The Art of It

I have never liked still life and it was a bit of a battle to get to grips with painting it, but it helps if you really love what you are painting. My boots were like that, and now this old kettle just took my fancy. I call this "Kitchen Art" A row of these could look really great in a kitchen.

SOLD to a truly lovely lady shortly after the opening of the exhibition. For me a new journey has begun. Such mixed emotions in seeing your first painting sell.

The South African Society of Artists is holding their 2008 Members' Exhibition at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The exhibition will be open from 9.30 to 17.30 daily from the 7th June until Sunday 15 June.

This is another of Bryan's photographs taken on Noordhoek beach. The mood of the beach changes so much from day to day that there are often opportunities for new pictures. This one was taken on the same day as the pictures of the surfers in our earlier post.

Looking to go somewhere new on a recent public holiday we paid a visit to Imhoff Farm and the Blue Water Café. The farm is part of a gift of land made to widow, Christina Rousseau by Baron van Imhoff for her efforts in supplying produce to ships of the Dutch East India Company anchored in Simon’s Bay in the mid-1700’s. The area became known as 'Imhoff’s Gift' and includes the land on which the settlements of Imhoff's Gift, Ocean View and Kommetjie now lie. Today Imhoff Farm has been converted into a commercial centre at which a number of local artists and craftsmen sell their wares. There are shops selling homemade breads and cheese, preserves and pickles and similar farm food products. Activities include pony, horse and camel rides for little kids and big kids and a snake park, which we didn’t visit. The Blue Water Café is a family friendly, relaxed and very casual restaurant. There is an indoor area, a veranda overlooking the Noordehoek Valley and rough ...

SOLD Slangkop lighthouse is the tallest iron tower on the South African Coast and sits at the one end of Kommetjie. It measures 100 feet from base to the balcony and has been operational since 1919. Every lighthouse has a different frequency of flashes and this one emits four flashes every 30 seconds as it turns and can be seen for 33 sea miles. Here is an oil painting of the lighthouse from a photograph Bryan took. I would like to do a watercolour of it sometime soon.