Sugar and Spice, (little girls) painted by South African Impressionist Artist Marie Theron

I had fun doing eight little child paintings, where I tried to capture them in some gentle activity. Of, course, I have stored images over the years, and these darlings are based on photos of my grandchildren when they were young and sometimes the child of a friend. My subjects never pose for my and I like to capture them when they are unaware.

I first painted the canvasses bright blue. This blue colour had an influence on all the colours I used, softening the colours and contributing to the delicate nature of my subject. Due to a much smaller gallery space, I paint in acrylics, which I love. I will show more of my kids next time.

'Every Drop Helps"
100mm x 100mm
6' x 6'
View or Buy

'Girl with a Cat" 2
100mm x 100mm
6' x 6'
Buy or view

"Dreaming by the Stream"
100mm x 100mm
6' x 6'
SOLD

Into the New Year and Pondering Some Quotes

We always enter a new year with that strange mix of joy and trepidation. 

I speed-read a book last night, which were full of ideas for people marketing art on the Internet. (New year's resolutions, you see?) The author was quite adamant that people loved good slogans. "Quotes are killer", he said. I decided to open my eyes and observe some slogans. We all know the success of the Avis "We try harder" campaign. But there should be a prize for worst slogans, I thought when I opened my first e-mail this morning and it showed a bright orange banner and the words: "You CAN buy happiness". An airline I often support was trying very hard!

GIRL in a RED TOP by South African Impressionist painter
 MARIE THERON
200mm x 200mm / 8 x 8 Acrylic on wrapped canvas
ZAR 1333 / US$ 131

TO VIEW OR BUY

This painting was made from an image I had in my file of my  granddaughter taking flowers to a lady who allowed the kids to visit her farm and animals.

Here, to go with the post, are some quotes and New Year's resolutions by famous authors:
John Burroughs: One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. 

  Oprah Winfrey: Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right. 

Mark Twain:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

These quotes are truly inspirational. Have a happy new year reading, painting, blogging and following blogs.

Click here for the book I mentioned on Selling Art Online.

New Figurative Work by South African Impressionist Marie Theron

I have rediscovered my love for figurative art, and I do think that the stitch cartoons was only a stepping stone for me. They are fun and I still do them on request. I spend a lot of time on each painting to get the exact mood. I hope you like them! Here are 4 paintings that I have done recently, with links to buying or viewing or for looking at my CV.

In the Cool of the Day

Original Painting by South African Impressionist Marie Theron

 6' x 8' Acrylic on Canvas
150mm x 210mm

US$ 163
R1667

View or Purchase HERE

Equestrienne in White 

Original Painting by South African Impressionist
 Marie Theron

6' X 8'
150mm x 210mm

US$ 163 SOLD

View  HERE

The Yellow Guitar 

Original Painting by South African Impressionist Marie Theron

Acrylic on Wrapped Canvas

10' x 10' 

250mm x 250mm

US$ 204

R2083

To get a sense of the scale of the painting,

read about my art career,

and view or buy,

click HERE

Moms and Tods in the Tea Garden. 

Original Painting by South African Impressionist Marie Theron

10" X 10" Acrylic on Wrapped Canvas
250mm x 250mm

US$ 204
R2083

visit this link to view or buy

to read more about me, 

and to see the scale of this painting.

You can also see a selection of my figurative work on Facebook

The Pale Rabbits and an Easter Jigsaw Puzzle

Of course this rabbit theme is just too much fun, and I will explore more and more as time goes by. Here are two images that were inspired by old stone rabbits which I found on my cell phone, photographed in Pretoria a year or so ago, even before I started using rabbits as my source material.

I simply called them "lapin 1" and "lapin 2". As soon as I had published the photos on Facebook, I had a sale and was told by many people that these paintings were more atmospheric and meaningful than my paintings of the Peter/Snowball family.

"lapin 1" Oil on Canvas 10" x 10"

"lapin 2" Oil on Canvas 10" x 10"

The symbolic meaning of "rabbit" is regeneration. Of life, of spirit and of the seasons .
 Thus it is a chosen symbol for Easter
You can buy this gift, made from my artwork from www.whiterock.co.za or find it on Facebook 

The Circle of Life

It is probably fitting that I have finished this painting, called "The Circle of Life" in my birthday week. It is open to many interpretations. Of course, like in fairy tales, the story can be softened for children. It can also be serious or threatening, if you want.

"The Circle of Life" by Marie Theron
Oil on Canvas 500mm x 400mm

Let's start at 12 o' clock. There is that cute bunny Sprinkles, our little joker, who looks masked with those big black spots at the eyes. We start this cycle with her.  There are two large rabbits, male and female in the center, to symbolize a prolific breeding pair, surrounded by lots of little ones. Now go anti-clockwise from Sprinkles onward, and there is Snowball, the lovely white rabbit and her friend Peter, black with a white stripe down his nose. Snowball and Peter, as we know had six girl rabbits. It is a life of breeding and eating that is awaiting them. A grey rabbit nibbles away at lettuce and may have a few flowers for desert. I could not help but posing our darlings, Lola (at 6 o' clock), and Vanilla again. They are full of life and ready for anything. Raspberry, one of the 6 sisters poses as a dead rabbit at the end of the life cycle. (I promise that Raspberry is alive and well and living in Durban). She is posing, remember! Our newest bunny, Snow, poses as the caregiver. That name, Snow, causes lots of misunderstandings at my grandchildren's place. Everyone coming through the door is greeted with: "Come and see, Snow!", which of course sounds funny in Durban, one of the hottest towns in South Africa. And then, to restart the circle of life, there is a tiny, dozy, fluffy baby rabbit.

A Milepost Birthday and More Rabbits: Meeting Lola

It was the strangest thing, I got involved in painting rabbits and people suddenly associated me with them, which is GOOD! It means that the rabbit theme is mine. Here in my studio the rabbits are breeding on canvasses and I want to make them very serious. I want to give the paintings layers of meaning. But I had friends who laughed out loud (in a kindly way), as no matter how deep and serious I try to make my rabbits,  as animals with worlds of knowledge in their eyes, the only thing everyone sees is a bunch of pretty cuddly bunnies! But I will pursue this theme, until I capture the nuances that I am striving for.

My granddaughters named everyone of the six sister rabbits. Today I am continuing The Benjamin Files series, by showing darling Lola. 

"Lola" by West Coast Artist Marie Theron 10 x 10 Oil on Canvas

About this milepost I mentioned in the title, I turned 70 over the weekend and had friends and family around me. The rabbit theme caused great fun with some gifts and cards featuring rabbits.

Me with Tatyana Binovskaya, my artist friend and sometimes exhibition partner

Thank you for popping in. I am heading towards great numbers of visitors, but seldom hear from them. If you say hi in my comments, it would be wonderful.

Six Girl Rabbits, Whoa!

What was Snowball dreaming of when she rested under that lovely pink duvet? Mmmmm, and then came Peter! They decided to be a Mom and Dad and were given a pretty pebbled garden all of their own, quite far from Benjamin. Because Peter and Benjamin might have been playing sometimes, but to us humans it looked like ferocious fighting.

So here, in their own place I observed the wonderful , soft , round little bunnies.There were six, and the vet said that they were all girls! 

This is Vanilla:

"Vanilla" 6x6 Oil on wrapped canvas . By South African Artist Marie Theron.

Remember when I painted them in watercolours before? This is a re-post of the painting:

Rabbits in watercolour, 18" x 12" (2011) by South African Artist Marie Theron

You may like some photos too. This is Snowball, who is often invited inside:

Snowball, Mom of six daughter rabbits.

And here she is having a meal with three of her six daughter rabbits:

Vanilla, Mom Snowball, Dad Peter and Sprinkles

Rabbits are so soft they can sit very tight! I thought at first glance that there were three in this photo, but there are four. We should never say one bunny is the prettiest, but isn't Vanilla (on the left) just too lovely for words?

Wonderful Challenges

BARRELS, BASKETS, BOTTLES II
800mm x 800mm oil on canvas by Marie Theron

 I love commissions! Unexpected requests have taken me into the most interesting places. And so I have done large wall paintings and delicate botanical drawings where every part of a plant and all angles had to be measured. I have painted a book cover and done illustrations for another book. You will also remember the post a few months ago where I painted the hair of two teenagers, a very enjoyable commission.

In November 2013 a "dream client" visited my studio. She bought the Velddrif painting from two posts ago and commissioned the four seagull paintings which I showed in the last post. And then she also commissioned a large copy of a painting I had in my home.

Getting started on the barrels painting.

