Painted Canvas Website Make-over

Finally! Our Painted Canvas website has undergone some major "cosmetic surgery"!

After hours of intensive hard work our brand new, bright and colourful website is online with a freshness like the morning dew on a new spring day. I am so poetic about this, but I am so excited about the new look. It just adds to all the new and exciting ideas we have for our creative careers. I don't know about you, but I am excited about next year. I believe it is going to be the best year of my life so far!

Here is the link to the website:
Painted Canvas.
You can bookmark it as one of your favourites and there is a Facebook button on the home page that you can click if you like it.

Other news is that we are on a roll with our commissions. We have already finished about 16 of the 33 commissions we have received after the exhibition and last night we have received 6 more commissions, 3 for me and 3 for Simonette.

I have just realised during the last few months how true these words are:
"Where there is focus, there is expansion."

Enjoy our new website!

Cacti and succulents - small paintings

Its been a while since my last post. I have been very busy with all my commissions. It seems that a lifelong dream is finally making its way towards reality. That dream has always been to make and create art, not only as a hobby but as a way of life and living.

I do not know all the answers - I do not even know all the questions! - I do not know all the secrets of famous artists, but I have learned a few things:

• Two is better than one- the wise Solomon has told us that many moons ago! Since Simonette and I have joined forces, both our careers have seen tremendous growth.
• Technology should be used - how else will be able to show our work to so many people all around the world.
• Facebook has a purpose - I think we all know how important networking is.

I also believe that our fortune is just God's way of rewarding hard work. And for those who don't know it - painting is hard work! But I love every minute of it!

Two of my commissions consisted of 11 small cacti and succulent paintings. People really seem to like this a lot.
Here is a pic of the whole lot of them together.

Winners of the Raffle and Lucky Draw

The winner of this year's Kaleidoscope of Colour Raffle is Maree Cockroft from Welgelegen, Cape Town. Congratulations to you Maree, hope you find a nice spot for your new painting.
Here is a pic of Maree receiving the painting she won.

The winner of the Lucky Draw is Aldorette McMarnus from Bellville. Aldorette saw the promotional article in the TygerBurger (our local newspaper) and came to view our paintings. She came to pick up her painting this morning. Here she receives her painting from the artist, Simonette van Oudtshoorn on the left.

Exhibition Results

First of all we want to thank God for the most amazing day that you can imagine. We couldn't ask for better weather. The sun was shining, there was no wind and the temperature was just perfect.
We had a constant flow visitors and I could see that everybody enjoyed themselves and they seemed to be quite impressed by our display of art.

A great thank you to each and everyone who came and supported us last Saturday. We enjoyed your company. It was a very uplifting day to me and I trust to everyone.

We had no less than 60 paintings on display of which we sold 23. That is quite amazing because in these difficult financial times, art is one of the luxuries that people like to admire but don't often buy. I believe that our results are due to the fact that we aim to create and offer beautiful art at affordable prices. We also had some mosaic work and pottery at display and those artists also had some sales.

We had some stunning fridge magnets and gift tags with pictures of our paintings on that we gave away. Then we also had birthday calendars that people could order. We will soon make it possible for you to order those online.

Here follow some pics of our exhibition. Enjoy!

Our inviting entrance

Our stoep area where people like to spend some time

These smaller paintings were quite a hit.

Our feature wall with some pottery items in front.

The courtyard area was used to display the mosaic by Dalene Smit.

We had some delicious snacks, wine and iced tea.

How you can win this painting?!?

Enter the raffle and stand a chance to win this original oil painting by MS du Toit.

Every year when we have our Kaleidoscope of Colour art exhibition, we also have a raffle that you can enter to win a painting. This year is no different, and the good news is that we keep all our prices in line with last year's prices.

The raffle ticket only cost you R50 and you can win a painting that is worth R2500!

Here are the details of this year's painting:
Title: Autumn River
Size: 800 x 400mm
Medium: Oil on boxed canvas

Take Note: This raffle is open to everybody, it doesn't matter where in the world you live. It doesn't matter if you cannot make it to our exhibition on the19th of October. Everybody and anybody can enter. Remember also the more tickets you buy, the better your chances to win!
(If you stay in another country, you will be responsible for postage)

Maybe you say, you don't like the painting. You might like a different style! Well, that's OK, because if you win, you just paid R50 for a fabulous and expensive Christmas gift that you can give to your mother-in-law!

