Pages

Friday, April 15, 2011

Khwa Ttu # 3: The Restaurant






The best place to start learning about !Khwa Ttu is to visit the restaurant where everybody you meet will be willing to tell you more about the place and about themselves. We had happy chats with Michael who is so forthcoming with amazing stories about the San, and we also had conversations with trainee cooks and waiters. Everybody here is always friendly! You can meet many of the staff by clicking on the official !Khwa Ttu website.

For the children and adults living at !Khwa Ttu both traditional and formals skills are taught. Ancient crafts and skills are thus preserved, but a sense of direction into the modern world is also instilled and with it the dignity that comes with a good education and the chance of gainful employment.

I loved the shy-friendly and serene personality of Magdalena (we share a name as that is my middle name), who was very helpful and efficient at our table. In this portrait I tried to express the personality of this shining star. The photos show detail of the large cool restaurant.(Breakfast and lunches offered). The lovely "wildlife" light fittings of papermache are well chosen. Before I go, I want to recommend the pear-and-blue cheese salad. A last note: This is the 150th post and my blog is 2 years old!

Next week we will enter an interesting walkway......to be continued!

19 comments:

  1. This painting is so full of expression and one can feel the enthusiasm. The restaurant sounds wonderful, and I love those stone walls! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are keeping me on the edge of my seat, Marie! Beautiful portrait of Magdalena too. Love that kind of animal head on a wall. It is delightful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I think you caught her personality very well, shy but friendly soul... the place looks very ethnic!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gosh Marie, you are really bringing this beautiful place and the people to life and showing it to the rest of us. Wonderful work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you, Liz!

    I fear portrait work, padmaja! I am glad you find the personality like I experienced it!

    Thank you, Sherry. Those heads make lovely light fittings!

    Catherine, the best feature of the building is the very thick walls and deeply set windows. I wish I had known about "the Zorn palette" when I painted her. Next time I will do that experiment! Thank you for your informative post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is almost as good as a novel! Wonderful Marie, that you are teaching the rest of the world about your country. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your stories always make me smile. I love the way you love exploring the places and people ... the flora and fauna of your part of the world!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. So interesting. Nice expression on the portrait.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you, Carol!I was hoping that the story would unfold over a few weeks!

    Thank you, Marian, there is much going on in this quiet corner of the world!

    Thank you, Karen. The girl had such radiance and I hoped to capture it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love this relaxed pose, Marie Magdalena! Shows a lot of friendly personality.

    (Beautiful name, by the way!)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I forgot to add...the picture doesn't get larger when I click on it. Sure would be nice if it did.
    Have you considered uploading larger versions?
    Merely a suggestion.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sweet portrait, he has such a thoughtful look. I would love to have that fireplace in my home and a home big enough to hold it of course, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Dean, yes she was not self-conscious and posed easily. Thanks for the compliment about my (our) name!

    Dean,about the size: I am obliged to load photos no bigger than 100 kb on my web pages and I use the same image for the blog. I will try bigger! I'm living here in the sticks where only 25 Internet lines are allowed. If we are all online it will hardly load something large or even open a page!

    Thank you, Barbara, and yes, as I said: What a fireplace!

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is a wonderful painting, Marie - and I love the story that you are telling along with your work and photos.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Claire, thank you for following this story, which will take us back to the very first people living on the West Coast!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gosh Marie. The portraits are beautiful - such wonderful paintings. Must visit.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Love your portrait Marie...and of course, the restaurant!
    Ronelle

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi, Marie is it possible that I can buy that portrait.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hi Magdalena, I usually sell paintings of this size for R 1000. But of course, my model was named Magdalena!!! If you were my !Kkwa Ttu model,I will sell it at half prize and include a frame.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments, they make my day!