I took this photo halfway through the process.
The older, smaller painting hangs in the background.

With commissions, you never know what the next challenge will be. We are halfway through January and I am working on some small pieces, being wide awake and keenly looking out for the next interesting project that comes my way.

Island Children

I am still taking my West Coast followers on a journey into deeper Africa! Our exhibition was popular and we were requested to leave our paintings behind as some of them may be used in other shows as time goes by. Of course, the public can still purchase a painting from the website. At the end of this post, I will also give the You Tube link to the opening night.

These children lived in a cute cottage on Zanzibar island bordered by tall fruit trees on one side and a spice farm on the other side. I really loved the 'make-do' appearance of the little home. Where there is clean washing, there is a normally functioning family. Kids in Zanzibar wear modern clothes, but their mothers and older sisters will always be seen in the attractive bright kangas. I noticed a washing line deeper into the shadows where a couple of these colourful pieces were drying away from the harsh sun.

They are playing here as kids do everywhere, the older one definitely the leader! Young brother is watching her closely to find out what game she would devise for them. Later at supper I will bet that the food would be flavourful and spicy and will be followed with lots of wonderful fruit, which is so plentiful here. Some of my paintings are almost large illustrations, as I try to tell a story of the daily lives of people in Africa.

The girl in pencil:

Bright kangas provide camouflage to the lady on the right:

Some links:
Spend a few moments with us at the opening night of 'Can You Hear The Drums' I can be briefly spotted in a dark red leather coat!
View purchase details of 'Island Children'
View paintings by my partner Tatyana Binovskaya

Even when nothing happens........

The thing with blogging is that it is a true commitment, you start and you have to keep it going. One often sees bloggers feeling just a little bit guilty if they do not blog regularly....and we all admire Nancy Medina and Kelley MacDonald and all those busy little bees who will post every day as sure as the sun rises!

Back at the ranch, being away and having illness in the family, spring cleaning and gardening gets in the way of posting. But "even when nothing happens", things do happen and here are a few for your amazement and amusement:

1. My "blog book" arrived, beautifully printed with the first 160 posts. How does one feel when you unpack it? I thought that I felt fairly flat, like a student who made a nice little assignment and now what? Send me an e-mail if you would like to page through it online!

The little sapling of Sutherlandia (see previous post) had so much rain, and as I went out this morning this tiny plant had flower buds all over, so we may be drinking a health brew in future!

We visited my children in Durban for 10 days and spend a weekend caring for the menegary of 3 dogs, 5 hamsters and 8 rabbits. What fun! The black rabbit, Benjamin, stays in the girls' room in the day and goes out in the garden at night, being nocturnal! Snowball, very white, is the mom of 5 girls. They live with Dad Peter in the enclosed and sheltered rabbit garden. My daughter was happy about the female rabbits, as sterilizing males are very expensive ! I painted some bunnies in watercolour.

My friend Tatyana Binovskaya has been wanting to paint me for a long time. The end result was a wonderful surprise! Tatyana is so talented!

There is an oil painting of boats on my easel.....if one cannot travel, there are always older photos to work from! So the next post will be about the real West Coast again!

Work in Progress

I have started a large painting of 760mm x 1000mm. The fearsome white canvas becomes quite tame as soon as it is covered with the first layer of paint! You work different muscles with the broad sweeps of the brush, though, and my upper arm is feeling somewhat stiff at the moment.

As a theme, I decided to do a larger version of my first painting of the year, so this is once again a view of the ocean close to home. The sky looks very serene and has a lot of areal perspective, so I am satisfied with that. But the waves are much too restless. I will not even touch the rocks or birds before this ocean starts "behaving"!

The second photo shows my studio with my work triangle formed with an old table and an old yellow-wood desk.

Diamonds on the West Coast

Diamonds, like all other products, have been given to man to utilize and create jobs. If you are not into the romantic side of these blingy bits, consider that they are also very useful in industry because of their hardness and strength.

I found these lovely colourful diamond trawlers at Lambert's Bay, the best area for maritime diamond mining. This industry has only been commercially viable since the 1990's. Seabed crawlers can be remote controlled but mostly divers are needed. These divers, who can only work about six days per month because of our famous stormy waters, have to work in the cold of the Atlantic Ocean for up to 8 hours. When they spot diamond-bearing gravel on the seabed they direct the suction hoses towards it.

