Category Archives: Animals

AFRICA

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Cape Town, Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park were the three destinations for our African workshop with Travelrite. We were kept busy with painting, sketching, site seeing, game drives and river cruises. The wildlife was fantastic and the villages and cities picturesque and interesting. We had a wonderful group and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

In Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, every house is painted a different color

Bo-Kaap is also the home of some beautifully decaying old cars with rusting patinas, makeshift repairs, flat tyres and no rego.

Down along the waterfront is a hive of activity. Ship yards fishing boats, cargo ships and tourism all spread out along the waterfront.

Painting above the Haute Cabriere vinyard, Franschhoek

Haute Cabriere cellars

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Spectacular Victoria Falls from Helicopter

From the ground the falls are huge, impressive and very wet

Raincoats on a sunny day

From Victoria Falls we moved on to Botswana and Chobe National Park. We saw a great variety of birds and animals on two afternoon game drives and a chilly 6am drive, plus a boat trip down the Chobe River late in the afternoon.

Elephant sketch

Cape Buffalo

Black Backed Jackal

Male Kudu

Young lion – mum was sound asleep a couple of meters away

Zebras

We came across this pack of African Wild Dogs beside the road very early one morning

Cheetah – slowly through the grass

Red Billed Hornbill

Pied Kingfisher

Red Billed Oxpecker – on the back of an Impala

Lilac Breasted Roller

African Skimmer

Carmine Bee Eater

Carmine Bee Eaters

Hippos in the Chobe River

Happy looking Crocodile

We stayed right on the river at the Cresta Mowana Resort

Impalas are common throughout the National Park.

We were sad to be leaving Africa and saying farewell to our great group of painters and fellow travellers. Lots of places still unseen, so we will definitely be back.

AFRICAN ELEPHANT DEMO

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A quick watercolor demonstration, painting an African elephant with just 3 colors, some charcoal and gesso.

Join me for a fantastic painting workshop in Africa, May 2005 – Still some places left

https://www.paintingworkshops.net/lovett-africa-may-2025.php

MOROCCO

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A short five day stay in Marrakesh between workshops was a lot of hectic fun. The city is a labyrinth of busy, narrow alley ways lined with merchants trying hard to sell stuff. The bicycles, donkey carts and pedestrians all seem lost and in a hurry.

Everything stationary eventually acquires the red/brown color of the desert which makes the colorful products of the merchants appear brighter and more saturated. It is a fantastic looking city with spectacular sunsets and sunrises.

We hired a driver to take us up into the Atlas Mountains to see some of the small villages. The driver was recommended by the people running the riad we stayed in. He was great – he knew what we wanted to see and avoided the tourist places where everyone wants to sell you something or sit you on a camel.

Morocco is still suffering after the earthquake that struck the country a year ago. Many buildings were destroyed or damaged and rebuilding is still going on in Marrakesh and in some of the small villages up in the Atlas Mountains. Concrete block is replacing the traditional mud and terracotta brick, but they are rendered and painted the earth color of the original materials so the repairs are not too obvious.

I would love to visit some of the small villages on the flat country around Marrakech but five days is just not long enough!

PAINT AFRICA

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Join me in May 2025 for a fabulous painting, sketching and sight seeing journey through Africa.  

Be inspired by the animals in Chobe National Park, the architecture of South Africa and the splendour of Victoria Falls

Click Here For Details



Click Here For Details

TASMANIA

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What a lot of fun, six weeks of workshops and travel in Tasmania. We had two workshops in Hobart and one traveling from Launceston to Smithton then on to Strahan and finally back to Hobart. We were spoilt with fabulous food, great accommodation, wonderful company and a coach to take us to the numerous painting locations.

We had some great painting locations and also did a lot of sketches.

While in Hobart we traveled down to the village of Franklin – Famous for it’s wooden boats

Beautifully built from Huon Pine

Life on the river

Late afternoon light was amazing.

The old boathouse where wooden boats are built and repaired.

Parked carefully in a shed, this old Suzuki still has a lot of life in it yet.

I cant resist photographing houses painted this crazy green

Strahan Evening

Strahan early in the morning

Hells Gate lighthouse

There are some fantastic old wooden boat sheds, apple sheds and huts south of Hobart – some in better condition than others.

After the workshop Dianne and I drove down to Cockle Creek, the southern tip of Tasmania. Great camping spots, beautiful beaches and inlets.

We were lucky to see this Spotted Quoll out foraging

Great birdlife too.

