Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 27, 2009 under Art, landscape, Namib, painting, watercolor, watercolour | 
Here is painting I have been wanting to do for ages.
The Brandberg is one of my favourite places. It is a large granite plug in Namibia, about 200kms North of Swakopmund and 100km East of the Coast at Henties Bay. The last time I went there I took some photos which I have been wanting paint ever since.
The map referrence of the place where I took the photos is 21°15’46.29″S 14°36’57.28″E – I took this of Google Earth – you can see the stuff I am painting from 4kms up – which I find compelling. You can see the road I was on and I am sure I will be able to find the outcrop on which I took the photos. If you look at the massif from higher, say 1700m you can see that it is round, probably an volcanic vent for rock that has long since eroded and washed away. The top of the mountain is split by rivers and peaks. Although it is a desert, there is water up there. Walking on Brandberg is about climbing up or down short river courses between flat sandy plains. There are some wonderful caves as well, with San or Khoi rock art.
The article in Wikipedia talks about the Ga’aseb river valley which is here:
This is the route we followed the first time I climbed the mountain lead by my mate Buzzy Kloot. We walked up slabs of Granite under the peak on the skyline. There are little miggies (flies) that sit in your eyes when you stop to rest. Just after the descending row of peaks there is a very important subtle pass into the heart of the massif. If you miss it you can end up walking down the Messum River in the West, which another friend of mine did with another group on the same weekend. He and his mates were very fit and strode, up Ga’aseb and down the Messum ravine, up again and around. The next day they set off for Konigstein, the highest peak, and the highest point in Namibia. Off they went, stride, stride, stride. At the end of the day they were not sure where they were. While they were looking at the map, one of the guys said “hey I recognise this place – that is where we slept last night…” they had walked in a circle. The next day we were walking down Ga’aseb. the ravine split and I took a left fork. As I went I heard another group moving fast (striding away) down the other side of a low hill. By the time I got to the bottom of the mountain, they had packed and left. heh heh – Bill and them, moving like the wind.
There is another version I am very keen to do – lets see what the week holds. This is 1500 x 1020 mm 600gm cold pressed Arches. When I work on this size, my whole studio has to be juggled around so I pretty much have to take it from start to finish.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 26, 2009 under Art, Drawing, en plein air |
this morning we went to the slow-food market in Stellenbosch and I found corner to sit and sketch.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 24, 2009 under Art, landscape, Namib, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
The Brandberg is one of my favourite places. It is a large granite plugin Namibia, about 200kms North of Swakopmund and 100km East of the Coast at Henties Bay. The last time I went there I took some photos which I have been wanting paint ever since. This morning I got up early to make a start – supported by Mia. I am working on a sheet of Arches 600gm Cold Pressed 1020x1530mm which is BIG, for me anyway.
Here is my set up as I started:
I used the ruler and tape measure to get the dimensions right between the photos I am using and the drawing. Each of the ravines and peaks are quite well known to people in Namibia.
Here is the drawing:
And here is the first wash I put in just before zooting off for a surf with my boys:
I am ready to do the first wash on the mountain and put this here as a commitment to move forward in spite of fear. This is where the wheels often come off for my paintings.
The map referrence of the place where I took the photos is 21°15’46.29″S 14°36’57.28″E – I took this of Google Earth – you can see the stuff I am painting from 4kms up – awesome stuff. If you look at the massif from higher you can it is round, probably an volcanic vent for rock that has long since eroded and washed away.
Here is the next wash:
I am now working out the detail for the foreground. Maybe you can see the pencil.
Here is today’s work – I was hoping to do more but have to rush up to the Helderberg Nature Reserve to chat the guys there about a possible Exhibition…
Well today was not a painting day – but I had time to do some tonight. Here is how my Brandberg watercolour looks now:
I hope it is just the warm light but it looks verrry yellllow to me – eek. It was quite a mission to put all the detail into the mountain. I have some gaps in my photos and each valley and peak needs to work. I really want to go back – well after all I need to collect better info.
mmmm I may have to put a glaze over the sky -
OK here is my Saturday morning bit. I think the mountain is pretty much done apart from some touch ups. the next area is the foreground.
I am getting to know each of the ravines and buttresses – ready for version 2. Of course wisdom would suggest that I should have done a smaller version, say on a full size Arches 300gm – but that would have been too, well, wise… heh heh
Here is how it looks at the end of Saturday. So what do you think. I am keen to finish this off tomorrow and get it out there.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 23, 2009 under Art, Cedarberg, en plein air, Forest pool, landscape, watercolor, watercolour |
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.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 22, 2009 under Art, en plein air, landscape, Namaqualand, watercolor, watercolour |
On Friday morning I had taken the dirt road from Garies, over Studer’s Pass, into the Rooiberg mountains. A farmer was moving a herd of Afrikaaner cattle up the road so I slowly drove through them till the last were behind me. Just over the top of the pass I came to a small farmhouse in a beautiful valley below a peak that I later learnt was called “Weeskind” which means “Orphan”, because it stands alone. I sat next to the road and painted the farm and the peak. While I was working the farmer drove past and waved. He was working at his gate when some other farmer drove past and I heard him referring to me as “..daardie donder ..” I am not sure how to translate “donder” but it is definitely not polite. Heh heh, anyway -so not everyone in the valley is light and music. Here is the painting:
Later that I day after I had finished the painting at Koornkloof I travelled some really bad roads and then set off on my return to Garies where I wanted to fill up before heading back towards Cape Town. On the way my oil light flashed. I turned off the engine and crawled under the car. There was a hole in my sump, big enough to push my finger in. All my oil was gone and I was about 40kms out of the town. (This is where it happened – check on Google Maps – -30.427916, 18.059807
). It was mostly downhill so I set off, freewheeling where I could and using the engine where I had to, fervently praying that it would not seize. I would probably still have been there if that had happened. Once or twice I got out to push over a hump. I also asked at a couple of farms if they could sell me oil but to no avail. Five kms out of town I saw a car pull into a farm just off the road so I pulled in next to it. It was a lady who was visiting the farm from over the road. After a short discussion with the farmer she offered to give me a lift into town where I caught the local mechanic just as he was closing. He gave me some plastic steel and sold me 5 litres of oil.
I cleaned the hole with benzine from my stove and mixed the patch and put it on. I was keen to leave but was persuaded to let the patch cure overnight. The farmer, Basie and his wife, Annette, offered me a bed. And so I spent an evening with locals. It all seemed so calm and gracious. They made me feel comfortable by asking me about what I was doing talking about life on the farm. They gave no advice or recrimination. If they thought I was irresponsible to be out there without ANY spares or tools (note to self…), they didn’t show it. Annette cooked some lamb chops (manaqualanners just eat meat) and we sat around the table and chatted. Basie grew up in the area as did his father. They were keen to see my paintings and, as they said they liked them, I asked if they would accept one from me as a gift. Basie realised the farm in this painting was where his father grew up so they accepted this. And I think this is rather special.
The next morning I got in the dark and headed out under a crisp, starry sky. Just outside Garies I stopped next to the road and made coffee which I drank with rusks as I watched the day dawning.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 21, 2009 under Art, en plein air, landscape, Namaqualand, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
I spent most of last Friday painting the farm Koornkloof (“Wheat ravine” I think) deep in the heart of the Rooiberg mountains East of the town of Garies in the Northern Cape. The dominant peak is a Rooiberg (or is it Roodeberg?), a massive pyramid of red granite that is covered in snow in the winter. Both “rooi” and “roode” mean “red”. Koornkloof is in a narrow valley below beautiful blue and red boiler plate slabs of granite. There is a river flowing through the valley with, I suspect, a large catchment area to the North. So it is a fertile and well watered corner. I remembered large trees from the last time I was there but on this occasion, as I came round the corner my breath was taken away by a stand of massive fruit trees in full blossom. I think they were apricot trees but never before have I seen such big fruit trees. There were about twenty trees or more and each tree must have been 20m high. At first I thought they were great white rocks. Next to this copse was a stand of poplars that were even higher, leafless in their winter way. This is what I had come to paint. I worked on half size Arches 300gm cold press (380x570mm) which may have been a mistake as it took a long time to get the colours down. But it was fun to sit in the warm sun. While I was painting, a vicious looking beetle, black, with white spots on its back was working a grid up and down the embankment towards me. When it got close enough I threw dirt clods at it. It turned on me, then thought better of it and scuttled off into the bush. I think they are called Tiger Beetles. Here is the first watercolour:
The fruit-trees are off to the right.
I then went down to the other side of the farm and did this watercolour:
I was running out of time and getting tired so I tried to do this more quickly. One day I would love to get permission to paint from the farm property. I did not have the reserves to take the risk of asking farmers, who may be tired of tourists bugging them in the flower season. Though I think they are friendly on that farm. While I was there, two of their dogs came to visit, a large white Greyhound and a little Jack Russel and both were very friendly – dogs are a kind of give away.
