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!

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...

Here are two photographs taken relatively close to home. We had spent the day in the town of Hermanus, about one and half hours drive from Cape Town and were returning via the coastal route around False Bay. The sun was setting in an “angry” looking sky providing a wonderful and unusual view of the southern part of the Cape Peninsula in silhouette between the dark waters of the bay and the sunset painted sky.