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“Travel Sketching”, or better known as “Urban Sketching”, can be one of the most fulfilling forms of visual art to the artist him/her self.
It is quick and can be done any time, anywhere.

An artist needs very few art materials to capture a moment in time. I call it “Travel Sketching” because we always feel the urge to capture special places and special moments on our travels. Even in every-day-life we encounter places and objects that ask to be eternalised in our ever present visual diary.

These sketching outings bring artists together and it usually ends up in a table full of books, pens, watercolours and some drinks and snacks.
Even the occasional brush dipped in wine or gin can cause interesting effects in the sketch books.

I am hosting my next Travel Sketching workshop, 11-13 Nov 2024, in Port Owen, Velddrif,

Usually the day starts at 9am around a table with Coffee. A subject for the day is then introduced to artists and the best approach to capture it on paper with special effects. When all are comfortable after a bit of training, we go to a destination where one can encounter the subject or theme that we are focusing on for the day, for instance boats and jetties one day, birds and rocks the next day and beach and people on the third day. I walk around and visit each artist and assist with critique.

After some time in the sun, artists gather at a restaurant to share and compare their individual visual diaries. Also to enjoy a well deserved refreshment or two….

Please contact me to enquire or to book your space.

I recently completed a very successful online workshop with great results. Students from all over South Africa took part and benefitted a great deal from the online Zoom function.

For three days we worked from 9am – 4pm with ease, creating great art.

“Mixed Media with Oil” is a technique I developed in 2019 already and over the years it proofed to be a relaxing, playful, exciting process to create a a very pleasing work of art.

I call this technique “All my favourite things”. In actual fact it is all my favourite effects from various mediums on one canvas.

I love Drawing, and the loose effect of scribbling, therefore the Pastel pencil in the process. I also love the vibrant effect of a hand made reed pen with ink, therefore the presence of acrylic ink and reed. I admire watercolour effect, wet into wet and wet on dry, therefore the watercolours as part of the process. My all time favourite is the use of oils as thin wash, oils with thick brush strokes and impasto oils put down with a palette knife, to round it all off to a finished product.

Please feel free to contact me should you require more information about this technique or should you be interested in a workshop for yourself or the artists in your area.

I finished this painting yesterday as a second painting in a series on sheep sheering in the Karoo, the old fashioned way. I attempted to recap the smells and noises of the “skeerhok” that I grew up with. Although I got the reference photo with excellent color and light from a photographer in the karoo, I chose my own color-palette to enhance the “feel-smell-noise” of the occasion. The painting is done Oil on Canvas, 51x61cm and is available for sale.