The Art of It

The South African Society of Artists is holding their 2008 Members' Exhibition at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The exhibition will be open from 9.30 to 17.30 daily from the 7th June until Sunday 15 June.

Thanks Liz, for getting me back to my water colours!!! It was great fun and really freed me up to at long last finish my lighthouse which I will be posting soon. I have not touched my water colours for over 10 years so I needed quite a bit of encouragement - not a bad first try I think, after such a long time!

The last three weeks has been spent bending the brain! Margie, that was the most challenging painting I have ever done and I have learned so much. It was well worth the hours of work. The first step in the project was to paint a mono tone painting, anything we liked. I had already started to paint the centre when I remembered to photograph it. Then we had to divide the painting up into segments. Most people did squares. Yours truly decided to do circles which became slightly distorted as they went out, sort of like looking through a porthole. Then we had to paint each segment using just two colours plus white, matching values for the differing tones. Each segment was to be a different colour combination. If anyone has been to the Sixty Minute Artist lately you will know how he has been concentrating on tone and value. Very challenging and difficult to get right. I landed up repainting four of the circles as the colours where just too way out. Now to photo...

This is a photo of our social art group. We get together every Friday morning during term time at the Frank Joubert Art School in Newlands and have a great time. We share the cost of hiring the room. We paint in all mediums, help each other when needed and swap news and gossip. Some of the topics of conversation are very interesting indeed. If any local artists are interested in joining us, we have a few vacancies left for next term. You can comment on this post or use the form at the bottom of this page to contact me. Please provide contact details so that I am able to get back to you.

Finished at last! All 25 squares! What a huge learning curve! I worked in each square with only two colours plus white and have been amazed at the mixes, especially the beautiful greys one can get. I have also confirmed what my favourite colours are.

Noordhoek - Oil on canvas I have joined a new class with Margie Johnson - everyone in Cape Town knows her and has been to her classes! I thought that with the change from acrylics to oils I should go to one of the top teachers and boy oh boy am I learning fast!!! I am loving oils!!! I have discovered, though, that I really can't handle the smell of turps, even genuine turps makes me physically ill! I'm using white spirits and that seems to be working well. Heaven only knows how I am going to store this lot as it can take up to a year for oils to dry!!!! What an adventure!!!

I wanted to experiment with a new technique of putting colour into a thick white base using a palette knife. The foreground was difficult because acrylics dry so fast and I ended up going back to a brush. The mountains were painted with a palette knife. I am beginning to get the feeling that perhaps I should try using oils.

Wow but European skin tones are difficult! I think I need to work on the closest arm as the colour is not right yet.

I have been experimenting with some new colour combinations. Phthalo Blue with its vivid freshness - makes lovely greens!

Here is a portrait with a difference. It could be a great picture for a kid's bedroom.

Africa is crying. Doesn't this little face tug at your heartstrings?

My first ever entry into a photographic competition (Sunday Argus) and I am a runner up! My word what a surprise! Here is the picture I entered. The big problem is that the competition organisers will only take photo's that are 1 MB or more and I have a baby camera that does not take photos that size. I don't know if they will accept any more entries from me. I will be e mailing them to ask. When the competition started the weekly prize was a weekend away, which I was after, but they seem to have stopped that and now give away a dinner for two at the Blowfish Restaurant. Perhaps they should give a camera as a prize instead of the dinner for two! Funnily enough only last week I finished a painting of the very same photograph! Here is a photograph of the painting.

I truly prefer a more photorealistic style of painting where the artist expresses herself through composition, colour, expression, and the interplay of light and shadow. This latest painting is an example of what currently seems to be my "style".

This post has been a long time in getting ready. I have recently become totally involved in a few new sites. After searching for ages for art blogs and finding nothing I have hit the jack pot! There is just so much really good stuff out there. Try Sixty Minute Artist , or Art and Perception , or A Painting Journey / the Painters Keys or Art News !!! I have been totally hooked in and am learning just so much! I painted this Hex River Valley scene and absolutely hate it. One of these days I will paint over it, but in the meantime I painted two little miniatures of the original using just three colours. The first one was Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine and white. The other was Cadmium red, Phthalo blue and white. I am really sick of this view now but have learned so much by doing this exercise. It's amazing how going back to the first painting it now looks all wrong. I just didn't see it as I should have. I suppose that this is part of learning process. A lot of patience ...

Kalk Bay is a suburb of Cape Town, which started out as a fishing village on the False Bay coast. It has a protected harbour from which local fishermen launch their wooden boats. From around midday the boats start returning and offloading their catch – you can buy your supper straight from the boat. The narrow main street is full of quaint shops and galleries selling antiques artworks and bric-a brac. There are several good restaurants in and near to the harbour. Up on the mountainside above are walks and the well known Kalk Bay caves. A photograph taken in the harbour inspired this painting.