So how do you enter: 

1. You contact me per e-mail: Marietjie duToit, and you give your name and cell no. You also tell me how many tickets you want to buy, and for each ticket you choose a number between 1 and 1000.
2. I will then mail you my banking details and I will tell you if your number/s are not available anymore, so that you can choose another one.
3. You transfer the money to my account and send a confirmation of payment.
4. I confirm your that I have received it and your name with your number/s are put into the hat, as easy as that!

We also have a Lucky Draw on the day of the exhibition. Every person who enters the venue stand an equal chance to win a painting by Simonette van Oudtshoorn to the value of R4
50. We will later post a picture of our Lucky Draw painting.

You can enter the Raffle from today onwards until 5pm on Saturday 19 October. If you have your special numbers like I do, do not wait, enter today!

2013 International Elephant & Rhino Conservation and Research Symposium

The 2013 International Elephant and Rhino conservation and research symposium was held from August 26th - 30th at the Pittsburgh Zoo in Pittsburgh Pensylvania, USA. I had the priviledge to donate a painting to them which was auctioned during the symposium.

Ken Kaemmerer, Curator of Mammals at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium have e-mailed me to inform me of what had happened at the auction:

"I also thought you’d be pleased to know that the painting was purchased by the Hospital Manager, Lisa Bigelow, of the Columbus Zoo Hospital.  She says she has a perfect spot in the hospital to display your painting that all who come in will see.  The Columbus Zoo is a terrific big zoo with an admirable and large elephant program plus their veterinary program and hospital are top notch. 

Anyway it was a grand contribution to the silent auction and overall the auction raised $5500 which will be split evenly between the International Elephant and Rhino Foundations with the money directly supporting conservation projects.  Thank you again for your contribution."

 Unfortunately I couldn't be there myself, but a friend, Rousseau Kluever, was there to represent me. He did a great job and I am very thankful for his contribution. The picture was taken at the auction where Rousseau hands over the painting to its new owner, Lisa Bigelow. I am so glad that my painting has found a new and very appropriate home!

As we all know, our elephants and rhinos are at the brink of extinction and we all need to contribute in some way to save them. You can contact the following institutions if you feel you want to contribute financially or in any other way.

The International Elephant Foundation

The International Rhino Foundation

Pittsburgh Zoo

Columbus Zoo

Kaleidoscope of Colour Art Exhibition

It is almost time for our annual Kaleidoscope of 

Colour Art Exhibition. 

This is one exhibition which you definitely do not want to miss. There will be a collection of more than 50 oil paintings by various very talented artists. There will some large paintings as well as smaller pieces - something for everyone. We will once again have a "Lucky Draw" painting. To stand a chance to win this painting you must attend the exhibition.

We will also have a Raffle where one painting can be won by anyone who buys a ticket - this is open to all even if you cannot be here on the day.This is a huge opportunity to get an original MS du Toit painting for just R50! Pictures of the two give-away-paintings will posted later this month.
This year we will also exhibit a few mosaic artworks by the very talented Dalene Smit and some pottery work by the talented Michael Horn.

Make sure that you keep this date open and please bring all your friends and family.
Here is the invite which you welcome to distribute.

SPI National Portrait Award Results

Last Friday evening I opened my emails to discover that the results of the SPI National Portrait Award were send to me.

I scanned through the 40 names of the people whose paintings were chosen for exhibition, but I didn't see my name. Then I read it through word for word, because maybe I missed my name - no luck! Just to make sure, I went through the names two more times, still no luck!

Then I had to talk to myself. I told myself, just remember you were one of over 1200 people who entered. And remember some of those people are already well established artists. And remember, you were probably no 41. And on and on I went.

Yes I was very disappointed, but I know my day will come. The winner of the R100 000 will be announced tonight. Obviously I will not be there, which is a good thing, my clothes are not fitting well after this cold winter!

Tomorrow I will visit Rust-en-Vrede Gallery to have a look at the 40 chosen ones.

I am posting my three paintings here. I would love your comments. Remember I did the last painting because I know many times the judges like to choose some weird stuff.

My first painting is of Susan, the woman who cleans my house every week. The second is of a fisherman in Velddrift. It is from a photo my sister took of him when we were on holiday there.

