Here is a big welcome to all of you who are reading this newsletter for the first time. I look forward to walking this journey with you.

Light is Sweet – The March 2025 Edition – covers a period of rest and gathering, perhaps even cocooning. In the last week I have been stretching to get going again.

I wrote a short blog note about this model in 2020 which I posted on the blog from my other life. You can click here to read the note.

The exhibition was very exciting but also taxing. Hosting an exhibition is very different from painting watercolours. But I am painting watercolours again, and have started watercolour classes. In addition to this I am starting work on some of the projects for 2025.

Therefore:

Sit back close your eyes and take a deep breath

Now read on.

The Exhibition in the White Wine Cellar was taken down on 15 January 2025. I showed a few people around the work in the morning. A dear woman, a local to Stellenbosch spent ages looking at the work and was moved to give me a hug.  A special closing of the whole show.

It took me about an hour to carry all of the watercolours out and stack them in my car. And then I took off all the labels. And then – I stood in the cellar. A sweet young couple came in to see the art. All I could offer was my best rendition of a Gallic Shrug. I had a cup of coffee with a friend just outside the cellar door and watched people come and go.

I sat before this milestone for a while.

The White Wine Cellar is now a white wine cellar. The frame with the print of Spitskop paint was still up. I came in the next day to pick it up. The 2025 harvest went into full swing. This would be a such a cool topic for a mini-collection.

Shortly after packing away the work I delivered some of the paintings to local collectors.

I delivered “Rainstorm in the Tankwa Karoo” to a couple who run a wine farm in the Swartland near Wellington. It is such a beautiful drive out there. Delivery became a field trip. They showed me their collection of art and we sat down for coffee. In cups and saucers! I have been drinking coffee in a mug for so long, I had to confirm the spelling (not sources or sauces). And they served Pasteis de Nata bought from a local small bakery. It was all so pleasant. I headed back to Somerset West with a warm feeling that my work would be hanging with Gregoire, Maggie Laubser, Pierneef and Tinus de Jongh. At least those were the names I remember.

A field trip to remember

Some of the waiters in the Deli at Lanzerac Wine Estate were especially friendly and interested in my work. It was heartening as the days in the cellar could be long. I therefore offered to paint portraits of some of the team. I took some photos and started working after a couple of weeks. And here are some of the portraits I have done so far. Actually I have completed a few more. But I handed them over before I realised I had not scanned the work. But here is a sample.

I have been approached by an art agent with what I think is an interesting offer to artists and collectors. I have submitted eight watercolours in two different themes. The work is un-signed and will be sold on auction at a gala event. You can see the art submitted for the second collection by clicking the button below. See if you can identify the work I submitted.

“Light is Sweet” is the official newsletter for SJQ Watercolour. I share what I have produced in the previous month or two – OK – to be honest sometimes its more like three. And sometimes a story or two.

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There are some attractive opportunities for creating collections in 2025:

I am still talking with a group to create a collection for George, the town at the Western gateway to the Garden Route. There are some scenes I would love to recreate in watercolour.

I am getting requests for commissions of watercolours 1500 to 2000 mm wide. I have the sheets of Arches cut and some great material from Betty’s Bay, Kogel Bay and our very own Helderberg. But also I am keen to take a trip up the West Coast and to Namibia. So lets see how this work unfolds.

In the last week or so I have adopted measures to shake off the ennui from 2024. I wanted to put at least one significant work into this newsletter. Therefore I spent most of yesterday working on a watercolour of a scene from Betty’s Bay.

There is still work to be done on it and I have seen quite a few elements I would like to do differently.

Aaand this may be a good candidate for a large format watercolour.

I feel this desire to create a large work with the sloping granite holding a good place in the foreground. There are so many shades of yellow pink and blue in that big rock. And of course those red lichens are so compelling.

I am also getting out and about more. Some mornings I walk with Aura and the doggies, some mornings I go for a surf and some mornings I cycle up the hill to my bible-studies. The pain from my unfit body just feels good. I heard someone say “pain is from weakness leaving your body”. Lots of weakness leaving this frame.

This morning I had a nice little surf – even though all the locals were out! Afterwards I sat on my dune at The Pipe to paint a little sketch of the peaks at Kogelberg in the morning mist. It is my daughter’s birthday today so this is for Sinead.

Classes have begun. We have started work on loose methods to apply paint. There are a few larger works I work on only on the Saturday morning with the class. Here is another version of the view of Table Mountain from Lanzerac. I am pouring the big washes rather than using a brush. And I created the early Autumn vines with a tooth-brush.

Oh yes – I also completed a watercolour workshop for a 40th birthday. The group completed a painting of my favourite view of the Kogelberg from The Pipe. What could be more fun for a party than some hard work on creating a beautiful watercolour. Here is a version I created in preparation. The eight blocks on the bottom half of the page are used to practice brush-skills and colour mixing while people paint the view step-by-step. I gave my demo-version to the client.

Carolyn and I put our heads together over a cup of coffee last week to stimulate action on our book about our River. In the next edition of Light is Sweet I intend to show some progress. In the meantime here is an image from the Lourens River Collection.

This is a homeless settlement on an island in the Lourens River in the middle of our town.  This would have been prime real-estate if it weren’t for the very real threat of flooding.  And it is one of my best ever designed watercolours – see if you can see the Golden Ratio spiral in the design.  Hint:  The orange blanket is in the centre of the spiral.

I submitted this for the annual SASA juried exhibition.  I impressed the judges enough for acceptance.

I also submitted another favourite Lourens River painting about the vagrants on the river.  This is also designed around Golden Ratio.

And now I look forward to creating some more watercolours about Lourens River.

Or at least I think it was Jack who said it. I wonder if it was the same Jack who ran the risk of becoming a dull boy through all work and no play. Just another incentive to start the day out in the predawn glow. Even better – behind the break.

And I think this is the right note to close out the first 2025 edition of Light is Sweet.