Coastal Series 1

Coastal Series 1

Acrylic 91 x 80cm

This imaginary painting was on the go before I started my rock pool series , it actually initiated my close-up rock pool paintings. The painting consists of many layers, some were retained and some obliterated.
I have been trying to get the feel of looking over the rocks and pools, towards the sea in the early morning light. The painting symbolizes new beginnings.

Below I have shown stage 1 and 2 of my painting process.

Rock Pool 2

Rock Pool 2
Acrylic 45 x 122cm

This painting is the second in a series of rock pool paintings. I love the way light is reflected on the surface of the water in some areas of our rock pools, creating a milky reflective surface. Where the rock pool is in shadow, the water becomes transparent, allowing a clear view of the stones and shells below.

I have used very subtle tones of colour here, I am experimenting with colour mixing at the moment, trying to create very subtle tones from my very vibrant acrylic tubes!



Pots of Paint

I mix up my favourite shades and tones in these little plastic pots, adding a bit of acrylic medium and a few drops of retarder, the paint stays lovely and smooth indefinitely. I now have found pots with clear lids, making identification much easier. I love to have all my mixing done before I start painting, I have built up enough mixes to be able to paint spontaneously - even though I will plan an initial colour scheme just to get started.

Kim at Creative Influences always leaves the most thought-provoking comments here, she seems to be able to create such interesting discussions, she always makes me think. There is so much of what we do as artists that is instinctual and only when we are urged to write down our thoughts to explain ourselves to others, do we have to analyze and verbalize what we do.
Thanks, Kim!

Rock Pool 1

Rock Pool 1
Acrylic 90 x 60 cm

The sea and the coastline become deep-rooted in one's psyche when living on a peninsula at the tip of Africa. The Atlantic and Indian oceans merge along our southern coastline, when we look south, there is nothing but sea between here and Antarctica.

I love to spend time gazing into rock pools, there is a whole microcosm of life being played out before me. The sounds and smells of the sea, the brilliant colours and shapes of the stones, shells and shell-fish with tiny fish darting about appeals to all my senses. I was struck one day, looking down, directly into the pool, by the amazing abstract-like quality of the shapes and colours and I have tried to recreate this in my painting.

Arum

Arum
Acrylic 45 x 120cm

Arum lilies grow wild in profusion here in the Western Cape during the later part of the winter. I love the winter here in Cape Town and this Arum seems to represent this special time of the year.
I mixed up some muted grays and browns, not having any subject in mind, I just played with the paint using large brushes. I am fascinated how the shades of paint mix on the canvas - I wet the canvas with medium and painted into this wet surface. Over the weeks that this painting lived in my studio, an Arum lily poked its head out and then the leaves appeared.

This is my first posting after a long break. I sometimes need to go "into" myself where my thoughts need to be consolidated. I have been trying to analyze how I can sometimes create powerfully emotive images and at other times I feel as if I am in a creative vacuum, unable to paint. I have come to realize that when I am fired up with feeling, I can paint in an emotive way, but when I am bumbling happily along, my muse dries up! The trouble is, who wants to live on an emotional roller-coaster? No wonder some artists turn to drink or drugs! I have been trying to find my own way of accessing my quieter inner self over these last few months.

Garden Roses

Garden Roses
Acrylic 49 x 59cm

This is one of the demonstration paintings that I started in my acrylic workshop and then completed in my studio. I had picked a few roses from my garden and placed them in a vase, but this is really painted from my imagination and memory.

The painting surface is a piece of 100% cotton seed-cloth. I cover a board with a thin piece of plastic so that the painting does not stick to the board. I then wrap the cloth around a board and prime it with two coats of gesso and a coat of acrylic medium. I love to work on a hard surface, so I can scratch and scrub into the paint, without worrying about denting the canvas. I sometimes work with liquid paint and this can pool on a stretched canvas. I have now carefully remove it from the board and will have it stretched on a stretcher.

Approaching North-wester

Acrylic

122 x 46cm

Cape Town is situated on a peninsula and is surrounded on three sides by the sea, beaches and rocky outcrops. During the winter we have many storms blown in by the strong north-westerly wind. We can actually see the heavy cloud-bank approaching over the sea. A ship was recently blown onto the beach near where I live, luckily all the crew survived and I think they have managed to drain off all the fuel to prevent an oil spill.

The Surge

The Surge

92cm x 92cm

Acrylic

This is an imaginary landscape that has been painted in many thick and thin layers of acrylic. I love to put down an opaque layer and then glaze over it with medium tinted slightly with colour. I then tend to destroy some of this with a new opaque and tint layer. This painting has taken months to complete!

I am fascinated by water, its movement, its sheer power and the amazing colours that are reflected as the light passes through the tumbling mass of frothy liquid.

African Vineyards

Cape Town is surrounded by vineyards. I love the vine, the way it grows all crooked and gnarled with leaves that turn to a reddish-orange profusion of colour in autumn. While living in the Northern Hemisphere in 2006 and 2007, I used to dream of the vineyards when thinking about Cape Town, they seem to embody and symbolise how I feel about the Cape.

This is one of the “Red paintings” I have been working on. Our vineyards are usually planted on the side of a hill, facing towards the south-easterly wind. We are experiencing days of extremely hot, humid weather and this has influenced me to paint this landscape in these hot colours.

Vineyards at Groot Constantia

A vine in winter devoid of leaves

Freedom

Freedom

Acrylic, 122 x 88 cm

This painting was originally posted under the name “flight”. I have been working on this canvas on and off for the last few months, I have even hung it at a recent exhibition and then worked on it again after the show. Do you ever do this?

I have turned the canvas horizontally, it looks better this way. My eagle represents strength and determination. She has the ability to move freely from one dimension to another, to soar above mundane daily life with absolute freedom.

I love to turn my paintings around and hang them up for a while in this new view of the work, it is like having four different paintings! Contemplating my paintings in progress plays an enormous part of my painting process, I spend ages looking at them in order for the paintings to direct me and tell me where to go next. I usually work on three or four at a time and so my studio can become very cramped with canvasses standing about. I dream of having a studio the size of a church hall!

In order to hang them all up without banging a million nails into the wall, we put up picture rails in my small studio and have hung chains from which I can hang the paintings. I screw a nail into the middle of each stretcher bar and then tie a loop of string so I can hook up the painting in whichever way I fancy. I can move these chains according to the size of the paintings and can hang two or more on the same chain.

What do you do with your paintings while working on them?

"Dance with Passion" Acrylic 122 x 45cm

I have been working on this painting, along with a few others for a few months now, I think it is resolved and finally complete. I keep changing its view point, on its side, it makes quite a gentle forest scene!

Let the winds of the heavens dance between you

This painting has taken many twists and turns and again the theme of dance has emerged. The title of the painting is a line from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, where he talks about marriage, below is an excerpt:-
"But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love,
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from the one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music".

The Dance2

Genetic Connections

Price: ZAR 5,000
Dimensions: 92 x 61cm
Medium: Acrylic

My daughter is expecting her first baby and had to go through various tests regarding possible complications. Happily the baby is fine. This painting expresses the concept of information being passed from generation to generation to the newly-formed embryo.

Synthesis

Price: ZAR 4,200
Dimensions: 50,5 x 58,5cm
Medium: Acrylic

The Red Leotard

SOLD
Dimensions: 80 x 100cm
Medium: Acrylic

Meditation

Price: ZAR 5000 SOLD
Dimensions: 70 x 100cm
Medium: Acrylic