Tag Archives: Botswana

Sketching Villages from a Moving Car!

Recently I discovered that sketching villages from a moving car might be more difficult than sketching wildlife!

These rural scenes were sketched as we drove down from Kasane to the Tuli Block in Botswana. Although we are driving quite slowly through villages, it’s still a challenge to sketch and you need to develop a photographic memory by looking, memorizing, then sketching. However, I soon found my stride because these rural scenes are etched in my brain, from my years of living in Botswana. I wanted to capture the typical sights of a village – people sitting by the road; herds of cows in the shade of a tree; donkeys and goats; village bars and small houses with satellite dishes. Pen was the perfect medium and I particularly love this pinky-gray ZIG Memory System writer. And sketching made the long drive go by much faster!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

New Elephant Field Work by Alison Nicholls

Yesterday I got back from my latest trip to South Africa and Botswana, where I had a number of great elephant sightings. One memorable morning included a herd of 40 elephants who spent time carefully touching and smelling the bones of a dead elephant cow (more about that coming soon).

Elephants Browsing in the Bush, watercolor Field Sketch by Alison Nicholls ©2016

This new sketch shows a more muted palette of colors than usual, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I decided to use more grays, usually mixed from 3 primary colors. This piece started with a Naples yellow wash, which can still be seen on the elephants, so I mixed the background gray from the same yellow plus alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. (I never use black and white to make gray. In fact I never use black at all and just removed it from my field box. I use white occasionally, usually with cerulean blue to get a subtle sky blue.)

Using the gray to paint the negative shapes around the elephant made them really stand out, and I finished off the piece with same mixture but with more crimson added to create a lovely subtle brown. I used my rigger brush to pull some of this brown out in the foreground as sticks, and also used it to emphasize some of the features on the main elephant.

I think another reason for my muted palette is the severe drought which has affected most of southern Africa, leaving bare, parched earth devoid of vegetation. Many grazers and browsers are struggling from lack of food, and their poor condition leads to fairly easy pickings for many predators. Elephants are able to strip trees of their bark, dig up tree roots and even eat unpalatable-looking sticks and thorns, but their search for food can be hugely destructive.

I hope this year’s rains will be slow, steady and long lasting, so the vegetation can recover. On my next visit I hope to be painting with more greens – which also look great with grays and yellows.

Until next time…enjoy the elephants.
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Sketching in Africa!

During my sketching trip to Botswana and South Africa I will be trying out some new painting surfaces, although I’ll still be using my trusty watercolor sketchbooks by Holbein. (Yes, the 14×11″ size sketchbook with the incredibly catchy and colorful name: Multi-Drawing Book 5F. I suppose the workhorse-like name and plain cover might help prevent me from spiraling dizzily out of control as I happily sketch my way through the African bush!)

Anyway…back to the new surfaces…one of which is Claybord (made by Ampersand). It is described as the ultimate multimedia panel, with an ultra smooth clay surface that is very absorbent. As you might guess from the name, you can scrape through a painted area to expose the bright white ultra-smooth clay surface. Now this goes against everything I have ever done (as a watercolorist you learn to retain the whites in your paintings rather than add them at the end) so I’m not sure scraping will feature heavily in my use of Claybord, but we’ll see. I am taking half a dozen 5×7” panels. If they were lightweight, I would take larger sizes, but they’re not, so the smaller panels will have to do for now. The surface is bright white and almost texture-free. It is good for detail but won’t hold washes. But pencil and pen will look wonderful on it so maybe I’ll try those. My usual extremely pale sketches are very difficult to photograph in the bush, which is why I hardly ever show you the progression of my sketches. So I’ve been thinking that a softer pencil might be the answer. Maybe Claybord can be part of the answer too.

The pieces of square handmade paper are my next experiment. Although they look like watercolor paper, they act a little too much like blotting paper when a wash is added, soaking up the color and showing all the brushmarks, so once again I think simple lines might be the answer. I’ve had these pieces of paper so long I can’t remember anything about them, except that I got them at New York Central Art Supply, a fantastic art store in New York City, which, sadly, will soon be closing. Like Doctor Who’s tardis, it is tiny from the outside but seems to miraculously hold everything I ever need. It is such a shame it will soon be gone.