I am planning to give these paintings to Susan and the fisherman. I will tell you one thing, I cannot wait to see the man's smile when he receives the painting. That will be a greater reward than the R100 000 (although that would have come in very handy!). But to bring happiness to someone's heart brings in much better blessings at the end.

That can only happen in October, when I can collect my paintings from the gallery. I will do another post about that later.

Remember, although I am not winner of the competition, I can still do portrait on commission, and now luckily for you I am not going to increase my prices! So if you want to commission a portrait please visit my website:
Painted Canvas.

Who is the artist? MS du Toit

This is actually very interesting and something artists do not think about. The number 1 question any viewer of art will ask when they stand in front of a painting is: Who is the artist?

Even though they would not know anything about the person, they still want to know the name. Many people will buy a piece of art because they like it and it will look nice in their house. But many people will buy a piece of art because of the name - they might not even really like the art but they value the name.

The trick for any artist is therefore to increase the value of their name and thus increasing the value of their art. And that is no easy task. Some artists do it by creating a painting of a naked public figure and their names are immediately all over the news and on everybody's lips, but they might soon be forgotten again.

Others do it by creating one painting after the other, all looking the same, almost creating a fashion. But fashions come and go and you begin to wonder whether those artists can do anything else.

I do not know the answer, or whether there is a right or wrong, all I know is that I would like my own work to stand the test of time like that of names like Van Gogh and Renoir. And then maybe, one day, my name will also be known.

This painting is from a photo I took when visiting some family. I was so caught up with sun coming in though the window and brightening up the room and the beautiful colours that I knew that I just had paint it.

Remember to visit my website for more paintings to view: Painted Canvas

SPI National Portrait Award 2013

Two years ago I would never have dreamed that I would enter a portrait competition! I have always said to myself that is something I cannot do. 

Today I am so exited because I have just finished my 3rd portrait that I will enter for this year's Sanlam Private Investments Portrait Competition. Sometime next week I will go to Rust-en-Vrede Gallery to deliver my three portraits. Unfortunately I cannot post any pictures of it at this stage. All the portraits are going to be unsigned so the judges will have no idea who the artists are. I think that is awesome, it gives everybody an equal chance. So you will have to wait until the 27th of August. That is when they will announce the winner.

What I can tell you, is that the portrait I have finished today is something totally different from all my other work. I just love it!

The portrait that I post here is actually my very second portrait that I have done (I promise) and I think it is great, maybe just because it is my mother when she was young.

Hello Again,

It's been a long time I know and I must apologize. I have been busy with those elephants that must be send to the USA next week. I am donating this painting to the International Elephant Foundation and it is going to be auctioned at a fundraising dinner. The funds will go towards the conservation of African elephants.
The painting is 1.5 x 1.2m in size. That was quite something to paint, but Ienjoyed it very much and just hope that they will get a very good price for that.

August is portrait month. I am entering two portraits for the SPI National Portrait Award 2013 competition which is sponsored by Sanlam and VISI and held at the Rust en Vrede Gallery in Durbanville. I hope I win the R100 000 first prize!!! Hey, I must be optimistic! Unfortunately I may not show my paintings to you yet, but I promise I will show you soon. At this stage I can just say: I surprised myself!

Get Ready...
The next big thing in my life is our annual Caleidoscope of Colour Art Exhibition which will be held again in October. This is the place to on 19 October - don't be anywhere else. We will again be exhibiting various artists' work at very affordable prices. There will again be a Lucky Draw as well as a Raffle where you can win two of ...wait for it.... yes you guessed right, MY paintings. So keep coming back tothisblog for more information.

See you real soon!

Save the Rhino and Elephant

This is a small version of a huge painting I would like to make to donate towards saving our Rhino and Elephant from poaching. I am always heart-broken when I see on the news that another rhino has been slaughtered  for it's horn. If you also feel like me, please share this on Facebook and other social media and please also donate towards these worthy causes.

Important Notice:

I have once again updated my website Painted Canvas. Please make sure to visit and thank you for your support.

The Colour White

Colour is a very interesting subject, a science by itself. To write about colour I will be busy for a very long time, so I am not going to even try to go into the physics of it. Most people do not even have to think about colour, except when they want to buy a car or what colour shoes to wear with their clothes.

