Foxgloves

 Acrylics on canvasboard, 15 x 10 cm:

SOLD

Nasturtium

 Acrylics on canvasboard, 4 x 4 inches ( = about 10 x 10 cm):

This item may be for sale on my Bid-or-Buy store, or contact me directly at brianvds@gmail.com

Landscape near Kroonstad, Free State

 Acrylics on Masonite, 20 x 25 cm:

SOLD

A friend had to drive to Kroonstad to go pick up a new puppy she had adopted, and I tagged along. Now many people would wonder whether I had lost it - the Free State? That flattest, most featureless, boring province of maize fields and cattle!? Well, call me crazy, but I think it is perhaps the most beautiful of all South Africa's provinces - sun-bleached plains stretching to forever, under an equally huge and bleached sky. Suddenly you feel like you can breathe again. 

Anyway, I took a few snapshots, none of which came out well (I suspect cell phone cameras don't do well under such intense light), but one can still use them for reference. One thing I notice about these lovely plains - it is really difficult to do them justice in a painting. As beautiful as they are when you're standing there, they don't necessarily make for a particularly striking painting, so painting this area makes for an interesting challenge.

Red berries

 Acrylics on canvasboard, 4 x 4 inches (= about 10 x 10 cm):

This item may be for sale on my Bid-or-Buy store, or contact me directly: brianvds@gmail.com

Firethorn berries

 Acrylics on canvasboard, 4 x 4 inches (= about 10 x 10 cm):

SOLD

Ocean view

 Ocean view, British Columbia. Oil on Masonite, 20 x 15 cm:

Doesn't hurt to now and then try something I am not so familiar with. A Canadian friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook, and I shamelessly stole it to use as reference photo. I couldn't quite do it justice, I think...

Pylons

 Pylons near Balmoral, Mpumalanga:

Oil on Masonite, 15 x 20 cm.

This spot is only a few kilometres from where I lived as a boy. It is mid-winter, and the winter frosts have killed off the grass and, it seems, everything else. New growth will burst forth in spring, and by November, if the rains were reasonable, the area will resemble Ireland. 

I find most people don't particularly like this kind of scene: the winter colors are considered drab, even depressing, and the pylons an eyesore. With me it is different, perhaps partly because I grew up in this sort of landscape, and thus perhaps view it through the soft-focus filter of nostalgia. For me, these pylons and their cables snaking over the horizon are very much part of the landscape, and I love the rich but subtle and subdued hues of the winter grass. 

This item will be for sale on my Bid-or-Buy store as soon as it is dry enough to travel.