ronell van wyk – Page 50 – Africantapestry

Posted on March 22, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

A doorknob is a thing of art

I love the doorknobs in my home. There are many. All the rooms have french doors that open onto a balcony. I counted all the doors – 12 of them. So I decided to draw them. I also enjoy hanging stuff on to the doors, as you’ll see and that changes with every whim.
In the guestroom, always a flower glass with something from the garden, in this case a daffodil.

In the bathroom, an old star made from recycled tin, which I bought from an old retired farmer, when we lived in South Carolina…I can still hear him say with a long, southern drawl: “Oh, lordiee, lordiee..” What a fun old man he was!

Then the market basket is always on the ready at the living room door.

And here comes a little cheating as well…a door yes, but not really a doorknob, only a huge, beautiful old key. I used an old door I found at the back in one of our caves and made a bulletin board out of it, on which I hung this key and a wooden “Bonheur” heart, which really does give “Happiness” above my desk.

OK, so maybe they aren’t all doorknobs, but purely for my enjoyment here, I depict them as such

…a pretty porcelain handle to the bathroom and last but not least, the heavy brass handle from the large green painted wooden gates. It is always tarnished but looks glorious once it is cleaned. Which happens only when I need to get rid of bad energy. Then I’m stuck with a tennis elbow for the next 6 weeks.

There are still more doorknobs and handles and levers and keys, but I’m done now with doorknobs being a thing of art.
24 comments:

Sue said…: I agree with you about the door knobs. How wonderful you get to have all different doorknobs! Great drawings. Nice touch including the things hanging on the doorknobs.; March 22, 2007 5:51 PM
Teri C said…: What a MARVELOUS collection of door knobs and accessories! I loved reading about your experiences with them and the drawings. Just wonderful!; March 22, 2007 5:55 PM
rful post, Ronell. Your watercolors are really good – and I had fun trying to recognize each doorknob.: March 22, 2007 6:47 PM
Susan Cornelis said…: I enjoyed the tour of your doorknobs. What a wonderful home ful of art you’ve created!; March 22, 2007 9:45 PM

Carole said…: Oh my goodness, you have been busy! I love how you’ve done this as a series of doorknobs. Beautiful lively illustrations – I love the way you’ve used the watercolour wash so loosely.; March 22, 2007 9:53 PM
Dave said…: What a great house you must have! I love these.; March 22, 2007 10:50 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you everybody, for the kind comments…they are much appreciated, like always.
Ronell; March 22, 2007 11:18 PM
Shirley said…: Ronell,
What a wonderful collection and fabulous watercolor paintings of them. Thanks for sharing your house with us.; March 22, 2007 11:49 PM
Lin said…: What a WONDERFUL doorknob study — to say NOTHING about your FANTASTIC rendering of them!!! WONDERFULLY DONE …exquisite execution!; March 23, 2007 12:18 AM
Anita said…: Such an enjoyable collection of sketches!; March 23, 2007 1:29 AM
aPugsLife-laserone said…: Wow, what wonderful doorknobs. We once lived in an old house (a run down leaky monster that had been condemned, when we were poor) but it had really neat antique glass doorknobs. The doorknobs you drew are awesome, I really like them! 🙂; March 23, 2007 5:35 AM
andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…: Ok these are good – very good. A fabulous collection of doorknobs. Your style works so well with the subject. Great colour. Lovely work.; March 23, 2007 10:39 AM
Laura said…: Ronelle, these are AMAZING!! I love seeing all the variations and plays on form and color. The green door is my favorite, though I like every single one of them. You and Casey must have such fun together–I’d love to come and sketch with you! Maybe on one of my next trips to France…; March 23, 2007 12:23 PM
Laura said…: Oops, sorry I added that extra ‘e’ to your name, Ronell. Old spelling habits die hard ;D.; March 23, 2007 12:24 PM
🙂 Silvia said…: I just don’t know what I like better, your watercolor paintings of your door knobs or your ideas how to decorate and style them. Both of them wonderful!; March 23, 2007 2:16 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thanks so much for the beautiful praise on what I’ve done here, it is so encouraging!
Ronell; March 23, 2007 5:33 PM
Christeen said…: These are SO COOL! Each painting is unique, and beautiful, and kudos to you for deciding to do a series about the humble doorknob. Love them!; March 23, 2007 7:31 PM
“Maggie” said…: What a lovely door handle series! What a lovely home you must have and the door handles are so unique. What year was the home built?; March 24, 2007 2:46 PM
E-J said…: They’re all wonderful, especially the last one with its gorgeous colours.; March 24, 2007 10:41 PM
phthaloblu said…: How cool! These are beautiful paintings and such interesting subjects.; March 26, 2007 2:41 PM
nik said…: Ronell, this is wonderful. I love the watercolors. They are so bright and brilliant.; March 30, 2007 6:39 AM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you for the great encouragement and praise..I appreciate it!
Ronell; March 30, 2007 9:13 AM
Sandy said…: wow wow wow