When I was finished at Koornkloof I went further into the mountains to visit a B&B that had a signpost up. I mentioned to Cecily that I would try to find a place or make contact with the locals to bring some watercolourists out here one day. Well, I met the locals but in an unexpected way. A story for my next post.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 20, 2009 under Art, landscape, Namaqualand, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Gifberg is the North-Western corner of the Cape Fold Mountain belt and the Table Mountain Sandstone. It stands as a welcoming sentinel to all coming South from Namibia. North from here lie the vast plains and stark dry mountains and south lie watered mountains and valleys with vineyards and citrus groves. Even the names change. In the North from “Bitterfontein” (bitter spring), “Moedverloor” (Quail – “moed” is courage and “verloor” is lost), “Groothartseer” (literally “big heart sore” – something tragic happened there) and “Douse the Glim” – (now there is a story) . In the South Citrusdal (Citrus dale), Hebron, Vredendal (Peaceful dale I suppose). ”Gif” means “poison” and of course “berg” is a mountain. Gifberg is named after Hyaenanche globosa, or Hyaena poison, a bush, endemic to the area. The San people used to use the crushed seeds to make their deadly arrow poison. The early farmers also used pounded seeds to poison hyaenas and other predators. The poison acts on the heart, like strychnine. So that is the mountain.
On the way North I sat next to the road in the late afternoon and painted the mountain.
There was a chilly wind blowing. As I finished the watercolour I began to think more and more of pizza. Pizza? Out here? Well, Vanrhynsdorp is a little town set under the Gifberg and if you ever go there, it is worth dropping in at the Phucifino (I didn’t want to ask) restaurant that make a good one. And after the pizza I had enough time to drive North to Garies before darkeness fell.
Garies has it’s own story.
Here is the watercolour I did of Gifberg on my way home early on Saturday morning. I had turned off the main road onto a farm road to sit and paint. So it was very peaceful and fresh. While I painted I heard a flock of Namaqua Sand Grouse fly over, whose call always reminds me of the desert in Namibia. A very pleasant experience all in all.
The horizon below the mountain is actually straight. In the painting it curves down on the right which weakens the effort a little – but there you are – stuff to remember in the studio.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 19, 2009 under Art, en plein air, landscape, Piketberg, watercolor, watercolour |
This is a watercolour of the Piketberg from near the top of Piekeniers Pass. I have wanted to sit and do this for as long as I remember coming through here but of course I have always been going somewhere else.
I have taken a couple of days to fill the well.
There is a town called Piketberg on the slopes of the mountain. The Afrikaans people have a story about the town drunk who took a short-cut through the grave-yard late one night after the usual. He fell into an open grave and passed out. He was woken late the next day by the sun shining in his face. He climbed out of the grave thinking he must have died and this was the resurrection. He looked around and said “Swak Piketberg” (Swak means “shame, bad, fail, all wrapped in a word with a strong dose of contempt”.
This is a watercolour of the Piketberg from near the top of Piekeniers Pass. I have wanted to sit and do this for as long as I remember coming through here but of course I have always been going somewhere else.
I have taken a couple of days to fill the well.
There is a town called Piketberg (…OK…) on the slopes of the mountain. The Afrikaans people have a story about the town drunk who took a short-cut through the grave-yard late one night in his usual state. He fell into an open grave and passed out. He was woken late the next day by the sun shining in his face. He climbed out of the grave thinking he must have died and this was the resurrection. He looked around and said “Swak Piketberg” (Swak – pronounced “swuk”) means “shame, bad, fail”, all wrapped in a word with a dash of “stupid” and lashings of contempt.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 13, 2009 under Art, braai, en plein air, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
here is what I braai on – braaing is like barbequeing I suppose. Braaing is taken very seriously in some circles here. It is the cooking the MEN do. My system is wheelbarrow filled with sand, with bricks to elevate the grid. The wheelbarrow was a wedding present from Geoff and Denise Sissons, friends of ours in Swakopmund. When we came to Somerset West the barrow came along. When they developed around us the developers dug up beautiful river boulders. I thought it sad that they would just be pushed back in the ground so went out in all weathers to collect the rocks with the wheelbarrow. The little wheel was usually so mud-logged that I just dragged it along.
Eventually the front bracket broke so I retired the wheelbarrow, resting on one of the rocks it carried. The planks on which it rests are railway sleepers I redeemed from the rubble of the old Cape Town powerstation when it was demolished. So… there it is.
this is another watercolour I would like to do again – but I think I got the values about right. The dark values above the pot hide the problems I had in drawing the pot. The bar is held on with wire.
And here is a braai story:
My parents were such gifted musicians. They would take choirs they had trained, overseas to sing in Europe. Before they left they would take their choir to the Kruger Park, a massive game reserve in the North of South Africa, as a reward and to practice. One evening my little mother, who was so friendly and sweet, and naive I suppose, walked past a group of men braaing and drinking beer. So she said “My, your wives have you well trained” – And they said ” ” – Nothing – they just glared at her. And that is how serious this business is…
Posted by Stephen Quirke on September 12, 2009 under Art, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
in the spirit of posting what I do no matter what I feel about it here is my painting from Helderberg reserve. this is a small wilderness area on the edge of our town that is very special. when I drive in I feel stress melting away. today I went to the nursery there to buy plants for our garden and took some time to sit at the dam and paint the mountain. my water technique definitely needs work but here it is.
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