Hi, I am Maree Clarkson, also known as Hedgie and I am a Watercolour artist, gardener and naturalist living, sketching and painting on the Dolphin Coast of South Africa. I specialise in watercolours, but also use other mediums like Acrylics, Oils, Pastels and Pen and Ink from time to time.
This blog is my "Info Centre" and a summary of where you can catch up with my art and various other topics I'm passionate about. You won't find any new articles or posts here, but Links to items of interest are listed in the two menu columns on the left and right and are constantly up-dated, so please feel free to explore my world and join me in seeing all this wonderful Universe has to offer!
My tagline is, "There is a fine line between dreams and reality; it's up to you to draw it."
During my childhood, my days, which were all too short, were filled with (besides school work!) sketching every insect, leaf and bird I could find in the garden, later filling my journals with bits of leaves, butterfly wings (from dead ones!), seeds and pieces of bark. I also spent my time looking for little animals in the veld to sketch - Chameleons, Hedgehogs, field mice, lizards, little snakes like egg eaters and partridges. I often took them home, to my mother's consternation, keeping them in a suitable cage or glass tank until I was finished examining and sketching them, then returning them to where I found them. In the evenings I spent my time reading - The Famous Five, Nancy Drew, horse magazines and anything else I could lay my hands on - until it was time for lights out.
My biggest passion is sketching and painting and with my art I would like to be of inspiration to others and send the message, "Anything is possible and you can do it!" Your calling and destiny are hidden within the precious desires of your heart (what an ingenious place to put it!) and all that is required is for you to look within and discover what gives you the greatest joy. You can find my art at RedBubble.
You may be interested in some fine art prints of my art work on greeting cards, postcards, mounted prints, laminated prints, framed prints, photographic prints, posters, duvet covers, t-shirts, mugs, iPhone cases, throw pillows and tote bags - please feel free to visit my profile at RedBubble, where you will find a wide variety of subjects to choose from, like animals, birds, landscapes, figurative studies, sketches, flowers, seascapes and still life topics.
Personally, my inspiration is easily stimulated - a bird sitting on a branch close-by, a certain shape, an interesting line or shadow, a beautiful colour, the curve of a leaf as it gently sways in the wind, a pebble as it lays half covered by sand on the beach ... the beauty of nature far surpasses anything man-made, and provides us with an endless source of inspiration. Read more about nature and the beauty of South Africa in "HEDGIE'S NATURE JOURNAL".
I'm mad about journaling and have been writing and sketching in "diaries", as they were called in those days, since my childhood. My father encouraged my passion for writing and presented me with my first fountain pen at the age of seven, and that started a life-long friendship with writing and sketching. Thereafter, for every birthday or Christmas, it was either another pen or pencil or journal and I'm absolutely besotted with Moleskine Note books, especially the Watercolour sketch-books.
Also please feel free to visit my Instagram profile, where I journal about my gardening exploits and anything exciting seen through the camera's lens.
"Soil . . . scoop up a handful of the magic stuff. Look at it closely. What wonders it holds as it lies there in your palm. Tiny sharp grains of sand, little faggots of wood and leaf fiber, infinitely small round pieces of marble, fragments of shell, specks of black carbon, a section of vertebrae from some minute creature. And mingling with it all the dust of countless generations of plants and flowers, trees, animals and – yes – our own, age-long forgotten forebears, gardeners of long ago. Can this incredible composition be the common soil?"
- Stuart Maddox Masters, The Seasons Through
I am constantly exploring my creativity, overcoming my fears in the process and having a great journey along the way!
"You can choose any destination you wish for your life. So choose one
that thrills you and compels you to be the best you can be."
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