Posted on March 19, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

A bowl is a bowl…is a bowl

According to most dictionaries a bowl is a round container, wider than it is deep and holds foods or fluids….That is apart from all the other meanings…shapes, sports, etc. So I took to searching my house for bowls. There are many. But then I also found other “containers” which I find have no boundaries in terms of their function.
I often use this big platter for meat dishes, salads, but I have also used it as a bowl, since it is just deep enough to prevent sauces from dripping over the sides…platter…or bowl?

Next I thought of, was my mother’s silver sugar container, I now use as a spoonholder. Since I grew up never asking :” Please pass the sugarpot/caddy/bowl”, but simply: “Pass the sugar”, I still don’t know what it really is, and should I now maybe ask to be passed the spoonbowl?

The third find in my home was the bird bath. Although it is frequented now by the birds for bathing and our cats for drinking, it did in its newly bought years serve us humans of the house well as a fruit bowl al fresco style.

Birdbath, spoonholder, platter, bowl…it is all in the eye of the beholder.

17 comments:

karen said…: Very nice line and wash, Ronell!; March 19, 2007 10:10 PM
phthaloblu said…: These are really nice! Great job!; March 19, 2007 10:15 PM
Teri C said…: Really nice bowls! You did a great on all the bowls.; March 19, 2007 11:04 PM
Linda said…: Great, great, and great! Wonderful highlights, which makes them just zing! 🙂; March 20, 2007 1:02 AM
andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…: osh these are good but I especially love the top one. It’s funny how you can see the skill involved more clearly in the most simple of images. Gorgeous. What medium did you use?; March 20, 2007 2:30 AM
SCquiltaddict said…: Very nice work…love the wash; March 20, 2007 3:00 AM
Christeen said…: These are so beautiful- nice work!; March 20, 2007 5:07 AM
Sydney Harper said…: Nicely done! They are all lovely but my favorite is the third one.; March 20, 2007 5:32 AM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you for all the wonderful comments..
Andrea, my mediums were pen and just plain old black watercolor.
Ronell; March 20, 2007 8:33 AM
caseytoussaint said…: wow, you’ve been busy! I love these ink and wash drawings you’ve been doing – I agree with Andrea – they’re all really good, but the first one is a stunner!; March 20, 2007 8:58 AM
Emma Pod said…: These are all beautiful! It’s amazing what can be done with variations of just one color.; March 20, 2007 7:43 PM
Lin said…: GORGEOUS! Those washes are just scrumptiously done!! BRAVA!; March 20, 2007 9:52 PM
aPugsLife-laserone said…: Beautiful Bowls! There’s just something about the first one, the simple one, that I really like. 🙂; March 20, 2007 10:30 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thanks again for the encouraging comments…they really inspire me to keep working at it!
Ronell; March 20, 2007 11:08 PM
Deb Salter said…: Your use of wash is just magical!; March 21, 2007 5:28 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you, Deb…”magical” does make my heart go completely wild!
Ronell; March 21, 2007 8:36 PM
“Maggie” said…: I just love this sketch of the spoon bowl-beautiful. I have one too sitting on my table filled with silver spoons we use every day.

Posted on March 18, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Mood in a flame

After having glorious days last week, the rain settled back in yesterday, with a daring chill after the warmth of those perfect days. That drove me to a long, luxurious bath last night. As I watched my candle’s flame flickering mysterious images against the wall, I thought I’d post a drawing of this mood in a candle…

Ink and wash on Arches water color paper.

I made so many mistakes in this one – once again misjudged the size of my paper, tried to correct an off-centre line by putting in more line, thus accentuating the problem(left side above), keep on fiddling with the flame so it became completely without ambiance, and left too few “lost edges” by continuing coming back and doing more lines. The learning process is an uphill journey all the time….

