Diamonds on the West Coast

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.

Read more »

Folks and Fish # 2

From my studio I can see Kabeljoubank where the snoek hang out to dry with Table Mountain in the distance. If the motorists racing past on the R27 will only spend 15 minutes to drive to this rocky outpost, they can observe a centuries old West Coast custom of drying salted fish in the open air and seabreeze.

My models are not the owners of the fish, but are helping to turn and guard them for a small daily fee. On my first visit two years ago they were timid in front of the camera and extremely shy of the easel and paints set-up. Now, for a small modelling fee, they hold out the snoek so I can observe the lovely pinks of the wet fish and the blue and turquoise colours when the sun reflects the oil in the fish.

The painting, I think, is my least favourite of the "Folks and Fish"set of four because of the bright sunlight and deep shadows. I much prefer the cloudy moods of the West Coast for my paintings. New readers can read more about snoek in two of my older posts: Snoek drying on the fence, and Smoorsnoek prepared in a country kitchen.

Read more »

Taking the Pass to the top of the Mountain

We drive right through pretty Piketberg to the Northern side where the 3-looped pass begins. One is almost immediately met by an amazing sight of hang-gliders making their slow and very colourful descent from the mountain, landing noiselessly on a soft green grassland.

For weeks over the holidays I have tried to visualise what it would be like up there. It is VAST! There are so many farms up there. Some have mansions and formal gardens. Others have small cottages peeking through the vegetation. I saw former homes in ruins left to crumble away. There are protea farms and citrus farms and some tiny lavender groves and neat vineyards! The natural vegetation consists of fynbos and various protea species. On these bushy uneven lands the San reigned long ago. They were quite agile and it was difficult to find stolen cattle back once they were in their hands....thus the cannon had to sound a warning in time when they were spotted about to attack the farms in the valley.

My painting shows the view towards the town from the top where there is a place to stop and gaze back. I painted those dams and farms, (the greenest patches are vineyards), then decided to place a mistyness over all the careful detail in the distance! By now I have often painted thinned white acrylics over my work, then rubbed it off fast, so there needed be no fear in doing this!

I include a photo of one of the many small citrus farms on top of the Piketberg (Mountain). How absolutely wonderful it must be to live and work far above the crowds! And now on towards the tea garden half an hour's drive into the mountain!

Read more »

Alone with the Mountain

I was so pleased that everyone loved Aurora! Many people fell in love with the town through my blog! It is romantic in a special way as each house has a solitary aura about it. Look at this cheeky cottage with the turquoise veranda: It looks as if it stands there alone with the mountain behind it, although it is on a street in town! There is a West Coast chimney on the outside which means there will be a cosy inglenook for cooking inside the kitchen!

Here is tiny Aurora's role in history: In 1751 the Abby de la Caille arrived from France to measure the earth's meridian. He did his triangular measurement from a barn near Aurora using Strand Street in Cape Town and the mountains of Riebeek West as his other points of reference. Ooopsy, despite his accuracy the earth was found to be mmm....slightly oval! Two centuries later it was found that the mistake could be blamed on the magnetic pull of the the nearby mountains.

Now I can also feel that magnetic pull! For the next painting you will find me taking the 3 -looped pass to visit the top of Piketberg Mountain!

Read more »