Little Girl

While we're on a roll, here's one inspired by my daughter.. I thought I'd colour this one in for a change..

Old Man

Ok, so I know it's been a while, but who's counting anyway? This one's for Jason Bronkhorst, who was the catalyst for something amazing happening to me. After nagging him endlessly, he was generous enough to give me an inkwell, and pen with various tips to start experimenting with. The results was something astounding... soon I was drawing semi-convincing figures for the first time... something that's always intimidated me; plus I discovered a whole new aesthetic to drawing I never thought I'd be able to reach..

It's as if the pen forced me to think about every stroke I made, and it shows ...
So thanks Jason... appreciate the interest and encouragement...



an old man that just came to me out of nowhere...




Some bathing ladies.. also.. out of nowhere



I really dig the postal stamps




Quote by John Lennon : "It is knowing, it is not dreaming.. of the beginning"

Open letter to Theresa-Anne Mackintosh

Dear Theresa-Anne,

I was paging through a catalogue / booklet of your solo exhibition held in 2004, and realized again how brilliant and still so relevant your work is. As you may remember, I added your site under my links section a while ago. So this morning , when I clicked on the link, disaster struck. To start of with I spelt your name wrong, which you initially so kindly pointed out to me, and to add injury to insult, I discovered that the link itself was incorrect and actually went to the Apple home page. SO - Apologies Theresa-Anne, for totally screwing that one up; and thanks once again for the inspiration.

Sincerely
Marcel Rossouw

NOW GO LOOK AT HER WORK : CLICK HERE

Chalk and cheese

The amazing , and simultaneously dangerous thing about chalkboards is that you could carry on until 2 in the morning (or until your chalk runs out) , forever drawing , correcting, drawing ( and if you have a camera, the added element of documentation - very important of course)

side show signage

I've been going on about Coney Island and the crazy tales of what all happened there in the 20's and 30's , especially the side shows with freaks on parade, like the bearded lady, the sword swallowers, the mermaids, stuffed unicorns and all sorts of freakish oddities all on show for a nickel ( Coney Island used to be affectionately referred to as Nickel world, the train to Coney Island and every joyride , sideshow or other fantastic attraction being priced at a nickel).

But I suppose from a visual artist's point of view , the craft and sheer magical imagery of the posters and signage was something with a hypnotic appeal all of it's own. While in my own little sideshow daze, jumping from link to link online, I came across a modern illustrator , taking his cue from that era. His name is Joe Coleman, and here's his link. I'm sure there's more authentic examples out there, but this is merely a start.

While we're at it, some carny / side show lingo

retro romantic metaphysical line drawings for the childlike and generally bemused

Some cat girls dancing, a dog riding a bike...whatever

Some flowers

Ok, ok , so I know it's really cheesy, but I thought I'd post this in time for Valentiines Day. Did it a few years ago . Click here to download the EXE