Daydreaming on the Berg River

Like children everywhere, the local West Coast children must get their education. But

as this little man admires a newly painted boat, his thoughts are with the real men on the deep ocean. He imagines himself pulling out a heavy net brimful of the little mullet, a plentiful fish which assures that nobody will grow hungry. He wants to stay here, work the ocean and keep a happy home full of laughter and song!

Sadly for him, the opportunities to work in and on the West Coast are not plenty as the rules and quotas for fishing become more severe.

Regular readers of my blog will recognize this scene as one of the many private jetties off Bokkom Lane near Velddrif. Being an admirer of the work of Catherine Jeffrey, I made sure of putting down the tonal values first. Once that was done, the completion was much too fast, but I will leave it at that and see how the next painting turns out.

Some happy landmarks this week: I passed 3000 unique South African visitors and 2000 Americans as well as a total of over 19000 hits.(click on Pageviews on my flag panel to see this) My blog's second birthday is 20 days away. By the way, South Africans, who are you? You are welcome to make appointments to visit my studio, seriously!!! A few people have done that and we had a super time!

Windows and Walls

Driving through the small town of Paternoster, I am starting to concentrate on the lovely details that make up the whole of this successful architectural venture. Of course, because this is a rather chatty sort of blog, you must refer to the experts if you want to build a proper West Coast cottage. The information will be available at VASSA ( Vernacular Architecture Society South Africa).

The walls should be roughly plastered. As the first freed slaves and early fisherman a few hundred years ago did not have all the tools, one should try to emulate the true texture of early West Coast cottages! The cement was made in lime kilns as I have explained in an older blog. This lime was also mixed with salt to "paint" the walls white.

Windows and doors were made from the salvaged wood from the many ships that met their ends on this coast. As the ships were painted for protection, the locals would always try to get hold of paint to repaint their woodwork. Blue and sometimes green were the preferred colours. Today the (mostly new) blue shutters, doors and windows give unity to the street scenes. I loved the way the orange aloes complimented the blue shutters in this scene. And please do not miss the rocks on the roof placed as if they are anchoring the corrugated roof and chimney. Ah, detail is everything!

Folks and fish #4

In the last of this 4-part series, I stopped some anglers who were on their way to a high rocky outcrop. While I asked questions of one guy, his friends cast some lines into the rushing surf, prior to climbing to their favourite rock. How lonely it must be sitting there on the cold rocks! One needs such patience! Somewhere I read that God would not detract from a person's years on earth the time he spent fishing!

The main aim of these men were to catch fish for the pot. I wish I can visit one of these homes to see the wonderful local recipes being created in the West Coast kitchens. The fish found here, close to Kabeljoubank are Cape Salmon (Geelbek), Yellowtail (Geelstert), Kabeljou (Cob) and the evasive and protected National fish of South Africa, called Galjoen. "What if there are no bites?" we asked. The old man laughed: " Then we must buy some Snoek!" he said. Yup, that will surely be better than arriving home with no fish at all to the wife waiting and ready with onions and skillet!

What I enjoyed about this painting was the pattern of vertical lines! Vertical lines are a symbol of masculinity(like soldiers with swords, like trees in a forest) I had to paint these lines freehand and had one chance to do them, they are shaky and so they will remain. Today, I am also showing the complete set which now resides in a city far from here.

Folks and Fish #3

Of course we have already learnt a lot about the bokkom industry on the West Coast. First I painted a little row of bokkoms being salted and hung out to dry. Then the second stage was shown where they were peeled and made ready to be eaten.(Remember my homemade bread, apricot preserve and slivers of salty bokkoms served with coffee?)

This painting, third in the set "Folks and Fish", shows the largest of the bokkom drying barns on the banks of the Berg River at Velddrif where thousands of little mullet fish can be seen any day of the week. The bokkoms take 8 days to dry, depending on the weather and air circulation Janine is the petite lady who has managed this factory with its large salt bins and many hanging lathes for more than 12 years. This quietly dignified lady had me spellbound as she pointed out the many aspects of this industry which provides both jobs and food for the local people.

