Huts & Houses Step by Step

A painting that was just a nothing can turn into a something

It is a fun challenge to take a painting that was just a lot of nothing and then add more to it and see what happens ….

Step Two – using corrugated cardboard print some hut walls

Just keep adding some fun stuff

Add colour and be a little bit reckless

Add some negative shapes here and there

so then I had to fix it a bit but it got worse … what’s a person to do except carry on making more reckless brush strokes

Some lifting to restore what I had destroyed and then a cup of tea

find some people in the shadows and pull out some highlights and negative shapes

a bit of cropping to cut out some of the tree disaster and ink pencil work, some lines and loose goose brush work

All in all a fun little painting that could have been discarded at any point but it was fun to push it as far as it could go. Looking back I see there are some moments that were good before I over played them – but if we played safe we would never learn.

Go ahead and have a fun time – take an old painting and make some huts and shacks – they don’t need to be perfect works of architecture.

Step by Step Reflections Flow Technique

This is the painting that inspired two fun workshops and a dem for the Plett Art Society. See how it began….

It starts out looking reckless and dangerous.

Just pour on the first colour. Then add the second and third colour.

When this was dry I had to sit with the painting for a long time to see what it wanted to be.

The first washes or pours were in opaque colours so it was easy to lift out the shapes that were to be trees.

Lots of techniques and play and slowly, step-by-step the painting becomes what it always wanted to be.

More colour in the foreground was needed so the yellows and reds were brought back to play.

Creating the foreground – still lots of colour – mainly the primary colours and allowing them to find one another on the paper.

Lots more fun techniques, lifting, sliding, washing, stippling, stencilling … too much fun.

I think this is enough … but you never know!

Painting of Douglas Magnus and Joy

My Friend, Douglas Magnus and I were sharing a moment on my mother’s bench facing the glorious beach of Jeffrey’s Bay. We were chatting about the Journey of Life and Honouring my Mom’s passing. It was a moment to be remembered and we took this photo of us smiling up into the camera held arm’s length away, hoping to capture the sense of Friendship and Quietness that settles when one stops the rush of life and reflects of the Magnificence of our Life Journey.

Douglas has been such an inspiration to so many people. He has a “terminal” diagnosis, but he is too busy being alive and sharing this with others to just let go and GO.

He GETS IT.

He sees the sunsets, the dawn the clouds and Light. He surfs in his favorite place in Jeffrey’s Bay, like he has done for decades. He has said farewell to friends who thought he would be leaving first. He blesses the lives of all those he encounters with his poems and writing.

Douglas is one of the MAGNIFICENT and God Loves him.

I am proud to call you my Friend dear Douglas and I hold you in my Heart always x

This painting was created from the Heart.

Let the Sun Shine In – by Douglas Magnus

Memorable Quotes and Sayings

Step by Step a painting is created – Moment by Moment we are Created

Art Morning with Plettenberg Bay Artists at the Methodist Church – April 2013

We had a great morning, pouring, and tilting our boards to create the gorgeous granulated washes.

Pouring, moving and creating Flow in the painting – that is how to capture gorgeous translucent washes.

Fay Keevy Painting Poppies

This magnificent painting created by my Artist Friend, Fay Keevy, was a delight of controlled water, color and flow coming together in uncontrolled creativity.

The painting in progress – can you work out the order of the paintings !

Wet in Wet Beginning with Gwynny watching every move in AWE

Lynda’s Cane Chair Step-by-Step

I was inspired to paint this lovely chair of my sister – Lynda. The light of the afternoon falling across the criss-cross patterns and illuminating the one side of the chair.

This is how it unfolded.

Watching a painting grow and “become” is one of the most rewarding activities I have enjoyed x

12 Cane Chair Final March 2012 — Lynda's Cane Chair

2 My Cane Chair Mar 2012 (6) — Setting up

10 My Cane Chair Mar 2012 (18) — Step 10

11 My Cane Chair Mar 2012 (21) — Step 11

Water Colour Art Dem in Plettenberg Bay, November 17th, 2011

Thank you to the participants of the workshop dem at Joy Robin’s home in Plettenberg Bay. It was a lovely morning sharing some creative happiness with fellow artists in the garden of this beautiful home, surrounded by flowers and birds.

Thank you Joy Robin for hosting this and for the wonderful tea. Also thank you to Loren for taking the pictures, sorry the one of you did not come out.

May we all paint with a little more reckless abandon and delight in the serendipity of “what happens by accident”. Dance, sing and paint, and maybe even buy some tap shoes x

A water colour demonstration will be held in Plettenberg Bay, November 17, 2011, hosted by the Plettenberg Art Group. Joy will be demonstrating how to paint flowers and buildings. Take a look at some of the art work created in this line.

Delheim garden sketch Jan 2011 — Sketching "Pate Fois and Gras" our names for the geese in the gardens of Delheim

When we record a home, it is more than just representing the walls and lines, dimensions and colour. It is more about speaking about the feelings that we sense in that image – capturing the passion of life that surrounds the place.

Please contact Cynthia Ecker at camspost@telkomsa.net for more information.

Art Dems Out and About

Heidi walked past and joined the group on the spur of the moment and she created an amazing

: Dem at Crafty Arts J-Bay 2010