Elephant sketch by Alison Nicholls ©2015

Speaking of simple lines, I’m also going to be doing more sketches directly in watercolor, like this one from the 2015 Africa Geographic Art Safari. I used a rigger brush for these, and was painting while it was raining, which is why this looks such a mess. (Bookings are now open for my 2017 Art Safari on the edge of Kruger National Park in South Africa.)

So watch out for my latest exploits and sketches from Africa – coming soon!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Wildlife Sketch #15 – Kwando Lagoon by Alison Nicholls

Kwando Lagoon is an amazing place to be. Not only is there a wonderful view from the bar, the dining table and even your bed, but that view is liberally sprinkled with elephants. I stopped to count them one morning, and there were more than 60 elephants visible from just 1 of the large mesh windows in our huge, beautiful, room. Add to that the vocal pod of hippos, the fruit bats hanging in a tree, and the numerous birds, and it was barely even necessary to go out on a game drive. On a couple of occasions it was impossible to leave our room because of the elephants munching on vegetation around us. Photos of that will follow soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this view from the bar, and think about a visit!

Kwando Lagoon with elephants field sketch byAlison Nicholls

All my field sketches, are created in Africa directly from life, or sketched back at camp purely from my memory of sightings. They are completely finished in Africa and I use no photos or video reference at any time in their creation. It is always tempting to add finishing touches back in the studio, but I avoid this to ensure that my field sketches really are field sketches.

This Original Field Sketch is sold but Limited Edition Giclées are also available, priced at US$120 each. Only 10 copies are available, printed using archival inks on watercolor paper, 14×11″, all signed and numbered by me.

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Until Nov 22, I will be sharing 1 of my new African field sketches every day. The new sketches are shown to my newsletter readers a full day before they are shown here. Click here to Join my Mailing List and see the sketches as soon as they are released, or see them here 1 day later.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow’s sketch is of elephants at Kwando Lagoon.
Until then…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Want To See My New African Field Sketches?

All my new field sketches have now been scanned and I am ready to show them to you!

I will be releasing them on my blog and on social media, one every day, for 3 weeks, starting on November 2nd.
Why November 2nd?
Because before I put them online here, I will be showing them to my newsletter readers – starting on November 1st. So they get to see them a day in advance.

If you also want to see them on the day they are released, use this link to Join My Mailing List. Or, you can wait to see them here. But some of them may be sold by the time they are posted here…

Shown above is a montage of a few of the new pieces you will soon see in detail. All my field sketches, are created in Africa directly from life, or sketched back at camp purely from my memory of sightings. They are completely finished in Africa and I use no photos or video reference at any time in their creation. It is always tempting to add finishing touches back in the studio, but I avoid this to ensure that my field sketches really are field sketches.

Remember, if you want to see them on the day they are released, you can Join My Mailing List. Or, you can wait to see them here, a day later. Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Until November 1st…(or 2nd)!
Take care
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

I’m Back From Africa!

Yes, I’m back from Africa! My sketchbooks are being scanned as we speak, so I can’t show you those yet, but in the meantime here are some of the fantastic photos that my husband, Nigel, took in Linyanti, northern Botswana.

Soon I’ll have sketches to show you too!
Until then
Take care
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Painted Dogs Hunting Through Our Campsite!

For this #WishIHadAPhotoWednesday, I thought I’d go back to one warm evening in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. I was with my husband and my parents; we had set up camp, with our guides from Gunn’s Camp, on the edge of a large island. We had arrived by mokoro (dug-out canoe), seeing delta life from a lower angle than usual, as our guides poled us through the clear waters, past lilies and papyrus. Night was falling fast and the fire was alight, throwing shadows onto our 3 small dome tents. We were getting settled in for the evening (most likely with a sundowner in hand) when suddenly it seemed that our small camp came alive with activity for a brief second. 3 shapes leapt between the tents. It was almost too dark to see them, but the smaller 2 at the back had distinct white tips to their tails – African wild dogs chasing an impala! Before we had time to react, they were gone.

Painted Dogs (African wild dogs) photo by Nigel Nicholls © 2012

I’ll always remember the silence of the hunt. There were just the sounds of a few fleeting footfalls. There were no cries or calls of any kind. We listened, to hear what might have happened to the impala. Did she escape?
But the darkness closed around us, leaving us guessing, and grinning at our amazing experience.

Until next time…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

A Lion In The Headlights!