It would be easy to export the dry snacks with their sweet fishy smell or even introduce them to Johannesburg and other South African cities. But of course, it is a born and bred local taste that takes a bit of getting used to. As Janine stands there with her old-fashioned set of scales, she probably sees the same customers day by day.

Folks and Fish # 1

This is the first painting of a set of four works, of which I have shown the preparatory sketches in the previous post. Working at them I am conscious of the poverty of the area and the plight of those brave souls, the sustenance fishermen, who face the sea day by day.

My model shows two of the four crayfish he is allowed to catch for his daily quota during the crayfish season. It will be safer for the men to catch the monthly allowance in one single day, and not face the sea so often, but unfortunately such a system will be difficult to control. (Crayfish can become very scarce and must be protected.)

Crayfish holes are marked by experienced fishermen, who will put on diving suits and retrieve their quota. Older people and non-swimmers can catch theirs by netting from the quay that conveniently projects into the sea like it does at Yzerfontein. Everybody keeps a measure handy as undersized specimens must be returned to the sea immediately.

We usually buy crayfish in Velddrif when they are in season and available, so I decided to use the harbour at Velddrif as a background for the painting. Read more about crayfish on the West Coast in my post: Crayfish Coast.

Yzerfontein Vignette

From the highway, you go down to Yzerfontein waterfront, down, down, past the lime kilns (registered National Monuments), past the small CBD and the large 70's era houses. And there it is: one of the most beautiful stretches of water on the coast! The beach meanders on and on for many kilometers in both directions. Should you decide to walk this coastline from the harbour in the direction of Cape Town, you will see millions of birds, beaches with rocks for anglers, waves for surfers and a feast for the eyes for all. In the ocean you will notice the pretty guano encrusted little mound, aptly called Meeurots (Gull Rock), where seagulls and cormorants dry their wings after fishing. There is also a very close view of Dassen-eiland where penguins live and breed.

In this view we look back at the town. Man-made breakwater rocks are added to the large natural rocks to build a safe landing passage for returning fishing boats. Alert gulls on their cluster of rocks keep an eye on the returning yield and form a frame for the scene behind them, a composition that helped me to overcome the awkward square form of the canvas.

Old Fish Market at Yzerfontein

I loved observing the scene of the old fish market at Yzerfontein. The dirty yellow guano- incrusted building electrified the atmosphere. Loud-mouthed locals would beckon their customers in friendly competition with each other. Witticisms would fly around like the ever-present seagulls. The fare was usually fresh snoek, geelstert, red roman or great amounts of the small hottentots fish. Visiting the fish market was only the beginning of a lovely evening......

Nowadays there is a new fish market, widely promoted while it was being built. We go there in anticipation, only to realise that 'of-fish-cial-dom' rules. The facilities are for cleaning and gutting, but selling is not allowed. The public is unwelcome and the fishermen are unfriendly. An enquiry about buying is ignored and everyone must re-think the concept: market.

Snoek drying on the Fence

The northwestern corner of Ganzekraal has a barbed wire fence, an ideal place to dry out snoek. Everything starts with plankton being in abundance, this will bring on small fish and in turn draw the snoek. Of course man is on top of the food chain and hundreds of snoek are caught, cleaned, then stored under layers of salt for two to three days. Afterwards the salt is rinsed off and the fish are brought here to this high spot to dry in the sun and wind. In times when the West Coast is beaten by storms the snoek will keep in or out of a fridge and will be used to prepare smoorsnoek, a braised fish stew served with rice. Surprisingly, it is a lovely white stew in spite of the inedible colours seen when they are displayed in their long rows that seem to stretch all the way to Table Mountain.

A Fisherman mending his Net

The only way to fight this weather is to stay thickly dressed and paint some bright pics. So lay on the tubes of Yellow Ocre and Indian Red!Nothing serious. Everybody cannot aspire to be the next Old Grande Dame of SA Art!