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Have a Look.

Please take a look at my new web site:


dawnevans-artist.com

I would appreciate your comments and views on my recent work.

Apologies for the lack of posts on the Kakamanian, I have been rather busy but will get back to the blog soon.
XXX
Dawn

AUGUST IN THE DESERT

August is the month of blustering winds, sometimes searingly cold. The Ha de Da Ibis have paired and are preparing nests for offspring , so they fly above the farm wailing at each other in their "otherworldy" way..

The bare vines have had enough rest and are just starting to bud.

A view of the vines with Ha De Dah`s rising and screeching!!!

 We have returned from dear old Blighty to see Winter scurrying from the desert...and  Spring arriving, the nights are still cold [nicely so!] but the day time temps are reaching the mid 20`s now, so I arrive first thing in the garden, clad in boots and fleeces and by mid day am working in a teeshirt and my new leather bushmans gardening hat [My dear old Panama finally died!]
Bee loves sunbathing on the decking ,its not yet too hot for her.

A very content Bee.

So what has happened at the farm? Moses now has 20 goats, of varying ages and colours..he is sooo proud of his flock, and I have to admit that watching them poddling around the wilderness around the farm is a great delight to me..if only they didnt smell like goats!
The geese have procreated and the three females are taking turns in sitting on appx...12 eggs. I cant really say for sure because one nest is in the coral and the old girl ontop [ one of our original flock] refuses to allow anyone near her. The younger girls have made a nest in some high grasses in the front garden and there WERE six beautifull white eggs in there, she doesnt pay such strict attention to these eggs, and Bongo has sniffed them out and returned, slug faced and  licking egg yolk from his jowels! As a result, the flock of very aggressive boy geese have now posted themselves around the make- shift nest and launch frenzied attacks on ANYONE who happens within 50 meters of the nest.

Sensible Mama goose

My three new veggie plots are well under construction . Moses and his two assistants rose to the challenge and have constructed them [based on a similar formulea to my herb garden]. Clearly they were not prepared to let me continue to crow over my construction talents. It was very hard work doing the herb garden on my own, so I have very gracefully allowed and encouraged them all and am delighted with the results.

Veggie plots awaiting soil and shade netting

While we were in UK, the entire front rock face of the farmgarden, was covered in the "orange soil" in prep for grass stookies to be laid in the Spring. A lorry load of Buffalo Grass Stookies arrives this week from Cape Town, so I have been busy marking out the new driveway. We have much work still to do, but the scaffolding of a new entrance to the farm are in place. Every time I go outside to muddle around in the sand, Bongo goes quite wild, he always loved playing in the sand as a pup, now at 85 kilos, he is quite a revalation to watch...These are pictures of a VERY happy and exuberant BONGOGOGO!

stakes mark the position of new drive way

 

BONGOGOGOGO...GO!

Arty news..My great friend Eugene has been offered an exhibition in Cape Town..not of his pastel work, but of his ceramic heads. [which I have always loved]. He promised that upon my return ,I could join him at his Aunts studio and start to learn how to use clay. Indeed if I liked it, I could be a huge help to him in his lengthy preparation for the exhibition.
It has been a rapid initiation into "stage one"ceramics, by this I mean the preparation and forming of clay. Stage two is the kiln work and firing and stage three is the glazing and fire pit work.[ these proesses I know nothing of yet]

Even Eugene sais that of all of the 15 heads he has been asked to produce, there will be fall out during each of the ceramic  processes. With his exhibition looming in November, he has much work to achieve. So I have been busy in the braai room [a rapidly trandformed studio] "playing with clay" or in artists speak "Trying to develop a relationship with clay". I have prepared some heads in the style of Eugene to hand over to him for the firing and glazing, but have also been indulging myself and playing with coiling . I am very proud of my first coile vessel..a "Fruit bowl" in the form of a pregnant torso....It is only Stage 1 at the moment and will take several weeks to fully dry before the kiln process can be done.

Above are some of my first attempts at  "stage 1" ceramic sculpture!!

I know that Eugene wont mind me posting some pictures of his "Process" in prep for the exhibition.

BEAUTIFULL HANDS . Beautifull is the name of the lady who helps Eugenes aunt in the house. She is also brilliant at rolling clay in prep for use. I snapped this photo as she was completely consumed byrolling the clay

Weird and wonderful:

In the middle of no-where, somewhere in the Northern Cape!

After I returned from home, Eugene took me on a drive into the wilderness to see a strange sight, we drove off the road into desert and abandoined vines, after a good 20 minutes of driving on rough tracks we came to a rocky outcrop in the middle of no-where...There on the top of a klippie, was the most extraordinary cement sculpture. Apparantly it was created by a local farmer [in extreme privacy], who had a penchent for sculpting. As you will know the local farming fraternity are very hands on and practical people and soley focused upon farming, so expressions of this sort are not really understood and even less so in the 1950`s. I find it rather soulful and sad this "beauty in the desert".

she really is quite scarey!

More weird stuff:

WHY??????..guaranteed to confuse me as a "tourist"

Equally mind bending...message in the centre of Salcomb, Devon.England.

 

Farewell to all for the moment, lets hope the next time I post there will be pictures of goslings...if the terrible Bongs hasnt had his way!
Much love and kisses on the Lips to all..
DawnXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Catch up time.

May  25^th 2011.

