This cow was the www.differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com challenge for the week. I always enjoy painting cows and this one was no exception. Go and check out all the other lovely cows.

Cow
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Unica Christmas Market

The biggest Christmas Market in South Africa started today in Pretoria. It is the 21st year that the market is held and it just gets bigger every year. There are 250 exhibitors and it is the ideal place to do early holliday shopping.

The market is organized by the Unica School for children with autism. Every exhibitor gives a percentage of their sales to the school.

This is the first year I am participating. I am selling original paintings and prints. I do hope it goes well!

My paintings

Cups and Bowls

I have been working towards a huge ChristmasMarket that starts this coming Monday.

These are some of the paintings.

Cups 1
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Cups 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Bowls 1
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Bowls 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Children Paintings

Today I am sharing some paintings I have done on children. I adore these paintings. They are charming, colourfull and just a lot of fun.

Smelling the Flowers
Original oil on board 30x30cm
SOLD

Going Away
Original oil on board 30x30cm
SOLD

By the River
Original oil on board 30x30cm

SOLD

Going Swimming
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Learning to Ride
Original oil on board 30x30cm
SOLD

Swinging
Original oil on board 30x30cm
SOLD

The Beach
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Field of poppies

I painted these poppies as a set of 2. The other one has already been sold. I love the darker background against the lovely bright colour of the flowers

Field Of Poppies 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Thursday Group

Thursday mornings is the highlight of my week. This is when I get together with other artists and paint different themes using various techniques.

Today we focused on doing a face as this is something that a lot of artists struggle with. We started with the shading of the face and then moved to the eyes, nose and mouth, eventually finishing with a complete painting.

Once again we used the same drawing but each painting is so different from the rest. Amazing how we all have our own style of painting and seeing colours.

Alet's painting

Hantie's painting

Nick's painting

Ronel's painting

My painting

Shoe paintings

These shoes are part of a series I am working on for an exhibition at the end of the month. I don't think I will ever get tired of painting shoes. There are just to many shapes and colours to play with. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do painting them.

Red Sandals
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Red Slingbacks
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Pink Heels
Original oil on board 30x30cm

By the River

I found this as a black and white photo about a year ago. It was laying around and every time I wanted to paint it something else came up. Thursday I decided it was time to just move everyting else out of the way and paint this lovely scene. I am very pleased with the outcome. The colours and texture works well in this peacefull painting.

By the River
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Different Strokes - Bean

This is my version of this weeks photo challenge on the Different Strokes blog.

The photo is of the Cloud Gate Sculpture in Chicago, also known as "The Bean". The sculpture is made of stainless steel and reflects light and the surroundings. I think is is gorgious. Must be amazing to see how it changes with weather and day and night.

Go to www.differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com to see all the other "beans".

"The Bean"
Original oil on board 15x15cm

Wellies

I painted these Wellingtons as part of my "shoe" series.

When I was a little girl these was a tv show about a boy with magical yellow Wellingtons. Since then I have loved Wellingtons. Such a shame we don't wear Wellies in South Africa. I suppose it is an English thing and besides, we don't have so much wet weather around here. Sigh!

So, if I can't wear them, I can paint them!

White Wellies
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Pink Wellies
Original oil on board 30x30cm

South Africa

I spent last weekend with my family and friends in the northern part of South Africa. I thought it would be iteresting to show the diversity of our wonderfull country to the overseas bloggers who visit my site. This is just a simple example but go to www.southafrica.net for all you need to know about SA.

We went to the most northern province of Limpopo.

On Friday we arrived at a game farm. This is the beginning of summer in SA and this area falls in our summer rainfall area. As you can see the place needs rain urgently, they haven't had rain since winter started. It is very dry and dusty but still beautifull with lots of game and beautifull trees. Seeing the trees pushing out new green leaves in these arid conditions is a great reminder of the wonder of nature.

Yesterday morning we left the game farm and drove to Magoebaskloof just 45 miles away. Now you can see why this is such an amazing country. From dry bushveld to the most a mazing misty mountains, blooming azaleas and cherry blossoms. And this is just one small sample of what you can expect from South Africa.

Field of Poppies

I have been doing lots of flowers lately. Very strange actually because it is something I was never interested in. I realy enjoy using bold colours on these poppies. After all the flowers I think it is time to paint some shoes now..

Field of Poppies 1
Original oil on board 30x30cm
SOLD

New Proteas

Since the last proteas I have done 2 more. They are just so much fun to paint. I think these 2 are much more "relaxed" than the previous ones. Just goes to show, the more you paint the better it gets. I always try to paint in sets of 2. Because my paintings are smallish clients love buying 2. One seems just to lonely...

Protea 4
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Protea 5
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Thursday Group

Last Thursday of the month - again! I can't believe it's only 3 months to Christmas. As it is the last Thursday of the month each artist worked on their own painting.

Marlene - she finished her painting from last week. Very pretty!

Stella - she has been working on this painting for quite some time and finished it today. A real storybook painting.

Ronel - being Ronel she did 2 paintings this morning! Lovely paintings.

My painting - I felt like doing some shoes. I haven't done shoes in a while and started getting whitdrawal symptoms hehe!

Different Strokes weekly painting

This is the first painting I did on a new site started by Karin Jurick, an American artist. Every week se posts a new photo and invites artists to paint their version of that weeks particular photo. This is a great idea and gives me the chance to paint themes that I would not otherwise do or even think of.

Go to http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/ to see al the amazing paintings.

Man Reading Newspaper
Original oil on board 20x20cm
SOLD

Thursday Group

We had a great time on Thursday doing another palette knife painting. This one was very challenging with all the different colours and detail. In the end everyone made lovely paintings. Well done friends and thanks Charles for doing the class the past few weeks.

Hantie's painting

Jenny's painting

Nick's painting

My painting

Anso's painting

Proteas

The protea is an amazing flower. They come in all different sizes and have magnificent colours. Some are the lightest of pink and others are deep red and purple and they al have a velvety feel and look. The King Protea is the national flower of South Africa. Definately my favourite flower.

Protea 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Protea 1
Original oil on board

Blue Sandals

I haven't done shoes in a while and with summer arriving here in sunny South Africa I couldn't resist painting these strappy sandals. I love the bright colours, it makes me long for the long December beach holiday that's just around the corner.

Blue Sandals 1
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Blue Sandals 2
Original oil on board

Poppies

I recently started painting flowers. I never thought about painting flowers until my paintgroup did a few and I was forced to paint them. I find it quite challenging to play around with the different shapes and colour contrasts but also very enjoyable.

Pink Poppy 1
Original oil on board

Pink Poppy 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm

White Magnolias

I loved painting these magnolias. First I painted the background using an old chinese stencil. I then sanded parts and gave it a burnt sienna wash to achieve and "old" look.

White Magnolia 1
Original oil on board 30x30cm

White Magnolia 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm