Marius

A month ago I posted a watercolour painting of Marius, the plumber who lives in Greyton. I wrote then that I would post the oil I was doing of him in "a few days". Well, those few days turned out to be more than 30, but here he is.

In this one I think I captured more of the kindness and gentleness that emanated from him. It all came from the eyes - and how I was tempted to fiddle to get them 'just that bit closer' to what I wanted to convey. I stopped myself doing that, and in retrospect, am quite pleased that I did. Any thoughts on that?

Roland

This is Roland. He is a gardener in Greyton. I hope there are some gardens left for him to garden after these floods that hit the Overberg. This is an oil I did of him and when I took it down for him to see, I had to take his photo with it. Unfortunately I don't have the combined photo, but I have the memory of his face when he saw the portrait. So I also did a watercolour of the same picture and gave that to him.

This first one is a work in progress, which I thought I'd include
The final picture. I was never absolutely happy with it, but decided to leave it as is, anyway.


And the watercolour, which Roland took home with him.

Donavan

It was back to Greyton this past week for me. Gosh, I really love the place - to wake up to the birds, no traffic noise and pollution free air is absolute bliss. Maybe one day I'll get to live in the country.

Some time ago, before I started my art lessons, when I was struggling with the beginnings of oils, I painted a picture of a Rasta who lives in the Imizamo Yethu settlement in Hout Bay. His name is Donavan and he feeds a colony of about 8 stray cats in the area. To feed them, he makes a fishing line and goes down to the harbour in Hout Bay to catch fish. I did a pencil drawing of him and then I tried my hand at an oil.The last time I was in Greyton, I met two Rastafarians who live and work in the area. Of course I had to paint them. I will be posting them in the next week or two, as a comparison to Donovan!