This Blue Gum

This blue gum tree greets me every morning as I open my studio curtains. She is always there. She has always been there, for the past ten years. She's the one I sit and stare at when I'm pondering or deep in thought. I've watched her swaying in heavy winds, watched as limbs have broken off and watched as veld fires have swept her base. 

She stands across the road from our property, probably about 20m tall and offers a safe haven for all the birds in the area. I've watched as baby crows have fledged from her branches and yet, I've never looked at her properly. 

Today I decided to look at her, with new eyes, and paint her. 

I think she's wonderful. 

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Grand Dame - Maree

n. pl. grandes dames also grand dames

1. A highly respected elderly or middle-aged woman
2. A respected woman having extensive experience in her field
3. A woman regarded as the most experienced, prominent, or venerable member of her profession, etc.

The Blue Gum trees (Eucalyptus) on our property are showing signs of the winter, with lots of dead leaves and grass at their bases, a sure danger should our property catch fire this season. Our fire breaks haven't been done yet, normally we're finished by now, but we're late because the tractor has been out on hire and should be back in a couple of days.

Despite the freezing cold, I took a stroll down to the bottom of our property to find something to sketch and this tree is one of my favourite grand old dames that has managed to escape burning for the past couple of seasons.

Parker Fountain pen with Black Quink ink and Rohrer & Klinger Verdura Green ink, a bit of water added. Done in my Moleskine Sketch-book.

Happy New Year 2013!

Never be afraid to reinvent. A new year gives you permission to be whoever you wanna be.

 Blue gums on our property - pencil and oil pastels

The past year has not seen me sketching in nature as often as I would have liked to, life seemed to take on a will of its own!

I never make resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, saying I'm going to exercise, saying I'm going to sketch more, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. But if I did have to make one resolution, it would be "Don't weep for yesterday, it is over. Smile from your heart, for you have been given a brand new year. Make the most of it."

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right!

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Wintry Blue gums - Maree

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away. 

- Zhuangzi 

A few weeks ago we were still gripped in the icy throes of winter but the Blue gum trees (Eucalyptus) on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) were already showing signs of new life, ready to shed their blue/grey leaves in exchange for brighter greens.

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I like these cold days - Maree

I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savour a bad mood.  

~Bill Watterson 

Three trees on our smallholding that got caught in one of the fires we had on our smallholding a couple of days ago. It spread from the neighbours even after we thought that one had been extinguished properly - obviously not so. It always amazes me how the smallest spark can appear from nowhere....

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E. grandis - Maree

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer
is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible
exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats.
- Woody Allen

Blue gum tree (Eucalyptus) on our property in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

Summer is in FULL swing with temperatures way up in the late 30°C and early 40°C in parts of the country! Here in Tarlton I've been struggling with the heat at only 31°C, so if I want to do some field sketching, I go out to our blue gum bush early in the morning, about 5am, where I found this lovely tall tree - he's one of the straightest on our property and I just adore him!

Here in S.A., Blue gum trees are popular with bee-keepers for the honey they provide (I just LOVE Bluegum Honey!). However, in South Africa they are considered invasive, with their water-sucking capabilities threatening water supplies. They also release a chemical into the surrounding soil which kills native competitors.

The following Eucalyptus species have become naturalised in South Africa: E. camaldulensis, E. cladocalyx, E. diversicolor, E. grandis and E. lehmannii.

What if there were no more trees...? - Maree

If you cut down a forest, it doesn't matter how many sawmills you have if there are no more trees.
- Susan George

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm - no preliminary sketching

A scenery not far from us on the road to Magaliesburg. Tarlton is host to large plantations of Blue gum trees (Eucalyptus), which were originally planted for the mining industry to be used as supports under-ground in the mines. Although many of the trees have been cleared to make way for progress (and this is on-going), we are still lucky enough to have pockets of these trees on private properties.

That subtle something - Maree

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

W&N watercolour in small hand-made sketch-book with hand-crafted satin-finish Linen paper

Walking through our Blue gum bush a couple of months ago, looking for something to sketch, a leaf maybe, or a mushroom, I suddenly realised that RIGHT THERE, in front of me, was the sketching matter. I was surrounded by blue gum trees, and all I had to do, was paint them!

Summer at last! - Maree

“See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... we need silence to be able to touch souls.”
- Mother Teresa

W&N Watercolours on Amedeo 200gsm sketching paper - 12" x 8"

Summer at last on our Smallholding in Tarlton, South Africa! Remnants of Winter are still visible, but we've had our first summer rains and the Blue gums (Eucalyptus) are looking spectacular. They truly did this metamorphosis in complete silence - the one minute they were cold and sparse-looking and the next they're dressed in their finest summer finery, offering food and protection for the birds once more.

For the white parts of the trunks, I did a few strokes with a candle. I used the ordinary Price's candles (the cheapies in the blue wrapping), but you can also use white birthday cake candles, which actually work very well seeing as they are smaller.

Only in Winter

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savour belonging to yourself.
~Ruth Stout

This is the scene that greeted me one morning last week as I stepped outside - freezing temperatures, grey skies and lawns frosted to yellow and brown. We've been having snow in Lesotho and the Drakensberg Mountains (South Africa) and Gauteng normally suffers the wrath of Winter from high up in the mountains!

Old Blue Gum tree - Maree

Oh to be free of myself, 

With nothing left to remember, 

To have my heart as bare 

As a tree in December; 

Resting, as a tree rests 

After its leaves are gone, 

Waiting no more for a rain at night 

Nor for the red at dawn;

-   Sara Teasdale, The Tree

Here in South Africa we are still tightly in the grip of Winter, with each day seeming to be colder than the next! Winter Solstice is long past, yet the days don't seem to be getting any longer at this stage.

This old Blue gum tree on our property was dealt a death blow by last year's veld fires, and is now home to and food for termites, who are in turn food for various birds - such is the cycle of life. It also offers a great vantage point for the Fiscal Shrike, who loves sitting in the top branches, surveying the ground for any movement and tit-bits. Last week I spotted the Gymnogene (Polyboroides typus - Harrier Hawk) feeding its young in this tree, which prompted me to do the sketch.

I didn't manage to get a pic of the Gymnogene, but found this one on the web at Bushveld.co.za

Tarlton Scenery - Maree

“May brooks and trees and singing hills join in the chorus too, and every gentle wind that blows send happiness to you.”
- Irish Blessing



A scene not far from where I live - a gravel road through Tarlton on the way to Randfontein. It's a short-cut we often take past all the veggie and flower farms, the rubbish dump where all the Seagulls (600km from the coast!) gather and where tall Blue gum trees flank the road.