Tuesday, August 7, 2012

BBOS SPRING ART ROUTE


It's been a long winter of fireside chats and delicious slow cooked Dover oven meals with good friends. Thursday fish and chips at Marietjies Pub and Grill has become the norm. Everybody is there and who wouldn't be..... R25 for a mountain of food and nobody does snoek like Marietjie. Some people just bring their own plates and get take aways... but nobody misses out. It's a school night so we get there early and still get kids to bed at a reasonable hour, but it's a super social evening, a real family night out in BBos. Rugby at Marietjies every Saturday has also become an institution. It's a day where all the village kids get to connect. They charge around outside, big kids keep an eye on the younger ones and we hardly see them except when they come in for something cold to drink or are called in to eat.

The bus arrives to collect kids for school in the pitch dark under a starry sky. Good filter coffee keeps me going until the dawn breaks and a cold morning walk wakes up the senses. There was a stretch over the school holidays where wild horses couldn't drag me out into the cold for a walk. Especially after a very muddy, slip sliding walk up a farm road ended with me up to my waist in a very cold farm dam. (Tip: Don't let your dog swim in a clay dam while you hold onto the leach!!) Angela had to rescue me once she had gained control of her hysterical laughter. It took me a while to put on my walking shoes again.

Illustrations are almost done for the kid’s fun fact book, First Fact Finder that I've been working on for months for Metz Press. It's going to be one awesome book. Then it's time to throw all my energy into the next art route, which is around the corner, September 22nd and 23rd. Diarise the date! The country side is going to be gorgeous after the wet winter. I can already see signs of spring in my garden. I've been keeping an eye on the creative goings on in the studios of the BBos artists...... there is some fantastic work to be seen. We sent our posters off to the printers today so here's a sneak peek. Roll on Spring Art Route!

REDUCTION WOODBLOCK PRINT BY JOSHUA MILES
 http://www.baardskeerdersbosartroute.com
Follow this link to the Baardskeerdersbos Art Route website
Route map available to download


OFF THE GRID ACCOMMODATION

http://www.baardskeerdersbos.co.za/
Dezzie's House. Beautiful self catering cottage on Tierfontein farm, sleeps 6. Off the grid, awesome value and so, so special! Only 5 min from BBos village.

http://www.platbos.co.za/the_forest_camp.html
Platbos Forest Camp. Offering private, tented accommodation, this forest venue sleeps up to 6 guests.

Monday, July 23, 2012

CHICKENS

Asana's baby chicks are not such babies anymore. They have turned into the most beautiful bantams. They still love to sit on her shoulder.

new chicks
3 months later

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

NEW WORK

I am always on the look out for sculls, especially ones lying on dusty shelves in junk shops. Trophies: The pride of the hunter, eventually discarded. I buy them and hang them in the garden, on the stoep, in the house. They are beautiful. I cover them with images, giving them a new life of colour and beauty. Dressed in a new skin, I know that their bare boned beauty is under the surface. As I work, cutting, pasting, fitting, certain images resonate with me and spark new ideas. 

Inspiration on my stoep! Bare boned beauty with dove.
Waterbok
Waterbok detail
sketchbook drawing 1
sketchbook drawing 2
 

Friday, June 1, 2012

B.BOS MORNING


No street lights!

This is the main road in BBos at 7am. The school bus left 15 minutes ago and I’m having a coffee on the front stoep. Great veiw, huh! The cafĂ© across the road has just opened and cheerful good mornings are exchanged. Roosters herald the dawn and farmers are already on their way to check the cattle and sheep for new arrivals born during the night.
The sunrise is magnificent! This is a village with no street lights, for now……………….  

BBos sunrise
 
Evening walk

Friday, May 4, 2012

BAARDSKEERDERSBOS ART ROUTE


Ah! Another successful Art Route under the belt. Serious preparations begin a few weeks before each Art Route. From deciding which works to frame and hanging the exhibitions to sprucing up gardens, organising studios and a serious spring cleaning of homes. Then we open our homes and hearts to all the wonderful people who drive to Baardskeerdersbos for the weekend. The weekend ends with a get together of all the participating artists and friends. We all gathered at Josh and Angela's and christened their new back stoep. The evening was perfect with not a breath of wind, a double "rainbow" around the moon, wine flowing and lots of chatter. Artists discussing which works were sold, feedback from visitors, sharing stories of interesting connections we made and just generally celebrating another successful art route weekend. Angela fed the gang with hearty soup and bread and Joshua's chicken wings miraculously appeared a little while later. Eventually Weyers brought out his guitar and fuelled by a good few glasses of wine, inhibitions fell away and even those who swore they didn't do sing-along, joined in.  We are all buzzed up and inspired to get back to our studios and get creative!  The next Art Route is in spring, so we have the whole of winter to prepare for another show stopping exhibition. Here are a few of my favourite photos of the weekend goings on.

Visitors
Morning coffee, Weyers and Joshua
Morning coffee, Neil and Emily
Stoep
Asana and her new baby chicks
And Horus the Horror, who arrived during the art route
Isis is not impressed by the new arrival

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

NEW WORK FOR THE ART ROUTE

I've been in a creative frenzy..... just the way I like it! Deadlines looming for the book I'm illustrating and the art route a couple of days away. Pressure is a fabulous thing.

Here are a couple of the birds from the series of woodbocks that I've carved. I loved doing them. You are going to have to pop in to the art route this weekend to see the rest of them.


A little while ago I had this crazy idea to decoupage a buck scull, which now hangs in my lounge. It turned out beautifully and I didn't want to part with it. I have been hunting for more sculls to decoupage and managed to twist Joshuas arm into swopping a scull for a ceramic hand basin (isn't the barter system great?).

So, this is the result................... It takes FOREVER but it's a great meditation. 
 
 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

GECKO

I just couldn't resist posting these photos of Asana and her new friend!

A friendly gecko Asana found in our bathroom
A little too friendly perhaps