It was late afternoon; we were approaching our campsite in Mabuasehube, in the south-west of Botswana; and a beautiful dark-maned lion was in the grass 200 yards from our campsite. As we put up our tents we kept an eye out for him, knowing that lions can be curious; but it was too hot for him to move. We knew that once the sun set, he was almost certainly going to walk along the sandy track straight through our camp, so before it got dark we moved our truck so it faced down the track towards him, hoping to keep him in view by the light of the headlights as he passed by. Sure enough, he started his deep guttural roars and gradually they got closer and louder. Eventually we knew he was just on the edge of camp, so we moved from our chairs by the fire and stood next to the vehicle. We had been in a situation like this before, but on that occasion we had retreated to our vehicle when we saw the lions; this time we hoped to hold our nerve and watch him walk by without feeling the need to hop in the vehicle. This may sound like complete craziness, but we had spent nearly 10 years living in Botswana and Zimbabwe by this stage and we had had so many encounters with wild lions in national parks and game reserves that we knew the way they normally react – sometimes curious, but definitely not seeing us as a menu item – if they did, camping in the Kalahari would not have been so high on our list of things to do!

Mabuasehube, Botswana – photo by Alison Nicholls 2002

The lion continues to come closer, completely unfazed by the headlights of our vehicle (lions are not fazed by many things), deviating for a minute to mark his territory next to our long drop toilet (appropriately), before padding straight towards us again. When he was about 10 feet in front of the vehicle we unfortunately lost our nerve and decided it was time to get in. Four of us tried to get in 2 doors (survival of the fittest) but after a little excited banter, we were all in the truck. The lion didn’t even look in our direction and continued on his magnificent parade. Once we were sure he was gone, we headed back to our chairs by the fire for a large gin & tonic!

About 20 minutes later he obviously reached the other campsite located further along the edge of the salt pan, because suddenly we saw flashlights piercing the darkness in all directions, coming together to silhouette a nonchalant big cat padding through the darkness. Experiences like this, in a true wilderness, are some of my most valued memories…

And, you guessed it, we didn’t manage to take a single photo!

Any more #WishIHadAPhotoWednesday stories out there?
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

#WishIHadAPhotoWednesday

I’d like to invite all you wildlife lovers out there to join me in celebrating #WishIHadAPhotoWednesday – a chance to tell all those bush stories for which you have no photographic evidence. I’m not talking tall tales here – just things you’ve seen that stand out in your memory. I have made a long, long list, and I’ll start you off with a short, simple tale that involves Africa’s biggest antelope.

Eland bull, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana

I was sitting on the roof-rack of our Toyota Hilux truck (nicely padded with our sleeping mats) in Khutse Game Reserve in Botswana, while my husband drove us back to our campsite. Khutse is in the Kalahari, which is pretty flat, so sitting on the roof of a truck makes you feel like you can see for miles. The tracks are mostly sandy but turn into solid white calcrete, as you cross the occasional salt pans. Scrubby brush, generally no more than 5′ tall, is surrounded by long grasses. As I said, it seems like you can see for miles, but its amazing what can be hiding on those empty looking salt pans and in that scrubby brush. As we wound round a bend, 3 huge eland bulls appeared, trotting fast. These are the biggest antelope (a large male can rival the weight of a bull bison) and in many respects they look like a cross between an antelope and a cow. Our paths were intersecting, and as we slowed down the eland speeded up. They approached the track (just wide enough for 1 vehicle) and leapt it like star show-jumpers. I had this amazing view of 3 massive eland leaping higher than the bonnet (hood) of our truck, so they were nearly level with me as I sat on the roof. It was like one of those slow motion movies – they arced over the track, landing lightly and trotting away. Completely unbelievable for such a huge animal – I’ll never forget it.

A herd of eland drink in Hwange National Park

Join me in a week for my next story – #WishIHadAPhotoWednesday!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

I know a magical place…

Where the dry thirstland of the Kalahari Desert…

photo by Alison Nicholls

Meets the spreading waters of the Okavango River…

Here lies the Okavango Delta – the World’s 1000th World Heritage Site!

photo by Nigel Nicholls

There are 1000 reasons to visit…

Here are a few of mine…

Okavango Delta, Botswana, photo by Nigel Nicholls

Walking among the wildlife. Photo by Nigel Nicholls

A birder’s paradise! Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Amazing sunsets. Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Floating flowers… Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Mokoro trips. Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Did I say amazing sunsets?! Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Herds in the dust. Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Alison Nicholls sketching in Botswana. Photo by Nigel Nicholls

Great sketching! Photo by Nigel Nicholls

You can find the full article about the listing of the Okavango Delta on the IUCN website here:

But don’t just visit the website, visit the Okavango!

