The Art of It

Another day of painting in the harbour. This time we went after lunch and painted facing the boats. About 4.30 we then turned our easels around so that we were facing Chapmans peak drive and painted the sunset. I would say that this was the second most exciting "painting en plein air" I have experienced. The mist on Tafelberg still takes number one!

Oil on Canvas 76cm x 38cm

The last three weeks has been spent bending the brain! Margie, that was the most challenging painting I have ever done and I have learned so much. It was well worth the hours of work. The first step in the project was to paint a mono tone painting, anything we liked. I had already started to paint the centre when I remembered to photograph it. Then we had to divide the painting up into segments. Most people did squares. Yours truly decided to do circles which became slightly distorted as they went out, sort of like looking through a porthole. Then we had to paint each segment using just two colours plus white, matching values for the differing tones. Each segment was to be a different colour combination. If anyone has been to the Sixty Minute Artist lately you will know how he has been concentrating on tone and value. Very challenging and difficult to get right. I landed up repainting four of the circles as the colours where just too way out. Now to photo...

Hout Bay gets its name from the Afrikaans / Dutch word “hout” meaning wood. The Dutch colonists of 1652 needed large quantities of timber for building and other purposes, which was not available near their original settlement in Table Bay. They met their needs from an area around a bay between the southern end of Table Mountain and Constantiaberg. Hout Bay is now a suburb of the City of Cape Town with a population of over 42000 people, although many residents believe their village to be a separate entity they refer to as The Republic of Hout Bay. The last weekend in October we paid a visit to Hout Bay and spent several happy hours looking for photographs in the interesting and colourful fishing harbour. A few playful seals added interest to the visit. Bryan managed to capture this picture of one of them playing with a fish head. Bryan also took this lovely photograph of reflections. I have never taken photographs in a harbour setting before and was quite proud of this one. At about...