Learning to ride

My painting for today. Can't believe I am doing paintings using a palette knife. This is something I wouldn't have dreamed doing just a year ago. Then it was all about "control"!! Amazing how one evolves as an artist just by being around other creative people and trying new things. I love my painting. I also love my Thursday paint group. Thanks ladies! And Nick :)

Learning To Ride
original oil on board 30x30cm

Thursday Group

Last Thursday of the month so time again for everyone to do their own thing. Last weeks lesson was all about using a palette knife. I missed it but got some great inspiration today from the other's paintings. As you can see everyone enjoyed the palette knife class so much that they used the same technique today.

Vivia's painting
She stayed with her "tree" theme and combined it with the palette knife technique with fantastic results. Love the colours!

Hanli's painting
Hanli is a wonderfull artist spesialising in realism and muted colours. Fantastic painting!

Hanti's painting
Hanti carried on with the "house" theme of last week and created a wonderfull painting today.

Marlene's painting
Marlene and Hanti did the same painting today and I think they are just charming.

Nick's painting
Nick also carried on with the houses and made a great painting. I love the red!

Ronel's painting.
This is a typical "Ronel" painting. Bold, colourfull and striking. Lovely.

Flower paintings

This is a theme I haven't done in quite a while. I really enjoyed working on them and love the warm colours against the rough background.

Poppy 1
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Poppy 2
Original oil on board 30x30cm

Nguni Paintings

Two more nguni paintings I did over the weekend. I decided to leave the background empty and only focus on the subject matter. I think the overall effect is quite interesting. Loved painting them.

Nguni 10
Original oil on board (30x30cm)

Nguni 11
Original oil on board (30x30cm)

Lion Painting

Last week the theme for our weekly painting was a lion. Sounds easy enough but is in fact quite tricky to get right. The challenge in this one was to play with light and shadows. As always there were some interesting paintings.

Hanli's painting

Stella's painting

Vivia's painting

My painting

Alliance Francaise de Pretoria

I want to share some stunning paintings I saw today. They are by the artist, Loeritha Saayman and can be seen at the Alliance Francaise de Pretoria. They regularly have exhibitions and host music evenings. Go to their site for more info http://www.alliance.org.za/-Pretoria

I got such inspiration from these paintings. They are just lovely.

White on Stripes

I finished my second "chair" painting this morning. It is just wonderfull to sit outside in the sun, feeling the coming of spring, listening to the birds and doing what I love, painting.

White on Stripes
Original oil on masonite
30 x 30 cm (11x11")

Duncan Yard

Duncan Yard in Pretoria (South Africa) is a wonderfull, arty place to explore. It has the feel of a small village with small shops tucked into every nook and cranny. There is the well known Pappa's Restaurant to eat, interior shops, a garden shop and an exciting small gallery.

The gallery, The Gallery @ Duncan Yard http://stof.co.za/gallery/ showcases upcoming artist's work. As the gallery is tiny, most of the work is quite small but then it is priced very reasonably. For the month of August there is a group exhibition of woman artists. You can also find some of my paintings here.

If you are looking for something new and different, this is the place to go.

Duncan Yard is on the corner of Duncan and Prospect Street in Hatfield, Pretoria.

Chair 1

This is the first painting in a series I am doing with chairs as the theme. There are so many to choose from and I can play around with colours and textures. I realy enjoyed painting this one and am looking forward to the next.

Chair 1

Original oil on board 30x30cm (12x12")