Copse of Poplars

Description

Copse of Poplars

This copse of poplars right on the river bank always caught my eye as I walked up and down the river.  Therefore I chose to paint this scene when I started my Radloff Park Collection in 2020.  This was fun to paint.  I flicked and splattered the foliage and dabbed out the trunks with a rolled up tissue paper.

In 2023 we had a day of extremely high rainfall.  The Lourens River came down in flood.  This pretty little copse was decimated.  One tree was left standing at an angle.  The willow in the foreground was washed away.  The trunks of the other trees were left in a tangled mess in the river channel for months.  Later in the same year the Western Cape was hit by more flooding caused by a ‘cut-off low’ – an atmospheric condition I don’t really understand.  But there was a massive downpour.  Communities were cut off as bridges were washed away.  The Lourens River carried away all the remaining wreckage from the previous flooding.  The river also broke its banks and filled the olive plantations in Morgenster Estate, the farm on the opposite bank.  The river appeared to have altered course.  However the banks were restored and farming was resumed as normal.  And there was the lone survivor.  One tree standing at an angle.  Now that I am doing sketches to companion this watercolour I have started referring to this little rapid as ‘The Forest of One’ rapid.

Watercolour on 300gm Arches Hot Pressed
560 x 380 mm