Kogelbaai or Koeelbaai, we just say ‘Cool bay’ is one of my favourite beaches. There is a small beach there, tucked away under the cliffs, that not many people knew about called ‘Caves Beach’. There is a good wave there for surfing if you know what you are doing. But the coast line is frequented by Great Whites so – I don’t know so much.
Anyway it is really beautiful and Cape Nature Conservation are trying to keep it wild. I like to go and paint there on Saturday morning before my family wakes up.
Here are two the pictures I did sitting at the beach there. In the first I took my boys with a whole lot of their friends boys down to Kogelbaai. They were jumping off the middle-ground rock into the sea. While they were rushing around like wild things (no waves again) I did this painting. It was a beautiful day. False Bay was as flat as a mill pond. (The divers must be having brilliant visibility). Here is the picture I painted, with my son Ethan (on the right) playing in the waves:
My notes: “I am quite pleased with this – it was very quick, I don’t know how long it took – time becomes irrelevant when I am in this world. And I did not do much overpainting.”
This is a large rock with a cross on the top, in remembrance of someone who drowned there (which seems to be all too-regular an occurence).
And this is a picture painted from the other side of the cross rock from the painting above. That is Cape Hangklip in the background. (literally Hanging Rock). This was the first picture of the year 2009. I went down early to Koeel bay and sat on a rock at the end of the caves beach to paint this. There were some guys surfing in what must be the only waves in the region today. The foreground rocks are highly fractured and very hard quartzites, full of planes and cracks. They have always been a frustration for me painting in this place but today I felt I was able to do them at least some justice.
The next day I did this watercolour in my studio, of the caves beach from a photo taken from the top of the path leading down to the beach. Did I mention: “This is my favourite beach spot in False Bay.”
That is Table Mountain in the distance, with Devil’s Peak on the right.
From: mpwynters 2009/01/02 at 4:27 pm)
Email: maria@mariapacewynters.com
URL: http://mariapacewynters.com
Thank you for all your nice comments. I love your work. I wish I was right here in this one. It is so cold here today, -30!
I would never be able to do watercolour ….I have tried. I am an adder … more, more, more. If I painted with waterclour my subject would get so tight because I would be afraid of making a wrong mark and not being able to go back or (as I always do) go over it! Hope you have a wonderful new year! Maria
And my reply 2009/01/02 at 6:20 pm:|
Hi Maria
thanks for the comments – watercolours want to do their own thing. I want to control the painting too much – so it is an area of development for me. I read Charles Reid every night and slowly I am beginning to understand about standing back and letting them go. And the rest is skill, to be developed over the rest of my life. A journey. But sometimes so frustrating