Thirteenth Anniversary

Today, thirteen years ago, I arrived in Brisbane to start a new life here. Leaving family (Warren and Angela in particular)behind in South Africa has been hard and the return visits far fewer than I would’ve liked. Settling in to a new country took time but thanks to the unfailing support of my daughter and son in law Tanya and Craig I have a good life here.

I’ve been able to establish myself as an artist and teacher thanks to many loyal students who continue to value time in my studio.This anniversary post would not be complete without acknowledging all those who have supported my work. 

One day back in 2012, I was sketching at my local cafe Deja Bru Cafe and got talking to the owner. This conversation resulted in a commission to print this mural. You can read about that here: The Deja Bru project  and also here…

Then later I was sketching, again, while having coffee at Milk Cafe Ashgrove and posted this sketch on Instagram 

Some years later the then owner contacted me to ask if she could purchase the rights to create a mural using the sketch. 

Then the project was expanded to include new artwork for the outside windows. You can see more here.

Another restaurant and a new commission, this time for Oh Boy Bok Choy 
I loved doing this watercolour which now has pride of place in the restaurant. 

I would also like to thank the many Collectors who have purchased my paintings over the years. 

To all who have enriched my life here, thank you so much. 

A few pet portraits

I continue learning how to work with coloured pencils and after starting with portraits of people, I decided to try my hand at a few pets. 

The first one is Diesel, my daughter’s Boxer. He’s very lively and has the most engaging personality. He loves taking over the sofa.

Diesel - pencil crayons in an Epsilon sketchbook. 

I’m using Caran d’ache Luminance pencils. They’re soft and buttery and have wonderfully intense colours. I also have a few Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. These are a little harder which makes them good for fine details. 

When I visited my son, Warren last year, I did a graphite portrait of his French Bulldog, Harley. This portrait is from a photo taken when she made herself at home on my bed early one morning. 

Harley -  pencil crayons in an Epsilon sketchbook. 

A series of pet portraits would not be complete without a portrait of the boss of my daughter’s family - Diva. I took this photo - at very close range of her as she sat on my lap fixing me with her unblinking stare.

She has perfected ‘The Look’. This often indicates that you are about to get a nip…

Diva - pencil crayons in an Epsilon sketchbook. 

#OneWeek100People 2023

Oh my! How the weeks speed by and all my earlier good intentions come to nothing.

I began this post shortly after completing the #OneWeek100people challenge in March and then forgot to add text and post it.

This challenge was started about seven years ago by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel as an incentive to draw more people while sketching. Now many artists join in annually and post their drawings on Facebook page dedicated to the challenge. 

I’ve watched from afar each year, deciding this year to give it a go.

Here are my 100 people.