Olives, please!

203mm x 254mm

Oil on canvas

R1250, framed

In the Riebeek Valley, against Kasteelberg, nestle the sister villages of Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek-West. Kloovenburg wine and olive farm is always my first stop on the left, before entering Riebeek Kasteel. The 300-year old farm has the biggest selection of olive products anywhere in South Africa. Bowls filled with the goodies to taste draw me like a magnet into the large cool cellar.


Among my favourite products are olives marinated in a blackberry infusion, pitted dried olives which swell out when used in pasta or can be nibbled dry as a snack, and the large old-fashioned tins of olive oil. The oil is only chosen after dipping many little hunks of bread into many bowls!


Here, I usually buy for home use as well as products to give away, as the packaging is beautiful. and the products superior. My painting shows the walkway towards the cellar door. O, yes there are very good wines under the Kloovenburg lable, and olive oil soaps too....expect to taste and shop for quite a while!

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You are welcome, very welcome!

The modern malls have entrances on many sides which defeat the purpose of architecture. First you search for parking in an infuriatingly complicated maze. You better remember that you have parked at R15 on the red coded floor with the fish enblem and not on the blue coded floor with the bird. Then of course there will be no entrance in sight, it might be one floor up in the lift and it may be called Gate 1,2,3, 8,9 or whatever.

So let us rather gather our senses and take the West Coast road. Turn inland into Darling and when you reach the stop street at the main road, cross right over into Long Street. At the end of Long, turn right, and there you will find a truly welcoming entrance. Like the buildings of the olden times which had porticos and lanes to entice the pilgrim towards the main theme!

This is Ormonde Wine Cellars, where you will love the beautiful buildings of the homestead, cellars and tasting room. I love the open gate and the foliage only just hiding the buildings. And is there anything more welcoming and happy than our breezily optimistic National flag? Of course, you just know that the wine produced here, will be wonderful!

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At Groote Post

If there is a screw missing, or brakes or whatever, do not fear! This one-horse-cart is going nowhere! The scariest part for an artist, was finding halfway through the painting that the wheels did not match and were not even of the same size!

Groote Post has had so much written about it, for instance that it used to be a central post for mail deliveries from Cape Town to Saldanha. Long before the running of ultra-marathons became an exact science, runners would run the 60 kilometers from Cape Town carrying the mail.

I am still painting scenes along that little dirt road to Darling and have at last reached this farm that is now a producer of the finest wines and a reserve for wild buck. A beautifully maintained Cape Dutch residence houses a restaurant of renown. I think I will be back to do more paintings!

The old cart is for display purposes and to show how wine vats used to be carried. With the horses in the background this little vignette heightens the sense of history. I dedicate this painting to a lovely wine with a nice old-sounding name: Groote Post The Old Man's Blend Red!

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