What is more relaxing on a clear lazy day, than drinking good coffee in Langebaan, the town where the sea is "everywhere"! In my painting the sea is behind me and the people on the left are walking away from it. I visited Langebaan 25 years ago as a place I have never heard of before. There was a type of general store but this row of informal eateries was still in the future.
There is still one problem for the strollers and for photographers, though : This pleasant corner of Langebaan is car-friendly and not pedestrian-friendly. Everyone seems to park right where they need to be, at the ATM, in front of the restaurants and so on. The people doing watersport or just going for a walk, will even park right on the beach. I mentioned photographers having problems, because as an artist I just did not paint the cars, some of them right in the entrance of shops!
Once the road here is closed off as as pedestrian walkway, the little shops in the arcades and all the coffee places will be discovered and visited. A nice thing to do between walks along the beach and next to the lagoon would be to dine in one place and have coffee at another, then browse along to see the gift stores. Delivery vans could be allowed in for an hour early in the morning........Let us learn from Newport, from Charlotte Amalie, from Veli Losinj and remove the traffic from this pleasant corner of Langebaan!
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Lovely sketch Marie. And parking cars can be such a nuisance, I agree, but nobody wants to walk even a couple of steps these days.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm, sad! I am not usually critical like this, but have such dreams for this area. One cannot even begin to hope for a pleasant crowd of people inter-reacting if the street is deserted of pedestrians. And then if you walk, you need eyes everywhere to watch out for cars. Thank you for your kind comments, Maree. I am going to show some shops in the small arcades in my next two paintings.
ReplyDeleteA lovely sketch..reminds me of some places here in Australia..it has a relaxed holiday feel about it ..well done Marie..love your blog and will visit often
ReplyDeleteI want to have coffee there! I agree with you on the cars, but, Frank Francese paints the cars right into his paintings. He says they are part of the landscape. I have taken workshops with him in which I have the cars right in front of a beautiful piece of architecture. Viewers have commented why did i paint the cars.
ReplyDeleteThank you,Liana.Interesting viewpoint about the cars. Maybe we can reason that one day cars will be extinct and then there will be paintings to show how they looked (way back in history)!
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