Posted by mennie on 7:22 AM
Diamonds, like all other products, have been given to man to utilize and create jobs. If you are not into the romantic side of these blingy bits, consider that they are also very useful in industry because of their hardness and strength.
I found these lovely colourful diamond trawlers at Lambert's Bay, the best area for maritime diamond mining. This industry has only been commercially viable since the 1990's. Seabed crawlers can be remote controlled but mostly divers are needed. These divers, who can only work about six days per month because of our famous stormy waters, have to work in the cold of the Atlantic Ocean for up to 8 hours. When they spot diamond-bearing gravel on the seabed they direct the suction hoses towards it.
The gravel is then pumped onto sorting tables. When the boats return, the diamonds are taken ashore. What I loved about this scene was the hollow hoses floating on top the water, providing seating for hundreds of Cape Cormorants.
Posted by mennie on 4:45 AM
This is the first painting of a set of four works, of which I have shown the preparatory sketches in the previous post. Working at them I am conscious of the poverty of the area and the plight of those brave souls, the sustenance fishermen, who face the sea day by day.
My model shows two of the four crayfish he is allowed to catch for his daily quota during the crayfish season. It will be safer for the men to catch the monthly allowance in one single day, and not face the sea so often, but unfortunately such a system will be difficult to control. (Crayfish can become very scarce and must be protected.)
Crayfish holes are marked by experienced fishermen, who will put on diving suits and retrieve their quota. Older people and non-swimmers can catch theirs by netting from the quay that conveniently projects into the sea like it does at Yzerfontein. Everybody keeps a measure handy as undersized specimens must be returned to the sea immediately.
We usually buy crayfish in Velddrif when they are in season and available, so I decided to use the harbour at Velddrif as a background for the painting. New visitors can read more about crayfish on the West Coast in my post:
Crayfish Coast.
Posted by mennie on 9:05 AM
This is my hundredth post. I have not completed a painting as I am working on a commission and the sketches took some planning. One of them will be finished for the next blog. They are all about the people of the West Coast and what they do. I think I will call the set:Folks and Fish
I love art blogging! Art blogging is Tops! In no other way would one be so committed to paint year in, year out and that without a sense of rushing. (One or two exhibitions a year make up for the rushing part!) My nicest surprises as a new art blogger were when I featured on other art or travel blogs.
Posted by mennie on 1:49 AM
It's a long way to drive...and then: A tiny tea garden high in the mountains! The first pass was built in the nineteenth century, using only picks and shovels, around twenty men and some oxen. It has been inproved in the 1950's by Versveld, a local entrepeneur and eccentric. Today we are thirsty and interested in another local "eccentric", the owner of this very distant tea garden!
You reach it after quite a long drive to reach the summit. Then suddenly the bright yellow welcoming sign is there! A red hand painted arrow points upwards into a treed lane. After turning in, motorists are requested to hoot three times! Once you find the five or so tables under the trees, it is best to reach for your newspaper and wait. Suddenly Henny Visser is there, announcing slightly out of breath that her home sits lower down and she was tending the Sweet Potato Cake baking in the oven. With great care and speed she covers ALL the tables, not just one, with checkered cloths. A moment later three little blackboard menus hang suspended between two bluegum trees.
Soon we are enjoying a light lunch, fresh cakes and coffee, chat like old friends with Henny and admire the hills planted with lavender. We also hear of a beloved Afrikaans author, the late George Weideman who had often spent time there in
winter, writing by the small inside fireplace. On this lovely summer's day we can only wonder what winter would be like up here! On leaving we are loaded with aloe plants, applesauce and lavender oil from the farm, which are sold in the tiny shop on the premises.
Posted by mennie on 7:27 AM
This alcove was spotted in Piketberg, shaded by a Victorian corrigated iron roof. The large sash windows have frames encrusted with dark "heritage green" paint, which in South Africa usually indicates a National Monument or very old building. The chairs and blackboard menu invite the passersby to rest and eat. Outside is the sunny sky of Piketberg and the road from the mountain sloping by.....
Here are my New Year's wishes to you: there are steps to take, and roads to cross, an uphill climb, a downhill slide, new doors to enter and new windows to open. As we wait with bated breath to enter the New Year, may the choices be many and varied and exciting!