7 comments:

SCquiltaddict said…: LOVELY JOB …sweet candlestick…; March 18, 2007 6:53 PM
Sandy said…: Maybe you had problems with is flame but I love the cherub and the overall structure and depth you achieved (yes we are all on the same journey uphill 😉; March 18, 2007 7:20 PM
phthaloblu said…: So beautiful! And I think the flame just adds a mysterious prescence to the overall piece. I love it!; March 19, 2007 2:41 AM
Emma Pod said…: The cherub candlestick is exquisite! Great job. And all of your vine drawings/paintings are beautiful. This is my first visit to your blog – lovely! Thanks for visiting mine.; March 19, 2007 3:16 AM
aPugsLife-laserone said…: This is realy beautiful. 🙂; March 19, 2007 8:22 AM
Lin said…: This is incredibly beautiful! Such wonderful shading!; March 19, 2007 12:00 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you everybody for visiting, I appreciate all your comments!
Ronell

Posted on March 16, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Picking grapes

These are my last sketches on the vineyards and grape picking in Stellenbsoch. They were done in pen and wash. I plan on using all these sketches to put together a series of paintings…hopefully it will move beyond planning!
This was much more difficult than sketching the “pickers” when they were taking a break. They really picked so fast and their heads were constantly bobbing up and down in the vineyard. Just as I thought I could capture one, he would disappear. In the end I stood further back to only capture glimpses of color in the vineyards.
The first sketch is of one of the many women pickers. This woman had such a presence about her and after a few hopeless attempts to sketch her picking, I asked her if she would keep still for maybe just one minute? The minute turned out to be much shorter than I know a minute to be, but I did manage to get her down.

The last sketch of the pressing machine was very boring for me to draw. I don’t like machines of any kind, except of course my coffee machine…I didn’t succeed in capturing it’s function, so it is hard to see what happens where, but at least you have an where the grapes fall into the shaft…

Posted by Africantapestry at 1:47 PM

11 comments:

caseytoussaint said…: Wow, Ronell, these are incredible. They tell so much – travel journaling at it’s best. I hope there are more to come!; March 16, 2007 6:41 PM
Lin said…: These are STUNNING!!! Fresh, VIBRANT! GREAT USE of ink and wash — lovely lovely lovely!! DITTO!! MORE !!!; March 16, 2007 10:33 PM
gabi campanario said…: ronell, i can blog-travel to these vineyards thanks to these moments you captured so well with your pen and washes! i really like them. the first one is my favorite. look forward to more!; March 17, 2007 4:33 AM
Ujwala said…: the whole series of them are fabulous! and i hope that you do get around to making paintings from them.; March 17, 2007 8:15 AM
Jana Bouc said…: Wonderful work! All that’s missing is the glass of wine! You really captured all the steps along the way and your drawings of people are really excellent! I love the colors.; March 17, 2007 5:21 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you all, for the encouraging comments..
ronell; March 17, 2007 9:07 PM
Anonymous said…: Hi Ronell This looks cool.; March 18, 2007 3:00 PM
phthaloblu said…: What can I say except that these are just beautiful!; March 19, 2007 2:39 AM
aPugsLife-laserone said…: Oh my gosh, these are just beautiful. Really nice work!!! …by the way, “Peeps” are little marshmallow candies coated in colored sugar. I just did a second Peep drawing on my art blog and also wrote a bit about peeps and provided pictures and links. Heheheh. 🙂; March 19, 2007 8:22 AM
“Maggie” said…: Ronell,I love your loose sketches and colors of the vineyards and that capture moments of time. Wonderful!I want to say thank you for visiting my blog and glad you liked my blind contour. I love drawing them!; March 19, 2007 1:14 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you everybody for the nice comments, I really appraciate your visiting!
Ronell

Posted on March 9, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Airport people

Being back in France for 3 days after a holiday of almost 3 weeks, leaves me a bit off balance. I’m in slow motion and struggle to pick up the pace. I think my spirit is still lingering in the sun somewhere in the Cape, South Africa. I feel inspired, but at the same time, sad. Having had the most glorious time with friends and family, being spoilt rotten…it is hard to be back and just pick up where we left off 3 weeks ago.
I did do a lot of sketching, took close to a 2000 photographs, soaked up the sun in the vineyards by picking grapes(and sketching and eating and taking pictures, all at the same time) and had close conversation with some elephants (all in good spirit…!), heard a lot of good life stories filled with great humor, ate a lot, drank a lot(I was in the wine lands after all…), laughed a lot, in fact indulged way too much in everything of all sorts, which is a good thing every now and then, no?I’ll post some sketches in batches, starting off with CdG- airport, where we had to change planes because of a technical problem and could therefore only depart 3 hours later. So, here are some sketches of people wandering around…waiting, watching the clock, reading, chatting on their mobile phones, some extremely bored, others not showing any emotion….strangely enough, I couldn’t find anyone sleeping…maybe in fear of being left behind?

