The Masters and Flowers

I didn't take part in last month's Masters Challenge, the terrific blog run by Michelle Burnett.

But this month I thought I would do something. Even though I'm not mad about painting flowers - (I leave that to the immensely talented artist from Texas, Nancy Medina) - there is one artist whose flower paintings I really admire.

Georgia O'Keeffe's work is always a pleasure to look at. One day I hope I will get the opportunity to see her works in person, but until then, all I do is admire.

This is my version of her 1926 work, Black Pansy. Although this was painted more than 50 years ago, O'Keeffe only died fairly recently, thus I can admire and emulate, but this painting will be for my own space.

Hope you like what I've done to this wonderful American artist's work.

A South African Master

Well, I think I've finally made a deadline. It's been a bit of a sweat as I haven't painted for 9 days whilst on duty at our annual SA Society of Artists Members Exhibition. But here it is. This is my entry to the Masters Challenge blog run by Michelle Burnett and she certainly challenged me with this one.

Although I find landscapes quite daunting, I had no trouble at all in selecting one of my favourite South African artists to copy.

Pierneef (full name is Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef) has always been immensely appealing in his rather 'different', geometric way of portraying the landscape of our country. His love of the land shows through in all his work, a love, I guess, that is shared by most of us Africans.

This one is entitled Bushveld Autumn Landscape and was painted in 1943. I did check that I was within the copyright limits of 50 years; Pierneef died in 1957.

Painting the Masters

A lovely lady, Michelle Burnett, from Utah, decided to start a blog along the same lines as Karin Jurick's Different Strokes blog. She has called it 'Following the Masters'. I thought this would be quite fun, as I've been told that practising your painting by copying the masters, is a very worthwhile exercise.

The first one is 'Narcissus' by John William Waterhouse, and this is my effort. Have a look at her blog - I think the next one is going to be quite exciting!


I am having major hiccoughs with my computer just lately; I have tried to comment on a number of blogs, but Firefox just throws me off! Am I the only one?