But an artist has to think about colour all the time. We have to observe how objects reflects the nearby colours. We have to think about which colours are found in shadows, how colours change from sunny skies to overcast conditions. We have to think about how indoor lighting effects portraits or still life studies. Then we also have to figure which tube colours to mix to get the millions of colours we observe. It is difficult to be an artist!

We have to think about colour harmonies, colour contrasts, warm and cool colours, colour brightness, complimentary colours and how to apply it. You cannot use just one hue of red to paint an apple - it will look flat. There must be a highlight and shadows. For the highlight of a red apple you do not use pure white, also not white added to red (pink). You must add a touch of green, the compliment of red, to white. The same goes for the shadow, you use green in the shadow area. That is one way to make the colours sing. They compliment each other.

So how do you paint a white object, like white roses, in a white object on a white cloth against a white background? By adding touches of colour to create highlights and shadows. In this painting there is not one spot of pure white, and if you look closely you will see lots and lots of colour!

Please also note that I have updated my website again. You will find this and other new paintings on my website.
Click here to go to Painted Canvas, the website.

Life of a Cape Town Artist

Living in Cape Town is a very great priviledge for any artist. Here we are surrounded by all the best life can offer you. There are the beaches, sometimes deserted due to weather conditions, sometimes the most colourful display of people, umbrellas and all that goes with a summer holiday. Then we have the mountains, the vineyards with their awesome autumn colours. The old Cape Dutch houses, the colourful houses of the Bo-Kaap and the townships all make wonderful subjects for painting.

I love to go out over weekends and drive around and take pictures of possible paintings. It is not always practical to take all the painting material but I do take a sketch pad to draw pictures and compositions as I go along. There is just SO much beauty around us here in Cape Town, if the old masters only knew!

This is a painting inspired by a deserted beach on a cold day!

Make sure to visit my website: Painted Canvas. There you will find most of my paintings and at very reasonable prices. You can view my earlier works, my more recent works in various categories, little gems, and commissions. You will also find out how to commission a painting, be it a landscape, still life or portrait of your dear dog, cat or mother-in-law!

Enjoy!

A Red Rose for You

Okay, it is a bit late for Valentine's Day, but you can still buy this red rose for your loved one. I used some very dramatic colours for this little gem. I also made use of the complimentary characteristics of red and green. The green makes the red look even more red than it really is. There are a number of ways to use complimentary colours (those colours opposite each other on the colour wheel):

Here are a few ways to use complimentary colours:

1. Use a subdued compliment to make the other compliment stand out, as I have done here.
2. Use the compliment of a colour in its shadow area, for example use green in the shadow side of a red apple.
3. Use the compliment of a colour to grey down or soften the colour. Example add a little yellow to purple to make the purple less purple.
4. Use the compliment to create vibrancy or to make colours sing. Example: paint the blue sky over a orange ground layer and let the orange shine through. Just make sure the orange is already dry, else you will end up with a grey sky.


The Little Gems on my website are a great way to start investing in quality art. These small paintings are available for $100 or less. Have you ever seen how stunning a small painting looks in the right bulky frame?
You are also welcome to contact me if you want something specific in any size.
Please visit my website for more information.

Another commission finished etc

So much has happened since the beginning of this year, and it just feels as if we are on a roller coaster ride! I have finished this commissioned painting for one happy client. You can read more about this painting on my website. I have also chosen this painting to be the March Painting of the Month.
Max, Fly and Maggie

Furthermore I have and still are very busy with two portrait paintings which I want to enter for the SPI National Portrait Award 2013 competition. At this stage I feel I am too critical and I am really getting frustrated with myself. The competition is only in August and I have now decided to put these two paintings away until July and then  I can take a new and fresh look at it. Unfortunately I cannot show them here, not until after the competition.

So please visit my website! I will be adding two more Little Gems tomorrow.

Until next time!

Website updated

In the January edition of the SA Artist magazine there is a list of 10 things to do in 2013 regarding your painting career. I find that all of those 10 things mentioned are very important, although we sometimes tend to not even think about that. No 1 for instance is to tidy up the studio - throwing away old twisted and empty paint tubes. I will try to go through the whole list!

Yesterday I did number 7 on the list: Spring clean your website. I didn't change the look, but I reorganised my paintings, added a category for commissioned paintings, linked to my fellow artists' webpages and uploaded new paintings.

Paintings reorganised
In each category you will now first find the available paintings and then the sold paintings lower down on the page.

Commissioned paintings
There you will find out how to commission a painting and also see paintings of satisfied clients.

Linked to fellow artists
Under links you can click on the names of my fellow artists to go to their webpages
Anton Betz
Adele van Andel
Simonette van Oudtshoorn
Christelle Coetzee

The paintings that were on our exhibition are longer on exhibition pages, but incorporated in the various categories.
There is also a new painting of the month.

Please visit the website Painted Canvas  and do feel free to give comments and ideas. It will be appreciated.

A Nice Surprise!

Sometimes, no most often, we as humans plan our days ahead, and we are actually taught by the wise people that we should do it. And quite often our days pan out exactly as we have planned, or more or less at least. But then, in my life, even more often, it does not work that way, not that there is anything wrong with my planning, or the execution of my plans. Sometimes things just happen that we cannot see coming, like the day my dog died. That morning when I woke up I had all kinds of plans, but it all changed the moment I realised she was sick, and I took her to the vet. And later that afternoon she was just gone, but that's a story for a different blog.

This morning I also had my day planned out. Most of the day went according to plan, but I got this nice surprise: About September last year I entered a competition with one of my paintings. The winning painting would have been used for the cover of the December edition of the South African Artist Magazine. I didn't win. But this morning a friend e-mailed me to congratulate me on my great achievement.

In the Jan/Feb edition they gave the competition results of the winners and finalists. He said I was amongst the finalists.

There my day changed - I went to the art shop to buy the magazine, and there it was, a picture of my painting and my name - printed in a real magazine. My painting was amongst the 21 finalists chosen out of about 1200 entries received. What a nice surprise! What  an awesome feeling! What is that other than the favour of God!

This evening also did not go according to plan. On my menu for dinner was ONLY stir fry veggies (still struggling to loose a few holiday pounds!). Rather, we decided to celebrate. We went to Ocean Basket, had a starter, main meal and dessert and bottle of JC le Roux sparkling wine. More favour - it cost only R100, because I had 2 R100 vouchers!

I have previously posted the picture of this painting, but here it is again:  

The Red Umbrella

Pet Portraits

Creating a likeness, whether it be of a person, a cat or a dog or any other pet animal, is not always easy. It is difficult enough to draw or paint an animal or human that is not known by the viewer, but to paint a portrait so that it actually looks like the specific person or animal is even more difficult. Not only do you want to let it look like the model, but you also need to portray the personality or character.

When you do a portrait painting it normally looks very "dead" for most part. You make it come alive when you start with the eyes. And the eyes of a person or animal, done right, tell about the personality. If you don't get the eyes right, it would look like the person's twin or a total other dog or cat. There are a whole lot of technicalities to remember when painting the eyes concerning proportions, highlights and shadows, which will make it easier to do the eyes if you follow those rules. Remember when you do eyes, it says that the eyes is the window to the soul. That is truly so. Once you put the highlights in the eyes, the portrait really comes alive.

I took this photo of a friend's dog, Bennie, two years ago.

And last year December I made this painting for her as a Christmas gift. I changed the background a bit to give it some colour. I think I was fortunate to capture the likeness and to create the eyes. But you be the judge - leave a message to let me know what you think. I can now see the one eye is a bit too small - too much white. I will have to fix that!!

If you are interested in a portrait of your own dog, you can visit my website and get into contact with me and I will send you a quote and other information.

Happy New Year!

The year 2013 is already eight days long, and I know I'm late with my New Year's wishes, but I was on a well deserved holiday and I enjoyed every single moment of it. So I really hope that you all enjoyed a blessed festive season, and I hope that you were all so privileged to have such a nice holiday as I had.

This is my dog Maggie also wishing you all a happy new year! Just look at her smile - she was so glad I took her along on holiday.

This is Maggie and her friends on the beach at Pearly Beach. We stayed at Klein Paradijs - truly heaven!

Our cottage at Klein Paradijs. If you want to take your dogs along on holiday - this is the place to go!!!

Before Christmas I finished these two commissions. Now I still have one more commission to do and then we start working towards our next exhibition which will probably take place some time in April. All the planning and painting still lies ahead, but I look forward to every moment. I will keep you posted.

My New Year's message to all is this:  

Keep the faith, persevere, press in, cease every moment, make the most of every opportunity and stay healthy.

God bless!