The gravel is then pumped onto sorting tables. When the boats return, the diamonds are taken ashore. What I loved about this scene was the hollow hoses floating on top of the water, providing seating for hundreds of Cape Cormorants.

Folks and Fish # 1

This is the first painting of a set of four works, of which I have shown the preparatory sketches in the previous post. Working at them I am conscious of the poverty of the area and the plight of those brave souls, the sustenance fishermen, who face the sea day by day.

My model shows two of the four crayfish he is allowed to catch for his daily quota during the crayfish season. It will be safer for the men to catch the monthly allowance in one single day, and not face the sea so often, but unfortunately such a system will be difficult to control. (Crayfish can become very scarce and must be protected.)

Crayfish holes are marked by experienced fishermen, who will put on diving suits and retrieve their quota. Older people and non-swimmers can catch theirs by netting from the quay that conveniently projects into the sea like it does at Yzerfontein. Everybody keeps a measure handy as undersized specimens must be returned to the sea immediately.

We usually buy crayfish in Velddrif when they are in season and available, so I decided to use the harbour at Velddrif as a background for the painting. Read more about crayfish on the West Coast in my post: Crayfish Coast.

Post # 100!! Art Blogging is Tops!

This is my hundredth post. I have not completed a painting as I am working on a commission and the sketches took some planning. One of them will be finished for the next blog. They are all about the people of the West Coast and what they do. I think I will call the set: Folks and Fish

I love art blogging! Art blogging is Tops! In no other way would one be so committed to paint year in, year out and that without a sense of rushing. (One or two exhibitions a year make up for the rushing part!) My nicest surprises as a new art blogger were when I featured on other art or travel blogs.

1. South African Blog of 2009 winner PORTFOLIO gave me a short feature in November: Marie Theron-Documenting the Real West Coast in Paint and Words .
2. This was followed by another article on PORTFOLIO in December: 10 Questions for West Coast Artist Marie Theron .
3. Marie Theron-West Coast Artist appeared on Bokkom.
4. In the beginning of 2010 Katherine Tyrrell started 'The Art of The Landscape' and bloggers were challenged to analyse their own paintings. I liked the idea and wrote: The Wheatfield and Why it was Successful. Katherine, a top 5 blogger in the UK placed me in an article: Self-Critique Marie Theron.
5. What a lovely surprise it was when 'Art with Liz' made special mention of my work on the West Coast in her post Bergriver, Velddrif.
6. Friendly Liz visited me at home in April where we shared sherry and a fire and chatted up a storm. Afterwards she wrote: Velddrif in April. I featured in many of the comments from her friends too! Bloggers are so kind!
7. Paying my regular online visit to "Postcards from the Hammer", Catherine Jeffrey's blog, I was very thrilled to find my name in the post Yonge Street Patterns 2, Toronto, Ontario., where Catherine expressed appreciation for my critiques of her work.

My husband once teased me that bloggers give each other a warm feeling! Exactly!

Piket-bo-Berg Tea Garden

It's a long way to drive...and then: A tiny tea garden high in the mountains! The first pass was built in the nineteenth century, using only picks and shovels, around twenty men and some oxen. It has been inproved in the 1950's by Versveld, a local entrepeneur and eccentric. Today we are thirsty and interested in another local "eccentric", the owner of this very distant tea garden!

You reach it after quite a long drive to reach the summit. Then suddenly the bright yellow welcoming sign is there! A red hand painted arrow points upwards into a treed lane. After turning in, motorists are requested to hoot three times! Once you find the five or so tables under the trees, it is best to reach for your newspaper and wait. Suddenly Henny Visser is there, announcing slightly out of breath that her home sits lower down and she was tending the Sweet Potato Cake baking in the oven. With great care and speed she covers ALL the tables, not just one, with checkered cloths. A moment later three little blackboard menus hang suspended between two bluegum trees.

Soon we are enjoying a light lunch, fresh cakes and coffee, chat like old friends with Henny and admire the hills planted with lavender. We also hear of a beloved Afrikaans author, the late George Weideman who had often spent time there in winter, writing by the small inside fireplace. On this lovely summer's day we can only wonder what winter would be like up here! On leaving, we are loaded with aloe plants, applesauce and lavender oil from the farm, which are sold in the tiny shop on the premises.

Last Painting of the Year: The Outlook!