Posted by mennie on 1:53 AM
Nowadays, when I take a walk through the fynbos, I notice that the West Coast fairies have been very busy decorating their Christmas trees! We normally call this bush the tortoise berry shrub. In spring the strong thorny plants are covered in pretty pink flowers. And then, in December a wonderful berry pops out of each flower. It goes through so many colour changes, starting with light beige, soft green, yellow, followed by the purples until it reaches the final bright red colour. Look at my painting and the photographs and you can see how closely it resembles a beautifully decorated tree in miniature!
I never knew that there were West Coast fairies, but now there is a wonderful book: "Fynbos Fairies" by the poet Antjie Krog and illustrator Fiona Moody, and they have captured our fascinating ethnical community of fairies. The synopsis on loot.co.za reads: "There is a fairy living around each species of Cape Fynbos ----they work and play, they tend the fynbos or make a mess. They laugh, they sleep, they dream - life's busy for your average fynbos fairy in the veld."
The bright red tortoise berries are beloved by fairies, children, tortoises and birds who all love the thirst-quencing astringent tasting little morsels. Mmm, what a neat idea: the baubles on the West Coast fairies' tree are edible! The botanical name of the berry bush: Nylandtia spinosa. The book was published by Umuzi . ISBN 978-1-4152-0022-3
Posted by mennie on 11:21 PM
I can only present you with a preparatory sketch today! This type of sketch is what usually lies underneath my proper painting.
Like many small towns here and everywhere else, Piketberg started with a church building. Towering above everything else is this very impressive Dutch Reformed Church with splendid gardens all around and the mountain behind. It is already two centuries old and was designed and built in Neo-Gothic style by Carl Otto Hagen and has now been declared a National Monument. I took so many photos of the building and gardens and will send some of them to the Piketberg website. (I will leave the link in a comment below when I have done it.)
The days are getting busy here...I have almost finished the painting of a West Coast plant that I will post on Christmas day, but for the rest everything is suspended and my personal paints and brushes will be packed away as I "renting" out my studio to my 5-year-old twin granddaughters for their crafting and painting in exchange for lots of hugs!
Before leaving my blog, you might also like to read the 10 Questions I answered for Portfolio Collections, a wonderful domain who had won the South African Blog of the Year Award 2009. Click on my portrait in the right-hand column.
Posted by mennie on 10:42 AM
What more could a town ask for? Piketberg lies against a wonderful mountain and its streets are lined with enormous jakaranda and other types of trees! The mountain harbours two more towns on its opposite side, but long ago the Gonjemans tribe lived here, and many examples of San art can be found in the caves. Khoikhoi herdsmen also knew the place intimately and would hide russled cattle in the caves and valleys. It was decided in the 1670's to create a small military outpost known as a piquet (French) or picket (English), from there the Afrikaans name Piketberg.
A cannon placed on the mountain was used to warn surrounding farmers of trouble in the vicinity, or of ships arriving in Table Bay harbour to buy their products. It boomed happily when Queen Victoria had a birthday, and even more so when a telephone line was completed that linked the town with Cape Town. The cannon is filled up with concrete now, and kept in the schoolgrounds. You can just see the lovely old school at the end of the street.
Posted by mennie on 9:24 PM
On a lovely early summer's day I take a drive to admire the farmlands between Malmesbury and Piketberg. The popular crops are wheat, vines, our local herbal Rooibos tea and proteas. It seems on the road that I'm on that most farms have opted for wheat and vines. The result is so pleasing to the eye and one is met by alternating patches of gold and green.
The workers in my painting are pruning the neat rows of vines. We sometimes complain that wine is expensive, but should consider for a moment all the labour and cost that is involved. The cuttings are grafted, cultivated, treated and dusted and then planted in ploughed and fertilised furrows. Take into account the trellising and pruning, protection against pests and diseases, irrigation, picking, sorting, distilling! What a process! The workers are usually part of the large farm "family" and will have homes, salaries, schooling and medical attention..........is wine really that expensive?
Posted by mennie on 9:51 PM
I always find the best spots to paint at noon with the sun glaring down. The downside is that the contrasts are sharp. The advantage of this is that it provides me with an opportunity to study the features we need in our South African homes to provide shelter from the heat.
Driving along the highway to Malmesbury this cottage suddenly appearred 'in the middle of nowhere' near the main road. That it seems so solitary is an indication of the abundance of space we are used to in the West Coast region. The house was built in what we call Victorian style in our country, but whereas Victorians had to consider heating, architects here had to incorparate into their design our lenghthy summers and providing natural cooling. The most important feature these little homes had was the deep shady verandas. It kept the dining- and sitting room, which were always near the front, very cool and provided a lovely sheltered outside area to sit during the day. It provided symmetry and order to the design, and here the two large trees were used to provide a neat frame.
