A beautiful girl 
Charcoal on Paper

This is another drawing of my favourite model at the moment (you would have seen her in my last post over the shoulder)

I'm very happy with this drawing, even though it was never fully completed - the incompleteness of the drawing adds a certain charm.

You can see the full drawing over at my figure study site: 500 Nudes.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Over the shoulder

Charcoal on paper

This is a soft charcoal of one of my favourite models - you can view the the full picture (nude) here: http://500nudes.blogspot.com/2012/09/over-shoulder.html

 How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

My grandparents

In February I posted one of three painting I did as a gift for my aunt, and promised to post the other two, well here they are:

My Grandparents

Oil on Canvas (approx 21x29) each

In this painting my grandfather was about 20 years younger than in the other painting, and they seemed to be having a good giggle about something. Some useless information: He built the stone archway that you see in the background.

She died a short while after this photo was taken.

The photo was taken using an old instamatic type camera in the 1980's, so needless to say the image quality has become horrendous... not to mention tiny- the size of the head is less than a centimeter high in the original photo!

(For those of you who don't know what an instamatic camera was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instamatic)

These paintings are not for sale, but if there are others on this site that you are interested in, visit this page: How to buy a painting

Co-Op website

Those that used to come to my blog regularly would have noticed that there is a massive lack of new content - new paintings and drawings have been scarce in the last year.

I've been very busy on all things that are not painting... I've completed a management course, been working on a degree, and doing some hardcore web development.

This is a site I built for my art group: The new artist co-op website: http://www.artistsco-op.co.za/

Take a look at the web site and let me know what you think.

Grandpa

My Grand Father
Oil on Canvas
29 cm x 21cm

My dear aunt's 60 birthday came along and I had no idea what to get her, I was thinking about doing a painting for her and some how ambitiously settled into painting portraits of her parents (my grandfather and grandmother.)

The worst thing about this project was how few photos we have of them, the best reference photos I had of my grandpa was one from around 2002 and the best of my grandmother dated back to the early 1980's (she died in 1984)

I did three paintings in total (I'll submit each in a separate posting) - two of grandpa (with 20 years between the reference photos) and one of my grand mother.

This painting in this posting was from a photo taken when he was in his 90's and still stubborn as a mule. It was also the best reference photo of the three.

This series of portraits was the most stressful paintings I have ever done. I was adamant not to fail - the likeness had to be perfect. Andrew, my Co-Op painting buddy often says portrait painters die early because of the stress; I now support that sentiment whole heartedly.

I realised as I was painting how much I missed him.

(The reference photo)

How to buy a painting: How to buy a painting

Another Charcoal for May

Charcoal on Paper

This is the second charcoal I'm posting this month.
I think there is something (hopefully at least one thing) in each drawing that I fall in love with, in this drawing it's the fabric wrapped around her hips - I love the folds in the fabric and the way the light captures the folds. (For the full picture you'll have to pop over to my figure's blog - HERE.)

At tea time someone said (about my drawing) - "She looks cross."
The model, overhearing the comment, looked at my drawing and said; "No I don't, I look pretty!"
Gog bless her.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

May's Charcoal

May's Charcoal
Seated Nude - Charcoal on Paper
(SOLD)

I have a massive feeling of accomplishment with this drawing.
Why? Because the model loved it to the point of wanting to buy it!

And I love the light on the hair falling down in front of her face.

you can see the full picture at my figures blog - HERE

February's Nude

February's Nude
Charcoal on paper

See the full picture at my figure study blog - here

Kalk Bay - Man in a white shirt

Kalk Bay - Man in white Shirt
Oil on Board
15 cm x 20 cm

Kalk Bay is a quint little harbor in False Bay, Cape Town. The harbor wall is a popular walk way for tourists and locals, this man is probably a local acting like a tourist.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Chinese Umbrella Ladies

Chinese Umbrella Ladies

Oil on Masonite

While having breakfast at Groot Constantia wine farm (the first wine farm in South Africa!) we noticed that a group of Chinese ladies were staring at my daughter; I think they were fascinated by her blond hair and blue eyes.
Then they started taking pictures of her, at first they were trying to take the photos so that we'd not notice, but only a short while later they were blatantly turning our breakfast into a photo shoot.
As they wondered off the matriarch took out her umbrella and held it up to shade her daughter from the African sun - I took out my camera and snapped a few reference shots... We're even now

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting