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Monday, July 27, 2009

Lilies of the Field


I am leaving Darling now to start exploring the rest of the West Coast. After all, you must have started wondering about the abscence of the ocean and the boats!

After the recent heavy rains the fields and valleys between Darling and Yzerfontein are green, and great clumps of arum lilies have opened along both sides of the road, the pure white flowers peeping out behind large arrow-shaped leaves. The rainfall here is limited to winters so that between April and September we may have from 125mm to 350mm of rain. No wonder the West Coast area of roughly 4400 km sq is the habitat of 1200 species of flowering plants. The arum lilies, Zantedescia aethiopica, are the first to appear before the advent of spring. Whether the motorist takes the time to take a look or whether he ignores them, they will freely offer their beauty from now on until almost January.

Is there anything on earth more calming than observing flowers? There are lovely words in the Christian Bible that everyone, everywhere should write onto the front page of their diaries full of appointments, tasks, lists and budgets. In plain and poetic verse it reminds us that we need not worry so much “:........Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you......”

There is always a moment when one falls in love with a place, and my first memory of Darling goes back about 15 years, when I noticed lovely cows lying on top of a patch of these flowers. Darling, the town of milk and arums...............

5 comments:

  1. A truly beautiful painting. You are privileged to live so close to the beauty of nature. Thank you for sharing the lovely arums with us through your art.

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  2. These lilies are beautiful in the nature, you did a FANTASTIC job! They remind me of the lilies you did as still-lives before... which i loved, as well!

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  3. Marie, I, too, love to look at and paint flowers. Flowers bring so much joy and wonder. They have a wonderful, intricate architecture themselves.

    In answer to your comment on my site, yes, I live in the U.S. in Texas. I am familiar with South Africa because I had worked as an architect in a firm that has an office in Johannisburg. Some S. Africans came to work in our office for a while and vice versa. I have heard their stories of Capetown and Johannisburg. One day I would love to go! For now, your blog fills in the blanks and creates more curiousity.

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  4. I do not think that I will ever be able to read those verses in the Bible without seeing your field of Lilies in front of me! Hmm... are you keeping this one for your upcoming exibition or is it for sale...?

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  5. The painting will be on exhibition, but 4 of my paintings are already reserved. That means that this one is definitely available to whomever comes first.

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