I noticed that the building now had a religious use, but my memories were stirred and I thought back to a time when a man would read his newspaper outside on the veranda while his wife sat there preparing vegetables. Besides a comfortable bench there would be an upright table which could be laid so that the family could enjoy their supper outside on hot summer nights. Yes, sitting down to dinner wherever you were, was a great South African tradition! How things have changed with the advent of television!
Posted by mennie on 7:19 AM
I spotted this building on a street corner in Malmesbury. This is one of the typical white Cape Dutch homes that is such a feast for the eye because of the clean symmetry. Of course this style originated in the Netherlands, but in a very different way and developed here over the years in our own gracefully unique style. In Dutch cities we can still see tall narrow buildings, several storeys high that are topped with gables. In South Africa with so much space available the building style transformed itself into spacious floor plans and usually a single storey. Because the rules of symmetry were followed, the homes were either long or in an H or a T shape.
The burghers had tiles for roofing at first, but those early tiles cracked in the harsh climate. Reeds was the best local material available and the roofs needed to be high-pitched to prevent water from settling on the roof and creating rot. Soon the white gables and high thatched roofs became characteristic of the Cape Dutch style. I mentioned in an earlier blog that the large gable also freed the front door from burning thatch blocking the entrance in the event of a fire.
High ceilings and thick walls lead to cool interiours. Flagstones that came over to the Cape as ships' ballast were used for the floors and sometimes highly polished. Windows are always higher than their width, and rhythmically placed.Today many of these homes are beautifully restored, authentically furnished and lived in or preserved as national monuments and museums.
Posted by mennie on 2:04 AM
I have sketched town halls and churches in Rotring pen, but painting the all-white very complicated Swartland Dutch Reformed Church building in its entirety was too ambitious a project, thus I offer one wing of the building! You can look at a photograph of this immensely beautiful church by searching the Malmesbury Historic Route on Google. This church was the flagship, center point and tallest structure before the grain silos started to dominate the townscape.
The style is neo-Gothic, also called Victorian Gothic which began in England in 1740. The Swartland church, one of the oldest in the country was built in 1745. In this style Gothic and Medieval forms are prefered above classical architecture. In Victorian times Classical was seen as liberal and modern, while Baroque was associated with conservatism, making it the perfect choice for seriously conservative churches.
I loved this wing of the church which created a cool quiet corner with the large tree still in its winter-skeleton mode. In my painting you can see one of those very cute Medieval-style concrete curiosities on the gable. They decorate the roof all round, each a different design, and some seem to carry bells or mirrors. I will do some more research, as Gaudi who loved Medieval ornamentation also used a lot of them in Barcelona in the early 20th century.
Posted by mennie on 12:43 AM
For all my friends in the States who are painting and displaying and eating pumpkin at this time of the year, I show a still life with everyday South African pumpkins.
You do not want to know what Spring has turned into as the rain pours down and the wind whips up the ocean outside my studio window!
While I am waiting to continue travelling the West Coast and paint a waving wheatfield, I refer back to my previous blog. I have used my own window and my own doll in the picture, and added a bowl of miniature American pumpkins which I photographed on my daughter's Thanksgiving table in 2000 in Texas. When I was there, I truly admired the lovely pumpkins displayed on lawns and window-sills all over American towns, some of them enormous, very orange, very round orbs!
Our pumpkins are very rough-looking, I hope you like them too!
A waving wheatfield coming up soon! (thinking positively about the weather!)
Posted by mennie on 6:26 AM
I have been housebound because of the weather. The plan was to paint a large canvas with a rich, waving sunny wheatfield which will continue the story of Malmesbury. But for the last 96 hours it has been raining and pouring. It started with storms of the worst kind when I often thought that the sea was entering the house. Now it is just an ongoing rain, the type that the fields and gardens surely need before the scorching summer arrives.
To keep the blog running, I decided to show you my painting, completed three weeks ago, for an Autunm theme competition that was launched in California, the home of Facebook, where of course, they celebrate the colours of Autumn at the moment. In honour of the contrast of seasons between the Northern hemisphere and the Cape, I photographed the painting in my Spring garden some weeks ago.
Hoping to paint the wheatfields soon!