I’m still not comfortable sketching people in public….I still have a lot of practicing to do, before I’ll feel competent and at ease doing people in public, but I do enjoy it once it is done, until the next time! These were all done in the small moleskine, which I sometimes find a bit restricting.

So, here they are – all those waiting people at the airport…….

11 comments:

E-J said…: Hello – there are some lovely sketches on your blog! I wish I had such lightness of touch when sketching with watercolour. Bookmarking you. 🙂; March 9, 2007 7:00 PM
Deborah said…: These sketches of the people are wonderful. The gestures are great. Can’t wait to see more from your trip.; March 10, 2007 1:42 AM
caseytoussaint said…: Hi Ronell – great sketches! I’m thrilled to see you getting addicted to drawing people in public too, shall we go on some sketchcrawls? The nice weather is coming too…..; March 10, 2007 10:16 AM
phthaloblu said…: These are wonderful sketches, and the washes look great. I’m curious, did you do the washes while you were sketching, or after you were home? Well done!; March 10, 2007 6:31 PM
gabi campanario said…: hi ronell,
these are great, the person talking on the phone is my favorite. looking forward to seeing more!; March 11, 2007 5:57 AM
Africantapestry said…: HiThank you for your kind comments on my blog.To answer your question, phtalobu, ….It depends. The drawings at the airport didn’t have any specific light or color that I wanted to capture, it was more just gestural, so I just washed them later, no specific order. I actually considered leaving them as pen sketches, but then started putting a wash in on one and liked it…I enjoy color, what can I say! With some sketches, I’d like to capture shadows or light, and then I would do it there on the spot. I carry a small watercolor and 2 waterbrushes with me. And then sometimes I would do a sketch, and would just make notes on the colors or shadows or light and do the washes later, but not too long afterwards, or else I forget!! (Or even become too lazy…hehe!; March 11, 2007 7:14 PM
Jana Bouc said…: Wonderful sketches. I love the painting on the upper right of your site. Is that a self portrait? It’s so expressive and charming.; March 12, 2007 3:56 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you Jana…yes, it is kind of a self portrait – oil on canvas..; March 13, 2007 8:31 AM
Renate said…: Lovely sketches. I can’t see that you did not feel comfortable doing them.; March 13, 2007 11:39 PM
martha said…: These are wonderful! Airports are indeed great for people sketching.; March 14, 2007 3:28 AM
andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…: Great studies.

Posted on February 13, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Something tart

The Cape gooseberry(Physalis) is one of my favorite fruits..I love the delicacy of the leaves , transparent, like the wings of a butterfly. The berry itself is quite insignificant in taste, rather tart. Back in SA, I had a friend who grew them on her farm and we would pick armsful, stuff ourselves along the way and return home to make jams and chutneys and whatever else we could think of. For decoration, they are wonderful and just kissed with a touch of gold leaf, they can turn any dessert into a visual delight.I first sketched sort of a thumbnail in my sketchbook(the second drawing); just playing around with composition and color and values etc, and then did a more complete one, which of course, completely turned out overworked and stiff with no visual interest. This happens far more than I would like…too often my planning looks so much better than my final attempt, when”Thinking” comes into play then, it seems

6 comments:

Jana Bouc said…: Great stuff on your blog. You have a wonderful and lively sense of composition. Your sketches are great–so expressive and your watercolors are just delightful. I’m so glad you commented on my blog leading me to your site. I’ll be back!; February 13, 2007 4:40 PM
Renate said…: Gorgeous paintings! Though I really like both versions, I prefer the more sketchy one. (aka the one you did first).
Oh, and have a great time!; February 13, 2007 5:03 PM
ksklein said…: i couldn´t decide between the two. i like them both. the physalis is also called Lampionfrucht here in germany. that means lampion fruit. 🙂; February 13, 2007 8:04 PM
Casey said…: I like them both, Ronell, but I think I prefer the quick sketch as well. It’s hard to reproduce that spontaneity in a second try!; February 13, 2007 9:05 PM
aPugsLife said…: Very nice! Have u ever seen this photo of a Physalis?

It was very popular on flickr, and one of my fav. photos. 🙂; February 14, 2007 12:03 PM
gabi campanario said…: you’re right, it’s often hard to replicate the spontaneity of a sketch when you set yourself to do a ‘final’. i’m trying to tell myself everything i draw is a ‘final’ to avoid that. but it’s still hard. great stuff in your blog, have a good trip to SA

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