The Art of It

The drawing competition is on Thursday and I had no idea what to do for it. Flight of Fancy is very difficult for a reasonably well grounded Capricorn, and that is the subject! I started drawing my little dog and then got carried away with fairies etc. Maybe not so well grounded! The closer you look the more you will see. Very strange and rather amusing drawing I think. While I have been drawing fairies, Cape Town is once again burning. Yes, it is February and our winelands are taking a beating. Three winefarms in Somerset West have had extensive damage done to them and we are choking on the ash that has blown towards Table Mountain. Today helicopters have been grounded due to bad weather conditions and my house looks like a giant with dandruff has had a good shake of this head!

I completed this oil painting about two weeks ago and got so wrapped up in my plein air painting that I forgot to post it. I am working with a set 40cm x 30cm canvas board at the mmoment and I really like the control I have over the whole painting. I wondered about putting a figure walking down the road then decided that the road was in fact the subject and dropped the idea.

Wow - I am in seventh heaven!!! I have just had the most wonderful morning! I joined a group of Plein Air painters at Maidens cove, near Camps Bay. Now firstly, I have lived in Cape Town since I was 17 and I have never been to Maidens Cove, and secondly, I have never seen so many paintings just waiting to be painted in one place!!! .... and I didn't have the confidence to take my oils! - I left them at home!!!! Well we women make a plan! I first sat under my enormous garden umbrella on a rock and sketched. Just let the juices flow! It was sheer heaven! Yes, the woman is a rock! there are five of them, although I could only see four. Then I got out my watercolour paper and drew another view of her - keeping a careful eye on compisition etc. One gets so tied up in detail that I really battled to get her shape right! But eventually I had enough down on the paper to bring out the watercolours. I am rather chuffed with the result even if it is rather pale and misty- that...

I just found this painting I did while sitting on my own at Kirstenbosch. Only two of us pitched up for this Plein Air outing at Kirstenbosch. I am glad I went though. While sitting there, the cloud got heavier and heavier and it started spitting with rain. Tourists poured past and it was difficult to just focus! Isn't it wonderful to be able to create out in the midst of this wonderful world we are so lucky to live in?