See my African Field Sketches, including some from the Okavango Delta.

Until next time…
Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
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Leopard Field Sketch, 11x14" by Alison Nicholls © 2013

During my last trip to Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana I saw numerous leopards. The only problem was that I wasn’t feeling great, having had a terrible cold for about a week, so sketching was not going incredibly well. But here is a sketch I managed to do in between sniffs!

I find leopards one of the more difficult cats to sketch. They don’t have the bulky muzzle of the lion or the more delicate, angular head of the cheetah, both of which allow you to instantly identify the cat from a sketch. Often, with a leopard, adding the spots makes all the difference (as you would expect). The trouble is that often I only have time to sketch the outline of the cat before it moves off, which means no time to add spots. So when I see a sleeping leopard I’m very happy. My photographer husband was less happy because this leopard had a single thin branch crossing her face and ruining his photos. That’s where artistic license comes in very handy – you’ll notice there is no branch in my sketch!

Until next time…
Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
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I recently posted about Wildlife Corridors being set up in and around Kasane, a town in northern Botswana. The corridors give animals like elephants and buffalo places to cross the road in order to reach the Chobe river, and have been set up by Elephants Without Borders. Tempe Adams, a PhD candidate, has been using camera traps to monitor the use of the corridors by wildlife and found some amazing results.

“It’s amazing,” she says. “There’s a bar at each of the corridors they have to pass by. I was looking at the results and I could suddenly see there’s this big drop in wildlife coming through on Friday and Saturday nights. I thought what’s going on? It’s so obvious … animals are adapting to our habits — and our drinking habits,” adds Adams.

We know elephants are smart but sometimes we have to reminded of just how smart they are!

You can read the whole article here on CNN’s Inside Africa page.

Learn more about Elephants Without Borders.

Until next time…

Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
A donation is made towards conservation in Africa from every sale
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Elephants near Kasane, Botswana (photo by Alison Nicholls)

In some parts of Africa towns happen to sit on or beside routes used by wildlife, and the town of Kasane in northern Botswana is an example I know well. Kasane sits on the banks of the Chobe river and many species, including elephants, not only drink from the river but also cross it on a regular basis. This might be a novel sight for tourists, but it can be a nuisance and a danger to local people, leading to human-wildlife conflict.

Elephants Without Borders have set up ‘urban corridors’ and have found that animals are using them on a regular basis, thereby reducing the potential for conflict with people.

You can see photos of elephants using the corridors and read more about this innovative idea here on the National Geographic website.

Elephants outside Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe (photo by Alison Nicholls)

Learn more about Elephants Without Borders

Until next time…
Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
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A Beautiful African Elephant Photo and Why I Won't be Painting It - by Artist Alison Nicholls

Elephant, Botswana photo by Nigel Nicholls

My husband Nigel was going through his photos from our recent Africa trip. I saw this one he took in Botswana and immediately voted it one of his best shots! Maybe because this photo follows many of the same principles I use in my paintings. It has the same calm, tranquil atmosphere showing an undisturbed animal with a peaceful expression. It has the same limited palette of color I often use too. And I just love the detail of the intricate shadows. In short – its beautiful.

So will I be painting this? Absolutely not!

Because it is wonderful just as it is, as a photograph.

You see I remember when this was taken, as a herd of 50 or so elephants moved quickly through a dry dusty riverbed on their way to water. Elephants of both sexes and all ages passed both sides of our vehicle. They were moving fairly fast and coming straight at us, which gives limited sketching time, so I took some video footage (for a video I am making about my work). My favorite part of the video is not that the elephants are so close but that you can hear them walking. I’ll post the video footage on Friday so you can see what I mean.

Will I paint from the video footage? Absolutely not!

Because it is wonderful just as it is, as a video.

Instead my painting will come from my visual memories of that scene and from the small and very brief sketches I was able to do. Those will be my inspiration. I won’t capture the minute detail of shadows falling across an elephant’s forehead but I will hopefully capture what it meant, to me, to be surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of a moving herd of elephants.

Will I paint that? Absolutely!

Lets hope it is as wonderful as the photo and video!

Until next time…

Alison

Wildlife and Conservation Artist

A donation is made towards conservation in Africa from every sale.

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