Here at last is the first edition of Light is Sweet 2024.

Therefore pause…
Put aside what you are doing for the few minutes it takes to read
Sit back.
Close your eyes and take a deep, breath.

Now

Open the mail.
Download the pictures

Read on…

The sound is provided by my friend Mike the Lead Guitar

 

Light is Sweet has been published for a few years now.

We begin with a look back at the SJQ Watercolour exhibition at Lanzerac Wine Estate

The Exhibition at Lanzerac

The SJQ Watercolour exhibition in the White Wine Cellar at Lanzerac Wine Estate was a great success.  The work looked magnificent up on the walls with the casks lined up in rows waiting for the 2024 harvest.  I showed many people around the show and  I met visitors from all over the world. People from Brazil, Sweden, Russia and the USA and Africa.

Welcome to everyone who left their name and email address on the list in the White Wine Cellar at
Lanzerac Wine Estate in December and January 

There were so many delightful interactions.

A tall gentleman from Kenya stopped in front of the painting of one of the Herbert Baker houses in Paardevlei. “Well now” he said “When I was young I went to school in Nairobi designed by Herbert Baker”.  I looked it up.  And there it was, Prince of Wales School.  As dramatic and beautiful as our Union Buildings here in South Africa.

Herbert Baker house at Paardevlei - watercolour painting

Herbert Baker House at Paardevlei

 

Stone Pine on the Lourens River

Another visitor told me a story behind the Stone Pines that spread their magnificent boughs here in the Cape. Apparently, with the reformation, Christians used to plant these trees to show where other Christians could find safety. Something like the fish symbol in the first century church. When the Edict of Nantes was repealed by Louis XIV, the Huguenots took seeds of these trees with them when they fled France. And here they are.

Watercolour of a Tree next to a river

Watsonias on Helderberg

One visitor sat on a cask for a while and gazed at this watercolour. It was most heartening. I will soon post this watercolour in the gallery.

painting of watsonias

The 2024 Collection

By the beginning of 2024 I had begun on my portfolio for the year.

Here are two versions of the Winter view of the Manor House at Lanzerac and one of Lanzerac valley looking up towards The Pieke.

There will be more about this in upcoming newsletters.

Portfolio 2024 is rolling along.

Going back to Portraits

As 2023 drew to a close I had more calls for portraits.  I realised early in the year that I had been so focussed on landscapes that I had lost some of the nuance of the portrait.   I took some time to do some of the r/drawme photos on Reddit – I don’t really know Reddit but there were some good practices there.

Watercolour classes

Winter classes are starting in June.

Here is a glazing exercise we did last year. 

Whaaat?

Tugboats are NOT pink!

And there you have the way forward.  The watercolour could actually do with another glazing of warm blue.

Glazing is such great way to create tints and shine.