Uitkyk stroompie

The night before we hiked up to Spout Cave last weekend we spent the night at Uitkyk cottage with friends.  It was Jacqui’s birthday the next day and I had time to sit at the stream below the house and paint this water colour, just before it became to dark (and cold).  So this is her birthday gift.  I forgot to take a photo of the watercolour and have only just managed to get that done – which is why it is a little dated  here.

It was great sitting on the edge of the stream hearing the water splash down the rocks and watching the colours change.  As I sat down the last ray of sunshine shone out through a crack in the crags in the background.

A new site

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Visit my gallery

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SJQ Watercolour

This is the site I launched at my exhibition at the end of 2009

Quite how the two sites will interrelate is still under consideration

bridge on the Olifants river

So my short adventure drew to an end.  On the way back I was keen to stop in at Clanwilliam for coffee and a snack but chose instead to gone on further to the Algeria road to have a dip in the Olifants river.  The water was lovely and cool and I sat on a sand bank and painted this watercolour of bridge:

I was keen to get the water right which I think I have improved on.  The shapes in the river bank were MUCH more interesting than I have shown.  This is a kind of cross composition.  Definitely one for the studio.

And then it was on through the Swartland to home.

While I stayed with Basie and Annette we watched a discussion about poetry between Andre P Brink and Breyten Breytenbach, two giants of Afrikaans literature.  Andre Brink spoke with such heart about his love for poetry.  It was awe inspiring in a gentle ordinary kind of way.   I had been looking at the mountains all the through the Olifants valley and stopping to take photos.  And when I returned, on the road between Stellenbosch and Somerset West I was struck by the great beauty of our little corner of the Boland.    And I thought of the words of TS Elliot from “Little Gidding” :

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

spout nek on a snowy morning

The morning dawned bright and clear with a fresh easterly wind.  After a cup of rooibos and as many of the dead-weight rusks as I could manage I got up and carefully clambered over the rocks to the neck looking to the east over the Tanqua Karoo.  There was a thick cloud over the Eastern Horizon and the wind was icy.   I was not kitted out to sit painting so I took some photos and made my way back to the cave.  On the way back the sun rose.  I always look out for the bands of yellow, pink and blue at the edge of the day as they decend to Western horizon as the sun rises.  As the pink hits the peaks they light up red for a few short seconds then it is day.

In this watercolour I have tried to capture this colourful glow.  I noticed that the snow on the south facing mounds turned a light pink and on the the northern faces turned  light blue.  Very subtle and beautiful.  Some of the hardy heathers were poking out of the snow.  So here it is:

This was painted on a half sheet of Arches 300g Cold Press (380 x 560 mm).

another version of a night in spout cave

mmmm – This is still not what I want.  Painting a glow in water colour is not that easy.  But a step further away is also a step closer so  here it is and I am going to sleep on it.

The route in is a bit obvious and the middle ground rock is still monolithic – I must try this again.

a night in Spout Cave

I have been wanting to try this for a while now, having seen the banner on Keith’s blog.  Last night I went to look and found he had put the whole painting on which I found breath-taking.  Sorry about the oohs and aaahs Keith but it was inspiring.

Here is my first wash:

And here is how it looks now:

This is showing promise and I may fiddle a bit more to work out how I will do the next version.  I am sure I can get further with the first wash.  The colours made such lekker patterns in the paper.

It is good to see it here – man this looks dramatic – though not quite what I am aiming for.  The dark at the top is supposed to be a cliff face with patches of snow and there are rocks in front of the cave with a snow-bank in the foreground.  There are grassy plants sticking out of the snow which I could do better.  But the glow works hey?  I have used a warm yellow and purple (from the other side of the colour wheel and Windsor blue with a green shade which should be opposite the warmer yellow and I added some cadmium red to the blue to create darks.  I am going to read a bit more of Jeanne Dobie on darks and glow.

OK – here is how it looks now – I think this is pretty much it for this version.  I have put in some hikers and more darks.  I had a look at Keith’s flowers and I see he is not scared to pour on the darks.

Any input on how I could do it better would be appreciated here.  The snow-slope in the foreground is irredemable I think – or at least I don’t have the energy to fiddle with it any longer – that clump of grass is rather pathetic – the rest is OK for me:L

final update on a watercolour of the shale band in the cedarberg

Here is the final version – I was keen to put in the  texture of the foreground and link the crest of the rise to the distant moutains – anything more I fear will be fiddling.

click to see the big view – I am not sure if this is such a good idea – it may be too large for download time – please let me know.  Thanks hey

another watercolour of the shaleband

Well here we go – I think the rocky area in the middle distance reads better.   This is where the plateau of the shale band falls away, down various krantzes and kloofs to the valley below.  I am still not sure about the slope in the foreground – I am not keen to put a whole lot of detail in there but it needs something…

ho hum watercolours from the studio

Well here is the latest from the studio of desultory and pedestrian painting – I can see how I will work next time though:

The idea really was to collect data in the field and work up great paintings in the studio – mmmm – I will give this another go

waking up in Spout Cave

It was so pleasant to sleep in the cave.  During the night something shot out of the rocks into my back and off into the rocks again.  A little mouse.  I thought these things were supposed to hibernate or something.  Later another sped around the back of the cave.  I have been troubled by bushy tailed rats before, who can be really persistent in looking through packs for food.  But this time I had put all of my food in a bag hanging from a flake in the roof of the cave (me 1: mice 0).

The morning broke clear, with a fresh easterly wind (which did not suggest bad weather).  So I got up and painted this watercolour, a morning view of the same scene from the previous night:

mmm – OK – a useful record for a studio version maybe.

Then, just because it was so nice up there I dawdled as I drank some tea and did a watercolour of my cooker:

Then I packed up and headed out.  I had a pile of pumpernickle bread that I decided not to carry down and left for the mice.

On the way down I paused on the Shale Band, when I found three oranges I had carried up and certainly did not want to carry a step further.  So I sat and painted this view – similar to the one of the previous day:

And then I walked down the final ravine to the car.

There was a final river to cross and on the road up the oak trees I saw baboon prints in the sand.  I had walked into a troup the previous day, on the way up but they had given way.  But this I knew was NOT a good sign.  And sure enough – they had been all over my car – maybe they could smell the remaining food inside – but they had broken off my radio antennae and carried it off – I could not find it anywhere.