Today was a delicious day! Just perfect for moving pots around and getting the fountain running, planting some, digging some and simply just being in the present.
A few sketches done after digging and dressing the garden.
All sketches done in sketchbook 19x25cm, rotring artist pen, red pilot pen and wash.
The traditional Fête des plantes is held at the château de la Bourdaisière here in Montlouis every year over the Easter weekend. We went on Sunday, I dragged my head cold body along, since I wanted to do drawing and didn’t want to wait another year.. As I was sketching some scenes, a man approached me and asked if he could have a look at my work. We started talking, and he turned out to be from France 3 television. So, on Sunday night “moi” appeared briefly on France 3 in a reportage about the festival, showing me sketching along…. the short time my sketching was being filmed, the thing I was worried about most, was whether I had any stains on my sleeve!
All sketches in rotring pen(.35) and watercolour in sketchbook 19x25cm.
It started out a sunny day and because it is the first day of spring, the Loire felt appropriate. The tables on the pavements outside the restaurants and bars were all festively dressed in spring attire….with little knee blankets, and cushions, pots of springflowers.
A quick first sketch of the Loire in the moleskine with pen and a wash and then I thought my watercolours weren’t going to be too bad….
The same scene as the wash, in watercolour, sketchbook 19x 25. I’m not happy with either of the watercolours…just doesn’t look like the Loire! I have a lot of work to do in landscapes!
A different view. Watercolour in sketchbook, 19×25
On the restaurant terrace of Spier, wine estate outside Stellenbosch…..
“So what are you hanging around here for, Mrs duck? You belong on the beautiful lake out there, not here with the people, this isn’t your place…”
“Well, I’m fed here, all kinds of goodies and I like it, so why not? You enjoy it out here on the terrace with your cheesecake, why can’t I…. and don’t be so selfish with it by the way, share some! See the German tourists over there? No selfishness at that table!”
“No, you can’t have cheesecake. I’m a human, this is what we humans do. You’re an animal, a duck, you don’t eat cheesecake and you don’t belong on a terrace. And by the way, where are your ducklings?”
“Oh, smarten up! We’re not in the Middle Ages any more! And my ducklings are fine, they’re in good hands. They’re with the nanny. I need my own space too, you know!”
At Dassiesfontein roadstall, in the Cape Overberg…
“Oeehh! Fancy tools you have there! I hope you know how to use it? I’m so tired of all these tourists showing up here, wanting to take my picture with their little phones and their little instamatics , clicking away with one hand and waving the other at me, like I’m some kind of dumn ass….and then they expect me to come closer and pose and smi…..wowieee, what’s that? A carrot!! OK, here you have it, Sweetie, my good side just for you! Wanna smile too? Happy? Now, about that carrot…??”
On the farm at Vredenheim wine estate, outside Stellenbosch….
“Hellooo there…! Haven’t I seen you here before? Aha, now I remember, you were here last year. Actually, you’re here every year! Don’t you have a home? Mmm…, come to think of it, you bring back bad memories. You were standing here last year, watching as they took away my baby and you just did nothing! Now you’re expecting me to be welcoming? Well, inshort, you’re disturbing me right now! As you can see, it’s lunchtime around here. So, make an appointment for later, I’ll consider seeing you then…”
In the large living room of Vredenheim’s farmhouse….
“These humans can really eat! And just look at them!! Gmf…you would never see a fat gemsbok!”
“Yeah, unfortunately we can only watch from up here now, we’ve had our chips, should’ve stayed with the pack that day! ”
” Well, I don’t complain too much. I have a nice spot on the wall and since my horns are spectacular, I’m constantly admired. And I deserve it too, I’ve worked very hard keeping these horns in tip-top shape!”
“Aargh, shut up! Just because you’re the famous kudu doesn’t mean you’re better than us!”
“Oh, don’t mind him. He’s just arrogant, so typical of the youth today…! I may only be an ugly old wildebeest, but boy, when we’re on a stampede, there’s no stopping us! We’re famous for it in the Serengeti! Ohh, how I remember those carefree years…..sigh!”
Sketches done on site in pen or pencil and watercolour added later, sketchbook 19x25cm.
….to be continued.
a Taste of life by the sea; boats of course, some abalone; more precious than diamonds, a view on mountains in the distance, sipping something cool and indulging in freshly caught calamari…thoughts and emotions haphazardly all on one page.
How can one grow old spiritually when having the sea as company every day? I know of men and women who lived by the sea, off the sea and they saw ninety years, a hundred years and still counting. They have lived by the rythm of the moons, the directions of the winds, they took what was offered by the tides and accepted the moods of the skies. Like Proust says: “We don’t receive wisdom, we have to discover it after journeys taken”…so doesn’t wisdom only arrive after we’ve gone through some struggling? Don’t we grow after we have suffered some? When looking at life by the sea, in the sea, we’ll see evidence of that. I see it regularly just looking at La Loire outside my window; the birds who nest hopefully and optimistically on the islands in the Loire, just to have it all flooded away few days later. Yet, they come again and again with their hope and optimism. Nature teaches us by example. I wonder if we’ll ever learn from it, seeing how we eat imported foods and sigh heavily when it’s not available, jump in our cars to drive 5 minutes for a DVD, complain about trivialities….A life lived in harmony with nature may not be a luxurious one, but it is certainly an enriching and fulfilling one.
Sketches done in sketchbook on site (except for a few shells), 19x25cm, with pencil, pen and watercolours.
A working vessel, Lorelei, in the harbour of Hermanus…
A lobster boat, Western Debbie, with its nests of catching nets and ropes, in the harbour of Gordon’s bay…
and sea life…in a rainbow of colours and dazzling shapes….
How then, can one grow old by the sea…?
….to be continued.
Being in slow motion and double speed at the same time is simply tough. My body is with me back here in France, at home, and moving at double time, inspired to get things done and make changes and take on projects, looking good after being sunkissed and feeling good after all the eating?? and yet, it still remains familiar in the mirror. My spirit is still roaming somewhere in the southern hemisphere, not willing to let go of the long summer days, the lingering evenings, the dew filled mornings, the sound of breaking waves, the call of the cows to their calves, the unquiet silence of breathings in the bush. Not that it is bad being home. It is just getting mind and body to function as one again. In the present. Remembering yesterday, but living today.
The Cape is home to an estimated 7000 species of Cape fynbos of which I only know a handful. The sketches below are not even a glimpse of what there is….life got to too much fun and stopping for a sketch got to too hard – too many friends, too much to do, too little time to sketch. The few sketches that I did manage to get my hand on, were all done in my sketchbook, 19x25cm, with pen and watercolor.
The oak tree is not indigenous, but is synonym with Stellenbosch where they tower in all their majesty and grace. When we lived there years ago, I would frequently walk to town to do my shopping and would bring home an acorn every time. When we left for the UK, I sadly had to let go of many years’ collection of acorns… And of course the Aloe, well known for its health properties.
The protea, our national flower and one of my alltime favorite flowers/shrubs and the graceful Agapanthus, plentiful in every garden.
And then there is the widespread Felicias growing on the coasts, with their small blue flowers, succulents like Tertragonias with their thick glistening leaves, and hyobanches, tinted in deep reds and browns, the abundant Delosperma. And we had our own table by the shore among the flora on the sandshores, where we would sit with a coffee every morning, just taking in every thing that our eye could capture and where the view was never the same.
A view on a sunny day….
and a view on a rainy day. Pencil, black and grey watercolor wash.
….to be contiuned.
Africantapestry 
