A farm gate

W&N watercolour and ink sketch on Bockingford 300gsm 

I just cannot drive or walk past a farm gate or fence without stopping to photograph or sketch it! And I'm especially partial to barbed wire fences! This is a farm gate on a friend’s smallholding in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa)

Small Aloe ferox painting

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

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Small paintings in a sketch-book

Just taking a break from all the sales talk! I have this small, hand-made little sketch-book with satin-finish linen paper, which is exquisite to paint in. The paint takes on a life all of it's own when it his the paper and the outcome is always unexpected! But it is very unforgiving, doesn't take well to pencil or ink and cannot erase on it at all. So whatever gets put down, that's it! But I just love churning out these small little 7"x5" paintings!

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The road to a friend

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

The road I take to visit a friend in Hillside (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

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The road West

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

An Autumn scene on the way to Rustenburg.

Winter is looming

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

The season has changed and we are into lovely autumn days, but here in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa), some trees are already in winter mode, having shed most of their leaves. I feel it’s a bit early, maybe a severe winter ahead?

Such Geraniums!

Memory sketch – W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm 

Such geraniums! It does not become us poor mortals to be vain—but, really, my geraniums!
- Mary Mitford, ‘Our Village’

Geraniums in a tall Everite pot that I used to have in my previous garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa), from the days before Asbestos was banned in South Africa in 2008. These pots were extremely popular in South Africa and had a perfect surface for painting, either with PVA or enamel paints. Painted with PVA, they would weather into a lovely vintage look, getting more beautiful as time passed. I’m just wondering what the company Everite produces now….?

Asbestos once accounted for three percent of the value of South Africa’s minerals. South Africa was previously the fifth largest supplier of chrysotile, produced 97% of the world’s crocidolite and 100% of all amosite.

En route to Magaliesburg

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Whenever I go to Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa) just 13km from us, I choose to take a short-cut through Spring Farm and although it is a gravel road, I do away with lots of traffic and getting stuck behind trucks on their way to Rustenburg or Botswana and, to top it all, I see lots of wildlife. It’s a route we used to take with the horses during my horse riding days.