Darling's Aunt

The passenger trains could drop you right into the heart of Darling in the old days. Today the station building has been transformed into an entertainment centre with theatre, restaurant, museum-with-a-difference and a shop with locally produced gifts for sale. The pink building is known as Evita se Perron (a multiple pun in the name) as this is where Darling's favourite aunt, Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout, holds court when not touring the world with satirical shows. Her tongue is smooth and sweet and sharp as a Samurai sword....(May I just mention here that although Afrikaans-sounding, perron, a synonym for platform, is a proper English word in the Oxford Dictionery)....

Evita is the alter-ego of Pieter-Dirk Uys, whom I have not met, but every local person I have ever asked attested to the fact that he has a deep social commitment and limitless kindness, always creating new projects to boost the community. The biggest of these projects is The Darling Trust that concerns itself with the youth and the building of a large community centre. The young people of Darling will never flounder in a sea of teenage boredom as projects of sport, drama, crafts and early education are launched. http://www.darlingtrust.co.za/

As for this painting, it was the most difficult picture on the blog so far and I will give the next pink corrugated iron structure a wide berth! The shadows on pink paint appear a dirtyish grey! The green is supposed to be Heritage Green, sign of a national monument, but next to pink the colour turns into 'school blazer accidentally washed in bleach'! See you in my next blog when I will reveal where the first forty paintings will be exhibited.