early spring

When the days become longer and there is more sunshine,the grass becomes fresh and,consequently, we feel very happy.
— Dalai Lama

September. Spring has arrived.......

the last days of winter

the last days of winter .....working with paper........ inspired by nature

 

dusty landscapes

winter drawing in the garden with pastels . 

grevillea heaven

The Grevilleas are flowering. Painting heaven.....

winter landscape

winter gathering

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.
— Andrew Wyeth

a return to the lake.......

All pictures painted inside the studio will never be as good as the things done outside
— Paul Cezanne

Cooler weather ...it"s time to head into the garden and paint.

magnolia

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.
— Emily Bronte

into the arid zone

The work table in the studio is full of wonderful thorny specimens from the botanical gardens.

Handle with care!

the desert is oozing power”
don Juan whispered in my ear
”there is no time to be timid”
— Carlos Castenanda

thorny poetry

For the month of April I will be in the arid zone.......

I am meeting Steve,the supervisor of this area of the botanical gardens,  on Friday. I will be focusing on Southern African succulents and have some ideas for 'arid zone inspired' sculptures. I'm excited!

‘So they drove again, Vivien sitting up and looking now, but as navigator only, letting the desert scratch it’s own thorny poetry on the enormous moon’
— Douglas Woolf

 

 

autumn

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each.” —Henry David Thoreau

learning through seeing

Monday mornings I go early to the botanical gardens to collect  specimens to paint during the week. I carefully select, cut and take them back to my studio. They are placed in a row of glass bottles on my work table. Each day I select a single flower to focus on. I try to simply paint what I see .

when you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.
— Georgia O'Keefe

pastel drawings of this week's specimens hanging in the studio.