintings - Not the best idea I've had.  It shows not more clearly what it is I hope.

Measles and Weasels

Well, I've completed a picture of a crab catcher...and I will share it.  Just as soon as I have breathing space.  My eldest is in bed with Measles - he's all red and spotty and miserable.  My youngest has started with a raging fever now too.  The two middle children are still  roaringly healthy but giving their best to help everyone get better.  We had to cancel the birthday party till further notice.

So...keep checking.  There will be a new update soonish.

What is a Cape Winter like?

These pics are a view of a break in the hectic rains!  The sunshine is deceptive as the sky is usually sitting on top of your head so grey and pregnant with rain there seems to be a perpetual dusk.  The howling wind drives the wind so ferociously I have often been left wondering how the roofs remain on top of the houses season after season.

The picture directly above is of our swimming pool.  It's a swampy green colour with a eucalyptus scent due to the storm winds blowing  loads of Blue Gum tree leaves and stems and branches into the pool.  There is also water that seeps down from somewhere up the hill through the bricks and into the pool, (There's a huge puddle across the length of the bricks and all the green you see in the picture is soggy.  The brick bit to the right side is our braai area (Bar-b-que area!).  The smoke in the middle of the picture at the back?  Wait... remember we live in a third world country?  Well...that is smoke from a shack.  There is an informal settlement outside our fence/gate.  There are possibly 30 shacks in that area.  Hm...I should take pics of that too for you?  It's really beautiful actually.

Here is a picture looking down into the garden dam.  The wind as I said before is WICKED here.  So the previous residents put a raised garden into this unused dam.  It's about 16m (about 48 feet?) diameter. The picture actually isn't fabulous as the sun is over exposing the picture!

This is from the other side of the garden.  I was standing on the wall (it's only about 6-7 feet high) but I'm scared of heights so I clicked quick!  That is all standing water from the rains in the cross walk.  The pole against the brick pillar is for my sons to climb up and then they perch at the top.  Clearly they are not worried about heights.  All the green in the upper right is my "green manure" crop.  Mustard, alfalfa, and buckwheat - I feed our chickens the mustard greens!  The blue door is propped there for the moment as the winds have blown it off it's hinges.  No...no irrigation except a hose and sprinkler.  I know.

I just love this Zebra striped Land Rover!  It's our neighbors - they say it belongs to a friend.

Updates of work in Progress

Well we finally had some sun (for one day) after a week of rain.  We have another week of rain expected but that would be a proper "Cape" winter forcast.  Cold rainy glum.

Below is an "update" on my pencil drawing of the young Kenyan boy.  He might make it to canvas by the end of this month or early next??

This is the "landscape" in a new twist of life...I prefer this to the green on green and brown.  I believe it still needs a bit more refining but overall it's better.

This little guy you have seen before.  This is my preliminary canvas sketch.  With any freaky luck I will get to lay-in a bit of colour before my next art class!  I say this because my hubby will fly away Saturday morning to India then off to Germany only to return home 7 days later.  Time to paint will be fabulously miraculous with four children - however I like to expect miracles!

So now...Martha Miller asked me what it's like here in Winter.  I will try to get some pics up this weekend.  It's hard to take photo's when it's raining!

Life on this little Planet

This is a small part of a huge limestone (?) rock at the edge of what is called the Palmiet River  (pronounced Paul-meet).  You can swim from a bridge higher up the river down nearly to the mouth of the river (where it opens onto the ocean ("strictly speaking...the Atlantic").  The swim if taken seriously is about 20-30minutes.  This river is the place we visit when the wind is too bad at the beach.

This little scene belies it's height.  if you look at the left side of the picture...there is a dark blue band...that's the ocean.  That funny bit is houses and roads!  We were at the top of Jeans Hill  (It's a 20minute zig-zag hike up the mountain!)

Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve - Cape Nature, Western Cape, South Africa

Common rock formations of these mountains that I believe are part of the vast and celebrated Kogelberg Bioshpere.  

Some pretty little things on the path up to Jean's Hill.

This was our playground for over a year before our move to the farm.  This is overlooking the lagoon at Pringle Bay.  A beautiful place if you don't mind the baboons and have no desire to garden!

This is our back garden now.  That's my fabulous husband getting ready to launch our 5 year old son through the air into the far end of the pool.  (It's about 15meters).  Yes...those are horses in the paddock.  They are not ours but they graze our three hectares that would go down all the way to the tree above my hubby's head.

Susan Beauchemin and Martha Miller, two artist I admire, are sisters.  On their blogs they like to share their different Planets.  Susan asked me recently what mine looked like.  So here is a little beginning.

Now please you must do yourself a favor and go explore Susan and Martha's links!
Painting Daily  and Martha Miller: May 2010 (please excuse my links...I'm really not so techie inclined!) 

Yes I have been drawing and painting a little.  Mostly carting children to sports and caring for winter colds and sniffles.  I am to start my new art class tomorrow.  At present I haven't taken day light hours to photograph my work.  I did try some last night but they came out yellow!

A little practice

More in Progress

This is my latest "I wanna paint this" idea.  This little boy needs a heck of a lot more work.  The picture shows eyes of general wonder and curiosity.  My rendition is not exactly capturing that..nor is it capturing the boys youth.  SO...more work!  On the other hand...I have been working on a few other sketches to "strengthen" my skills.  It's working GREAT.

My eye is getting much better with the nemisis steroids but I did try lots of other things before I went there so at least I might be able to see normally again in 6weeks!

No pictures...Please!

I've lost a bit of time this week due to an eye infection. I've been struggling with an eye issue for the past year but this was worse. So I made an urgent run to the eye doctor last Wednesday and I'm taking conventional treatment (I've tried homeopathic/natural remedies for all this time but the infection was just the ripper for me!) and go for a follow up on Wednesday. Hold thumbs. I will go to class Tuesday as usual if I feel I can drive safely and see properly. Since Wednesday it's not been possible.