This afternoon I had the best of fun.  We stayed over with friends of our in Betty’s Bay.  In the morning Calvin and Jonty asked me to take them down for a surf at the local break.  It was a very beautiful morning with a stiff Northwest wind a blowing directly offshore as we paddled out.  The tide was out and the waves were breaking fast on a shallow sand bank.   The boys had some great waves – out of the pages of surf magazines.  It was too fast and steep for me but I loved being out looking at the mountains and the clouds billowing through the gap at Luiperds Kloof (Leopard ravine I guess).  People sometimes see leopards around there still.  There was one that got quite friendly until some ignorant idiot shot it.  But – I digress.

I was just going to go out and get my stuff and do a painting when Calvin broke his board in half! So I took the boys home.  As we drove back the rain came in and by the time we got to the cottage it was chucking down.

I really enjoy the paintings of David Bellamy who does the beautiful watercolour sketches in the most extreme conditions.  I have always wanted to do the same so I got warmly dressed with my waterproof gear and went back to the beach.  I found shelter from the wind and did a quick painting with my squirrel hair mop – it must have taken about 2 minutes at the most.  As I finished the rain started and I just had time to take a photo before the downpour cleaned up:

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By the time I packed up the page was all but clean.

I decided to sit and wait for a break in the rain.  It was just so beautiful.  I was warm and mostly dry sitting in flip-flops and rain gear.   Eventually I realised the rain would not stop so I found another place to sit under a slightly overhanging bush at the top of a dune.  The rain moderated a little and I was able to do another sixty second watercolour.  I could not actually see the mountain but as I finished it cleared enough for me to get a bit of the shape in.  And that was it.  Last night I was reading a book about the teaching of Edgar Whitney – what a guy!  He used to say “if you feel afraid – do it!  Morale is more important than success”  I like that.  And so I did it.  And this is how it looks:

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The paper was too wet to do more and I began to think about how I could prepare to do this better.  I knew if I tilted the paper all the colour would run off so I carefully lifted it off the surface of my paint box and put it inside.  I loaded my palette on top and covered it with a plastic bag (thanks K for the suggestion – it came in V. handy).  I put the painting the back of my bakkie (truck) and stood under the beach shower to wash off all the sand.  (o:

Then I took off the wet stuff and shot home – what a cool way to spend a couple of hours.

 

I took the page the rain cleaned off and repainted the watercolour, using my squirrel-hair mop – what a lekker brush.  The rain had washed off all the seizing which made the paper work slightly differently but not too badly.

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When the rain cleared there are some beautiful rock cliffs on the mountain – but that will be for next time.