Tasmania is a great place to travel. It is small and easy to get around, it has a huge variety of attractions. We travelled from the cold dramatic Western Tiers and Highland Lakes down to the sunny comfort of the coast in a couple of hours. The forests of the extreme south are unspoilt and beautiful. Tasmania’s history is dramatic and well preserved, and the state has some of the best food, wine and beer in Australia.

Well worth a visit.

WEST TO WINTON

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A workshop in Blackall and another spread between Longreach and Winton saw us load up the truck and head off to central Queensland for six weeks. The country was incredibly green after all the rain and flooding. Many roads were still closed and venturing off the bitumen was a slippery, muddy exercise.

© John Lovett

Silos on the road to Roma

© John Lovett

This old pub at Wallumbilla looks less than inviting soaked in rain and surrounded by mud, but the local graziers couldn’t be happier.

© John Lovett

Retirement green confusion – Morvan.

© John Lovett

Early morning – Morven waterhole

© John Lovett

Disused railway crane – Morven

© John Lovett

Camping out of Tambo was a little tricky – where there wasn’t grass there was thick, sticky mud.

© John Lovett

Sunrise through a layer of fog, Tambo

© John Lovett

Union Hotel Blackall – still sells cold beer, but not much else

© John Lovett

The weekly cattle sale in Blackall saw some fat’ healthy cattle, happy sellers and not so happy re-stockers.

© John Lovett

Lisa and Bruce, from one of the big sheep stations out of Blackall, invited us out to see the end of the shearing.

© John Lovett

These guys work flat out, fired up by loud, fast music, high demand and and a competitive attitude.

© John Lovett

Shearing their way through several thousand sheep is hard, back breaking work.

© John Lovett

Ancient Technology from the Isisford Picture Theatre.

Drowned caravans camped in the Barcoo River, Isisford. Ignore the locals at your peril.

© John Lovett
© John Lovett

An empty paddock next to the old Langenbaker House in Ilfracombe made a great place to paint

© John Lovett
© John Lovett

DC3 at the Qantas Museum Longreach

© John Lovett

Retired Catalina at the Qantas Museum

© John Lovett

Before the workshop in Winton, Dianne and I went out to the clay pans at Bladensburg to find a painting location

© John Lovett

Willy Mar’s old market garden store, Winton

©John Lovett

We painted Willy Mar’s old truck (now up on blocks next to his old market garden and store.

We spent a morning in the old Bladensburg woolshed painting the ancient wool press.

This was the demonstration painting I did. (Couldn’t help using Phthalo Green!)

©John Lovett

Looking west towards Winton – an unusual sea of lush, green grass

At the Winton Dinosaur Centre, volunteers work tirelessly separating rock from fossil to reconstruct the skeletons of dinosaurs.

©John Lovett

After the Winton workshop Dianne and I headed back out to Bladensburg to camp and watch the sun go down.

©John Lovett

Heading east, we found this lake with amazing sunsets and fantastic birdlife.

©John Lovett

Our camp, just visible from the top of a nearby hill

©John Lovett

Sunset one side, full moon the other.

©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett

UP TO THE HIGH COUNTRY

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After the Flinders Ranges Workshop we returned to Adelaide, picked up our truck from storage and headed south to Robe, a small fishing village. After two weeks of perfect weather for the workshop, we drove south into howling wind and rain.

The coastline around Robe is rugged and isolated. We had a couple of days in Robe then turned east to follow the Great Ocean Road along the Victorian coast. By now the rain had eased but the wind was still howling in from Antarctica – Chilly, but spectacular.

We caught up with our kids in Melbourne for a few days then headed up to the Snowy Mountains

Always a great place to camp along the Swampy Plains River at Geehi. We were surprised at the number of rabbits (and foxes) – the calicivirus seems to have no effect here.

From Geehi we drove up over the mountains, Past Thredbo and on to the Murrumbidgee River on the Long Plain Road. We often camp here when we are in the High Country, but were amazed to find the area coated thickly in white next morning. Spectacular, but freezing cold!

A fisherman dropped in around 9am on his way to Tantangra Dam. He said the temperature readout in his Landcruiser was saying -5, so I dont know what it got down to overnight. Our water pipes were frozen, the hot water heater had frozen and burst and, in spite of filling with what we thought was winter diesel, couldn’t start the truck till after 10am.

Leaving the snowy, we drove up to the Warrumbungle Mountains to spend a couple of days. This time of year encountering snakes is unusual but this big Red Bellied Black snake decided to cross the path right in front of us. We left him to crawl off into the bush.