The tiny key....#268

Daily painting #268. Pen, ink and watercolor on A5 watercolor paper

After wasting time searching for the keys to our travel locks and wasting even more time today going off to buy more locks.....I came across the little tiny keys accidentally!!! Murphy's law! Well now we are not short of suitcase locks .....or little tiny keys that are easy to loose!! Almost travel time....

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Not the key! #267

Daily painting #267. Pen, ink and watercolor on A5 watercolor paper

Ross, my 13 year old son, leaves with his team for the UK on cricket tour on Wednesday. We are following on Friday once my daughters school term has come to an end. I finished my last painting class at the end of last week and now have SO much to organize! I have had classes to teach, painting commissions to finish before I leave and not to mention keeping up my daily painting and running a very busy household, so the trip has crept up on me so quickly! I have left much of the organization of this trip to the last minute! I wasted so much time yesterday trying to find the keys to our travel locks for our bags.....in South Africa I wouldn't dream of climbing on a plane without locking my bags. Of course I found every spare key (most of them I have no idea what they are for....) except the little keys I was looking for! So another thing to add to my TO DO list tomorrow is buying travel locks for the bags.....locks with no keys needed...although chances are I will probably forget the combination code....mmmmm! My head is in a spin with all there is to do....

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Last rose #266

Daily painting #266. 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel

This is the last rose from a beautiful bunch I bought last week. The rest of the bunch have all started loosing their petals and wilting off but this little rose may still last for a few days in a little vase. I won't be buying anymore fresh flowers for the house....we leave for the UK this week! My son leaves on Wednesday a few days before us so there is LOADS of excitement in this house at the moment!!

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Big butter avocado #265

Daily painting #265. 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel

Today I am 100 days away from completing 365 paintings in 365 days!! A whole year of little daily paintings.....almost!!

I love avocados ....we eat them all the time and yes I am one of those stupid people that pay crazy prices for them at times because I just can't resist!!! They are normally the much smaller hard skinned avos that we find in the shops but this week my Mum bought me some of our local grown big butter avos straight off of a tree. Many homes in Durban have large avo trees growing in their garden....sadly not mine! As can be expected straight from the tree, these avocados were delicious .....just nothing like them! They are smooth, creamy and just so full of flavor. I could eat them breakfast, lunch and supper....and now I have painted them too! 

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Winter sun #264

Daily painting #264. 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel

I promise not to bore you with too many 'chocolate box' sunrise paintings but the mornings on the East Coast have been so beautiful lately that I just want to share! This is what I wake up to everyday, the most awesome view over the ocean....it makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world!
As I said yesterday, this has to be the most soulful way to start the day!

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Sun or clouds? #263

Daily painting #263. 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel

A battle on the horizon of bright penetrating sunlight and low lying heavy cloud....what will this winters day bring?
This has to be my best way to start the day ....no therapy could beat it! Soaking up such beauty in the company of my paints and brushes. Oh and a good cup of coffee made by my husband ....

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(Almost not a ...) Spoon No. 3 #262

Daily painting #262. 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel

Today was one of those days....not a moment to spare and the only time I spent in the studio was for my Painting class in the morning! Thereafter I rushed off to a hockey match which my son, Ross was involved in. We are also hosting 2 boys from Bishops School in the Cape. They are in KwaZulu Natal on a 10 day (but only with us for 1 night) sports and cultural tour and their first stop was to play hockey against our boys. So having 2 extra hungry and busy boys in the house kept me on my toes today! It was only once they finally went off to bed that I managed to sneak into my studio with a giant kitchen serving spoon (my day revolved around serving food to hungry teenage boys) that I managed to paint. The randomness of the object and the fact that sometimes sitting down to paint has to be a choice you make or else everything just takes over kind of encapsulates what daily painting is all about for me....the focus is not on what you paint...it's on the fact that you made the choice to paint at all even when it would have been easier to 'leave it for tomorrow'.....

The amazing thing is that as tired as I felt and as grumpy as I was with myself (coupled with the fact that I was resisting painting at all), once I sat down and lost myself in the brush marks and paint.....it just felt right!

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