Back from a successful trip to The Cape
I have to admit that I have been back a while, but have been so busy since returning that I haven’t had time to write.
Michael and I had a wonderful leisurely 4 day trip to the Cape staying over with wonderful friends on the way down. Here is the view their home in Witsand, what a wonderful place to retire too! A beautiful small fishing village in the Cape.
We eventually arrived at our destination in the Cape – staying with a friend on The Ken Forrester Wine Estate – only 50 metres from the door to the wine tasting room! Which suited us both very well!!
The view from the courtyard was magnificent looking over the vineyards to the mountains beyond.
While Michael was busy at meetings, I took myself off to some of the art galleries in Cape Town and was accepted by one of the main galleries to showcase my Wildlife paintings! This made me very happy as you can imagine, as it is quite difficult to get into an Art Gallery these days.
We found a beautiful restaurant called Avontuur which provided a beautiful setting to have dinner overlooking the vineyards to celebrate!
As I probably won’t be communicating again before Christmas. I wish you all a very happy festive season.
From this to this
As I am off to Cape Town for a couple of weeks, I decided that instead of starting something new, I would change an old painting from something that didn’t really make me happy into something that cheered me up!
I painted it from a picture taken in our swimming pool. She was a friend of my daughter and they were doing an underwater photo shoot. I obviously changed the background, but somehow the painting made me feel a bit uneasy.
I decided to liven the background up. Here it is in stages.
Now here is the finished painting. I will see you when I return.
My Latest Painting in Stages
I have been using a lot of gold and copper foil in recent paintings as I am a huge fan of Klimt, I thought you might be interested in different stages of my latest painting.
I first covered the whole canvas – 1.2 metres by 90 cm in gold foil and then started to paint
I was not sure about the baby so asked my daughter what she thought – she looked at it for quite a long time and said it looked a bit like a cling-on! there was also too much pattern so I used a sponge with blue to dampen down the background. I also decided I didn’t like the pattern to the left of my lady, so recovered that part in gold foil again.
I decided a pot would look better and she agreed.
I glazed down the pot and all pots were decorated with authentic Zulu bead patterns. I then sent this photograph to my daughter and asked her if she thought my lady needed arms. She sent back an email saying that she hadn’t noticed until I had mentioned it – and now all she could see was that the pot was floating in the air! Arms and hands were definitely needed.
This is now the finished product and I hope you like it. These photographs were taken over a period of 6 weeks. Decorative art takes a long time. Talk again soon.
Family Portraits – difficult to please everybody!
After I had been painting a while, I decided to try my hand at a few family portraits. My Mom was still missing my Dad very much so I decided for Christmas I would paint him from an old photo in his Dutch Naval uniform dating back to about the time she first met him, when he was 23. I decided as the photo was in black and white I would paint him in Sepia colours.
She was thrilled with it – I had it framed in a lovely antique frame. He is still watching her from the wall at the end of her bed!
I then decided to paint my daughter – not so successful, this time. She was seriously unimpressed as I had painted her looking a little witchlike! It was my first try at painting something a bit more loose!
Then my son thought it was his turn to be immortalised! This was from a photo taken when he was on a filming safari 7 years ago.
My husband and son both love the African bush as do I, so I then decided it was my husband’s turn. He is always at his happiest when he is “out in Africa” so painted him in his “bush gear” and seriously sweat stained, battered old hat which he has had for about 30 years!
When my husband’s father passed away I painted a picture of his Dad for his Mom. He was such a happy man always telling jokes and the life and soul of any gathering.
I am slowly working my way through the family!
My old /new painting is coming along – but taking quite a bit of time – I will share how far I have got next time I write.
Bye for now.
How I went from a Square Cow to trying out Old Masters
Hi again,
I thought I would give you an insight of what came next after my first few lessons when I finished my cow. I was so proud of it and took it to the framers who very politely framed it with no comment!! I still have it as a memento of starting out on the best path of my life. Mark, my art teacher, asked me what I thought I would like to paint next. I said that, being of Dutch descent I thought I would like to copy a Vermeer! I felt that if I copied some Old Masters, I would be able to then paint something of my own after learning the right techniques. (When I make up my mind to do something, I really go for it in a BIG WAY! Mark seemed quite amused, but said OK. I brought along a copy of Girl with a Pearl earring, and he showed me how to mix the paints and I started! I asked if I could go for 2 lessons a week, and although he only taught on the one day, he could obviously see I was keen, and agreed. I also used to go home and paint everyday because he told me that you can’t be an artist on 1 or 2 lessons a week – it takes lots of practise. It took me about 6 lessons, and with the help of a truly great teacher and artist, here is the completed work
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I then decided to try another Vermeer (this one took a few more lessons as it was quite detailed)
Then I decided on an Albert Cuyp (another Dutch Artist) I just love cows, so I liked the fact that this one towered over the children!!
Then I found a lovely picture of some vegetables ( I can’t remember the name of that artist) and painted that.
Then a Stubbs
I had really found the love of my life, and a very patient and talented teacher – so then decided to start and paint my own paintings . Here are a couple of ones painted using my gardener and a friend of mine wrapped in sheets!!
African Eden was my take on Adam and Eve – I decided that it was definitely Adam who tempted Eve!!
Well must get on and paint – I am reworking an old painting which I didn’t like – so if it turns out OK, I will photograph it in stages and post them.
Bye for now
Starting my first Blog – a very nervous artist!
I am not quite sure how this works, computers are not at all my thing. My daughter has persuaded me to start a blog for my art. So here goes! Please bear with me while I work out how this works. I started painting just over eight years ago, not long after my father died. I had been told by a friend of mine that I was being boring! (She is still a good friend!!) She suggested that we went to art lessons together. We signed up with an art teacher here in Durban where we live, but unfortunately there were so many students that not much attention was paid to either myself, or my friend. We only lasted a few weeks, as the teacher fortunately decided to move premises and could not accommodate all her pupils at her new venue. We were left out in the cold. I decided that I needed to carry on with learning how to paint, so set out to find a new art teacher. Was I lucky! I found a small card in the window of our local art shop and decided to give this new art teacher a ring. He asked me to bring my painting with me. I arrived with my half finished square cow, which I had filched from the internet.
He was such a lovely man, and so kind, that I wasn’t too embarrassed with this childish piece of work. He only took 3 pupils at a time and was so attentive that I learned such a lot in that first lesson that I knew he was the teacher for me. Well that is all I have time for now, but will continue the saga at a later date. Goodbye!
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