We have just returned from a night-over in ‘Beddies’.  Thats what the surfers call it “hey man I was in Beddies yesterday – and it was sick”.  Betty’s Bay.  We have friends with a cottage just below Luiperdskloof.  We got there in the late afternoon yesterday and while the boys went off for a surf I sat and painted a watercolour.  Actually it was from about the same spot where I had painted in the pouring rain last year and the watercolour had suffered the same treatment as I. W. Spider.  Here is how it looked yesterday:

While I was painting the wisp of cloud over the mountain developed into a dense blanket obliterating any view above a few hundred feet.

The next morning I got up early and painted the from behind our friends cottage.

Their back-garden is a riot of fynbos and indigenous trees, with a small patch of Buffalo Grass – a broad-leafed lawn grass that is indigenous to the area.  What a pleasant way to start the day.  Later the wind picked up and though we went for a surf it was not very much.  We went to Pringle bay, which is tucked away between the two peaks I paint on the far right in the mountains I paint from “The Pipe”.  I wanted to do a quick sketch but was outvoted by the boys.

Later in the day I painted Rob, our host as he read the paper and chatted:

And then we went down to the break at Betty’s a last time to see if the break was working.  There was a strong South Easter blowing on shore so no-one surfed but some of the group went for a walk down the beach which was quite wild in the wind.  I found a vegetation covered dune and got my stuff ready to paint.  I had to tape everything down but even so the wind kept lifting the paper from the sketch book to which it was taped.  Julian took this shot of me painting:

Gives new meaning to “whatever blows your hair back”  heh heh.

And here is the painting I did:

All quite rushed but there it is.