During John’s recent visit to the farm, we went out sketching on a few occasions. However, I was understandably distracted by my new grand-daughter, Chloë !
John spent more time on his plein-air studies, all of which they turned out really well. For those who can access our Facebook page, they can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/africanpainting?sk=wall
Some renovations in the house and various other distractions have meant that I haven’t painted for a while. But, when I was researching the Doublebanded Sandgrouse for a future order, I came across this captivating leopard. So, here she is, so striking against the red sand of the Kalahari.
I don’t often paint eland, so with a recent order I felt the need to do some drawings before the final painting. It was quite an enjoyable exercise.
Now for some light relief from the stresses of the Challenge. I little drawing and painting for Sunday relaxation. I have been fascinated by a trend I discovered on the internet, swapping ATC’s. They are diminutive creations that swappers exchange with others all over the world. So I decided to make some cards that have to be 3.5 x 2.5 inches precisely. I made a template and then cut up an old watercolour painting from years ago and started creating. It was great fun !! Here are the 12 that I squeezed out of the cards cut from that one painting. I don’t think that mine compare favourably with the elaborate embellished works of art that the true ATC swappers produce, but then these are a first attempt.
In the recent post entitled, ‘Karoo Interlude’, I mentioned that in my youth, on travels with my family we covered most of Rhodesia; (Zimbabwe) while researching the trees species that were my father’s particular interest. We often travelled in the area between Bulawayo and the Victoria Falls where large forests of Mopane, Teak and Mahogany grew abundantly, as well as many other beautiful trees. This watercolour is reminiscent of those wonderful forests and painting it was a deeply nostalgic process for me !
When I first moved to Silvermere way back in 1978, I never thought I would get used to the vast treeless nature of the karoo landscape. It was such a dramatic change after all the wonderful woodlands of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where I grew up. As my father was particularly interested in botanical research and the trees in particular, we travelled extensively around the country to collect leaf specimens of tree varieties for the Herbarium in Salisbury (Harare). It was such an all consuming interest that our whole family became familiar with identifying the tree species with ease. My brother,(John Burrows) was particularly inspired, and has made a career out of this passion for plants. He has written several botanical books and continues to travel widely throughout southern Africa collecting, recording and photographing various plant species for his research.
However, despite this heritage, the vast, barren and expansive nature of the karoo has inadvertently crept into my heart. It has become one of my most stirring and favourite painting inspirations. I never tire of photographing it as we crisscross the karoo on every available little holiday adventure. We have travelled so many of the little dirt tracks & farm roads to find new vistas and quaint treasures that would make good painting subjects. We avoid the main tar roads as often as possible, and have covered most of the central & eastern Karoo, as well as Namaqualand, the Northern Cape and the Freestate. But there is always something new over the next horizon, and I doubt that my appetite for these beautiful arid landscapes will ever be exhausted.
Some orders are just beyond challenging! They are enough to make one wonder why we take on commissions. This one is for an American hunter who targets the pigeons that raid the sunflower fields of the northern Freestate.
The fields are ready for harvesting, but the Rock pigeons descend in large flocks to eat the seeds. How dull the painting would have been with only fields ready for harvesting, as it is no doubt in reality. But this is art and needs to suggest the situation without looking like a war zone. So I have added a separate field with flowers still young, to brighten the painting and enhance the subject. It is unlikely that there would be crops at such different stages in development on any sunflower farm, but it was important for the painting.
The sunflower farmers have no alternative but to hire hunters to come to their aid. I don’t like killing anything, but as we face the same problem with Jackal and Lynx raiding our sheep flocks; I do understand their situation. All I can do now is hope that the client will be satisfied.
Here are a few more sheep sketches and paintings.
I have an enormous online library of quirky and entertaining photos of sheep taken over the years; and now that photography is digital, it is so easy to capture moods and attitudes at every available opportunity, without the costs of printing them all.
There was a time when I spent far too much on frequent trips to the nearest Foto-First (200 kms away) in Bloemfontein.
But now, with the aid of a trusty printer, I am able to only print what I want to paint, at the moment when inspiration strikes.
It was difficult to choose just 4, for this set, but I really must move on to some other subject matter now. I can’t imagine there are many of you out there who are so entranced by sheep as I am, so I promise to put sheep aside for the moment!
The beautiful Bokmakierie belongs the Bush Shrike family and is such a colourful resident of our otherwise drab winter garden. Although they live and nest here, it is seldom that I am able to photograph them. How lucky I was, and of course a sketch was inevitable !
One of the painting commissions from the client who took photos in the Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya, was of the Whitebacked Vulture. (It was not the Serengeti as I first thought.)
This painting inspired me to make a couple of other studies that are posted here. Researching these vultures revealed many amazing facts about them. The Rueppell’s Griffon, is said to be the highest flying bird, with a recording of 11,000 metres or 36,100 feet, and their wingspan reaches 2.6 metres or 8,5 feet!!
Here on Silvermere, we have the Cape Vulture, which I haven’t painted yet. These vultures come for the carcasses of sheep and cattle that die in the veld. We sometimes have flocks of about 50 on one carcass. It is wonderful to have them now, as they have been absent for many many years. We still hear reports that they were becoming an endangered species, but at least we have a flock that we see from time to time. Here are a couple of photos that I took of our Cape Vultures that roost on the power lines nearby.
After a friend visited the Serengeti National park last year, he asked if I’d paint some of the photos that he took while he was there. These were 3 of them.
The challenge, more than the cats themselves, was the grass. There are some ways to simplify painting grass, but as grass featured in these three so prominently, it was important to avoid the short-cuts. It makes me think of all the grass that covers Silvermere at the moment, since the good rains of the past four months. The sheep get lost amongst it and looking for them is quite difficult. When we walk in the veld, grass seeds work their way into our socks if we don’t wear very long trousers and high boots. Looking out over the vales of waving grass, it really looks more like cattle country, than karoo veld; and is reminiscent of the tall savannah-grassveld in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where I grew up.
I would like to make a correction here, since speaking to the client. These cats were all photographed in the Kenyan side of the Reserve, which is called the Maasai Mara National Park.
On the return from our brief trip to Johannesburg to see John and Sue and Neil, we photographed lots of sunflowers in the fields alongside the N1. There is a possible upcoming order that includes a sunflower field. We drove off down a few linking farm roads and this perfect little scene was one that we passed. I found it particularly captivating and inspiring to paint.