This alcove was spotted in Piketberg, shaded by a Victorian corrigated iron roof. The large sash windows have frames encrusted with dark "heritage green" paint, which in South Africa usually indicates a National Monument or very old building. The chairs and blackboard menu invite the passersby to rest and eat. Outside is the sunny sky of Piketberg and the road from the mountain sloping by.....

Here are my New Year's wishes to you: there are steps to take, and roads to cross, an uphill climb, a downhill slide, new doors to enter and new windows to open. As we wait with bated breath to enter the New Year, may the choices be many and varied and exciting!

Wishing you a Wonderful Christmas from the West Coast

Nowadays, when I take a walk through the fynbos, I notice that the West Coast fairies have been very busy decorating their Christmas trees! We normally call this bush the tortoise berry shrub. In spring the strong thorny plants are covered in pretty pink flowers. And then, in December a wonderful berry pops out of each flower. It goes through so many colour changes, starting with light beige, soft green, yellow, followed by the purples until it reaches the final bright red colour. Look at my painting and the photographs and you can see how closely it resembles a beautifully decorated tree in miniature!

I never knew that there were West Coast fairies, but now there is a wonderful book: "Fynbos Fairies" by the poet Antjie Krog and illustrator Fiona Moody, and they have captured our fascinating ethnical community of fairies. The synopsis on loot.co.za reads: "There is a fairy living around each species of Cape Fynbos ----they work and play, they tend the fynbos or make a mess. They laugh, they sleep, they dream - life's busy for your average fynbos fairy in the veld."

The bright red tortoise berries are beloved by fairies, children, tortoises and birds who all love the thirst-quencing astringent tasting little morsels. Mmm, what a neat idea: the baubles on the West Coast fairies' tree are edible! The botanical name of the berry bush: Nylandtia spinosa. The book was published by Umuzi . ISBN 978-1-4152-0022-3

Piketberg - A Mountain and a Church

I can only present you with a preparatory sketch today! This type of sketch is what usually lies underneath my proper painting.

Like many small towns here and everywhere else, Piketberg started with a church building. Towering above everything else is this very impressive Dutch Reformed Church with splendid gardens all around and the mountain behind. It is already two centuries old and was designed and built in Neo-Gothic style by Carl Otto Hagen and has now been declared a National Monument.

The days are getting busy here...I have almost finished the painting of a West Coast plant that I will post on Christmas day, but for the rest everything is suspended and my personal paints and brushes will be packed away as I "renting" out my studio to my 5-year-old twin granddaughters for their crafting and painting in exchange for lots of hugs!

Before leaving my blog, you might also like to read the 10 Questions I answered for Portfolio Collections, a wonderful domain who had won the South African Blog of the Year Award 2009. Click on my portrait in the right-hand column.

Arriving in Piketberg

What more could a town ask for? Piketberg lies against a wonderful mountain and its streets are lined with enormous jakaranda and other types of trees! The mountain harbours two more towns on its opposite side, but long ago the Gonjemans tribe lived here, and many examples of San art can be found in the caves. Khoikhoi herdsmen also knew the place intimately and would hide russled cattle in the caves and valleys. It was decided in the 1670's to create a small military outpost known as a piquet (French) or picket (English), from there the Afrikaans name Piketberg.

A cannon placed on the mountain was used to warn surrounding farmers of trouble in the vicinity, or of ships arriving in Table Bay harbour to buy their products. It boomed happily when Queen Victoria had a birthday, and even more so when a telephone line was completed that linked the town with Cape Town. The cannon is filled up with concrete now, and kept in the schoolgrounds. You can just see the lovely old school at the end of the street.

Workers in the Vineyard

On a lovely early summer's day I take a drive to admire the farmlands between Malmesbury and Piketberg. The popular crops are wheat, vines, our local herbal Rooibos tea and proteas. It seems on the road that I'm on that most farms have opted for wheat and vines. The result is so pleasing to the eye and one is met by alternating patches of gold and green.

The workers in my painting are pruning the neat rows of vines. We sometimes complain that wine is expensive, but should consider for a moment all the labour and cost that is involved. The cuttings are grafted, cultivated, treated and dusted and then planted in ploughed and fertilised furrows. Take into account the trellising and pruning, protection against pests and diseases, irrigation, picking, sorting, distilling! What a process! The workers are usually part of the large farm "family" and will have homes, salaries, schooling and medical attention..........is wine really that expensive?