Posted by mennie on 4:35 AM
The fairly large town of Malmesbury is a place where nobody really wants to spend any length of time, unless you know where to find some of its treasures. The town has three distinct faces: Firstly it is the Administrative capitol of our region, as it is where we go for passports, licences, etc. Secondly, it is dominated by enormous silos in the middle of town, as this place is truly the breadbasket of the country, surrounded by wheatfields as far as the eye can see. And thirdly it has significant historical value with some of the oldest buildings in the country.
Today, to represent the administrative side of Malmesbury, I have painted the imposing pillars and gateposts in front of the Swartland Municipality.
Posted by mennie on 8:31 AM
It does not matter how many times you turn off onto the lookout outside Riebeek Kasteel to look up to the solitary mountain or down into the vast valley, it is always a pensive moment. People and even kids do not talk, but just look and take it all in!
Against the mountain and into the fruitfull valley (to the right) the eye plays over vineyards, olive groves and beautiful export vegetables. If we visit the paved gift shop area which I showed into an earlier blog, all these products are there for tasting and for sale. I photographed some delightful vegetables there displayed in old enemal bowls far removed from polystyrene trays and plastic wrap. Riebeek Kasteel also has some new eateries with tongue-in-cheek names: "Auntie Pasti" and "Bar-bar-black-sheep"! So that is good, because we all love to lunch out in Riebeek Kasteel!
Posted by mennie on 4:08 AM
For quite a few blogspots I have been looking at eateries. But of course, Riebeek Kasteel is very much associated with good dining. Here at the Kasteelberg Inn, I am always impressed by the Frenchlike informality of checked table cloths and a few fresh flowers just plugged into little pots. And what makes it extra nice is the pristine white linen serviettes and some good glasses on the table, not only for wine but also for water. We have heard it whispered that a French cook was doing the cooking. The menu changes all the time, but I will not easily forget my first course consisting of a little trio of chilled soups!
We art bloggers are on a roll, and I meet new people through art blogging every day. Two main things motivate us all: to paint on a daily basis, fitting it in between the scores of things we have to do, and secondly, to always look out for new challenges. Maybe that will explain why I had to put the flowers behind the glass!
Posted by mennie on 5:25 AM
My painting of little Felix, the restaurant cat, was very popular and I had comments, Facebook comments, e-mails and phone calls about it. So, even though I am working on paintings about Riebeek Kasteel, I was prompted to paint another restaurant cat. This very quick oil sketch shows a tabletop scene at The Marmalade Cat, a popular Darling eatery where tourists, locals and especially the local artists hang out.
Before you think this little cat makes a habit of jumping on tables, I must explain something. My husband has that sympathetic aura about him, so that any animal who makes eye contact with him thinks: Mmmmmm, here I will get away with ANYTHING! (There, I told the World, and Darling, please take your dog off my white sofa!)
Posted by mennie on 10:10 AM
There's no such Cat in the metropolis; (oh well, make it 'village'). He holds all the patent monopolies. For performing surprising illusions. And creating eccentric confusions.
(From Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S.Eliot -Mr Mistoffelees)
No wonder there are great poems about cats! We found the surprisingly tiny Felix in the backyard of the restaurant, among planting tools, squeezed in behind some pots! It seems like his favourite resting place! I found the painting very plain against my usually cluttered works, but persued the topic nevertheless.
Cafe Felix is linked to Old Oak Manor House in Riebeek Kasteel. Do yoursself a favour and google this guest house. Restaurant and guest house owner Salome Gunter is one of South Africa's well-known interior designers. The bedrooms are truly fall-apart-in-my-backyard sumptious and a little cat like Felix is likely to get lost between those large puffy cotton-print pillows.
Posted by mennie on 4:26 AM
I suspect that all maps are copyrighted! So even though I am looking at an attractive little map of the West Coast region, I cannot post it here. I do have a longish canvas, though, and maybe I should just paint a map as well! The road in my painting is the road between Yzerfontein and Darling. We are still in the season of clouds, not quite winter anymore and not what we would call warm enough to venture out without something warm to wear. The windmill is a well known landmark as it is suddenly visible on the top of a blind rise, complete with its dam and awesome clumps of arum lilies.
In my next blog we will follow this road and beyond to visit the very picturesque Riebeeck Kasteel, where beauty abounds around every corner. It is connected with some very old South African history. I am going to do at least five paintings, and I expect having a difficult time choosing the images as there is so much to experience! You will love Riebeeck Kasteel!
