Painting "en plein air" in Wellington

"View at Welgegund Farm, Wellington" by Landscape International Artist Marie Theron
405mm x 305mm (12 x 16) oil on canvas board
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This was the first plein air event of the season, winters here being much too harsh and stormy to venture out. Melissa Sutherland of Vindigo organised the day-long event! With 20 artists at the first event, I can see this concept growing in future! The venue was Welgegund wine farm in the Wellington District where Melissas parents live and farm with grapes. Top on the list for most artists was the lovely old farmhouse in the Cape Dutch style. I searched for a vista of the vineyards as seen through the farm buildings.

Around the lunch table each artist was given a chance to tell everyone about their journey through life and art. The shy ones were prompted with questions and there was lots of laughter and fun. We had a chicken dish followed by tart and mousse made from the fruits on the farm, and everyone had a chance to drink the farm's Welgegund wines. I do not drink wine and broke the heart of the winemakers as I believe this boutique wine has won some of the most coveted awards! 

We finished our works, then had a crit session in the open air. There was coffee and cakes served before we took the road home.

View of the vineyards at Welgegund

Watching the artists arriving.

Annelise Kolbe-Van Wyk in the most admired art overcoat,
me, and Melissa Sutherland, tour organiser

Melissa and her mom, Sheila Camerer served an early cuppa before we started.
Shirley in the background was tutor ready to help beginners.
The lovely old homestead is in the background.

I put the last touches to my scene.

Cape Dutch Architecture

I spotted this building on a street corner in Malmesbury. This is one of the typical white Cape Dutch homes that is such a feast for the eye because of the clean symmetry. Of course this style originated in the Netherlands, but in a very different way and developed here over the years in our own gracefully unique style. In Dutch cities we can still see tall narrow buildings, several storeys high that are topped with gables. In South Africa with so much space available the building style transformed itself into spacious floor plans and usually a single storey. Because the rules of symmetry were followed, the homes were either long or in an H or a T shape.

The burghers had tiles for roofing at first, but those early tiles cracked in the harsh climate. Reeds was the best local material available and the roofs needed to be high-pitched to prevent water from settling on the roof and creating rot. Soon the white gables and high thatched roofs became characteristic of the Cape Dutch style. I mentioned in an earlier blog that the large gable also freed the front door from burning thatch blocking the entrance in the event of a fire.

High ceilings and thick walls lead to cool interiours. Flagstones that came over to the Cape as ships' ballast were used for the floors and sometimes highly polished. Windows are always higher than their width, and rhythmically placed.Today many of these homes are beautifully restored, authentically furnished and lived in or preserved as national monuments and museums.

Lime Kiln at Yzerfontein

Before taking the R27 northwards along the West Coast, I crossed the road to inspect the lime kiln on the way to Yzerfontein. This one is a National Monument, well cared for by a caretaker whose cottage lies just behind it. Motorists may stop and enter the enclosure to see a close-up of one of the most important contributions to civilisation. I did not know this myself, but in Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough, (a book I have mentioned on this blog before), it is well explained: when a settlement starts, there are usually only wooden structures, and only if people could get hold of cement, could they start rising a town with proper buildings.

350 Years ago when the Dutch started the refreshment station at the Cape, they built these lime kilns to burn mussel shells to use as a binding material. It is built from limestone that can not crack and burst when heated and has a layer of mesh above the oven. Mussel shells, of which one can still collect by the ton full on Yzerfontein’s famous ‘sixteen-mile beach’, were layered with dry wood before the whole lot was fired. After some time the fine ash would fall through the grid. The enclosure where it was then mixed with water and left to dehydrate is also visible in my picture. The resultant stuff could be used for a binding material similar to cement. When mixed with salt, also found on the West Coast, and animal fat, it became thick pure white limewash to protect and embellish those lovely Cape Dutch and West Coast buildings.

The kiln was still used as late as 1976. There is also a one-third scale miniature replica of a lime kiln next to the Yzerfontein Tourism Buro building, the thatched building I painted in April and called A Rare Gem. I have loaded three paintings this morning. Be sure to read the other two stories below.