Catch up time.

Apologies for the lack of blogging, I have been distracted by much over the past months, not least the garden as the temperatures have spiralled downward , making it possible to spend an entire day, quite comfortably, in my garden. 

Bongo "assisting Moses and another spread soil

Much to my fury, most of the tools that I purchased last year have gone missing,  “Moses knows nothing Missus”, and so I have begrudgingly re purchased, and to Reginas horror, now  keep all tools on the ironing cupboard! Including axes spades shovels and rakes. [The wheelbarrow doesnt fit!]

Much has been achieved with yet more still to be done.

Orange soil now stands in dunes , in the front garden [on the “farm gate side” not the green gate side] It has yet to be levelled, and as soon as spring is with us, buffalo grass will be planted.

The front and new back lawn have been dressed with soil for the winter, to promote vigarouse growth in the spring.

The geese are very put out that their grazing ability has been substantially reduced, and have taken to sending the bravest of the bunch on sorti missions inside the kitchen. Bongo and Bee are now so petrified of them, that they keep their heads down on their beds and pretend its not happening>

I have constructed  an enclosed herb garden, outside of the kitchen by the main entrance drive, not much planted yet as I am awaiting irrigation sprayers to be situated [meant to happen today..but this is Africaaaaaa!]

The new herb garden..built by me..and irrigated today by me...polishing very dirty nails on my dressing gown as I type.

Eugene gave me a fig tree for my birthday as he knows that in my humble opinion, no garden should be without a fig tree, no matter what side of the equator it is . So a large pot has been purchased and Birthday Fig is now planted.

Thyme seed, Chillie seed, sweet peas, radishes,geraniums & nasturtiums have all germinated. And my own Rosemary ,Mint, and Parsley are installed. 

Taz`s chillie peppers and Thyme ready to go into the herb garden,

To my great delight ,I have demolished the rose garden..I have hated it for the past two and half years..its just too “she she” for me [a phrase used by my Ma very often , and I realise that it is a very good one.] So ancient roses have been offered to those that want them [plenty of takers here as they are something of a status symbol!!!!] and I am levelling a 10M X 10M area to place three raised vegetable plots and a fruit tree area...Im very excited about this project, but not much will be achieved in my 6 week absence from the farm from next Monday...but it WILL give me something to look forward to when I return.

Once again Bongo in on the action, the area behind him will be the veggie patch.

My three proposed raised veggie beds will have to have to have shade netting over them and will be irrigated from hanging sprinklers. Moses was horrified when I started attacking the roses, as his surreptitiously planted Brussel sprouts inbetween the rows of roses, have now been exposed, and his less that surreptitious sugar cane..Which was threatening the roses, will all have to go. He has been consoled by the fact that I am giving him one of the raised beds for his veggie production...lots of flashing white teeth, and glittery eyes, and subsequently, plenty of his humming! My plan is to construct the raised beds, prepare the soil during the winter, and go into complete veggie overdrive in the spring.

I have plans to plant olive trees [X6], a Macadamia tree, a Lime tree, and have already planted an Advocado and a Nectarine tree in the back garden.

So,  much going on OUTSIDE the farm house during these cool winter months.

Sad Loss of my “Angel friend”.

My dear friend, Gerry who helped me enormously with my writing, died suddenly a few weeks ago, mercifully for her she didn’t suffer a long illness but departed shockingly rapidly and with very little warning.

She really was a very special person, generous with her time and perhaps the most compassionate person that I have had the good fortune to meet. She has left a large hole in my life here in the desert, but she gave so much in the short time that I knew her, that I have a lasting legacy of her advice and kindness and goodwill to remember her by.

Happy flying Gerry.

Cape Town weekend and back with Kate and Pippa.

On Friday 20^th, I drove to Cape Town to spend the weekend with Little. I depart for UK on 30^th May, [Big already having been in Europe since 6^th May]  Little wont join us until he breaks up from school on 23^rd June. It will be his first solo International flight!

So some much needed time together and a very chilled weekend. Eugene was staying with friends just outside of Cape Town and so begged a lift there and back which I was extremely pleased to do, good company for the long trip.

He insisted on bringing a "rescued" baby barn owl down from the Northern Cape, which we dropped off at an animal rescue place in Stellenbosch, and on the way back we collected a pair of “Quaker parakeets”, they are sisters and so I suggested that he call them “Kate” & “Pippa”.  I was slightly concerned that they would suffer from my speed driving..quite the contrary, they sung beautifully and chirruped merily when I drove fast and went deathly quiet when I slowed down..so Eugene kept having to check up on them, strapped in their small wooden box between the mountains of goods that I had purchased in CT.
Two huge new dog beds especially made for Bongs and Bee for the winter, bags of ingredients shopping [lots of Thai ingredients that I cant get in the N.C, and a few bits of winter clothing for me [ somehow I had forgotten how cold it can get here and have left all my winter wear at Tazzies in UK]...Oh and a couple of cases of Champers and a couple of the white that I love.

                                            Exhibition at Grand Provenve in Franschoek.Paul Boulitreau

On Saturday Little and I shopped ,then in the evening went out to the cinema with some of his buddies from school .On Sunday we went to Franschoek to see a few art exhibitions..where I had a classic “teenage interaction” with Little.

After an hour of visiting the fantastic contemporary gallery at Grand Provence,

 I discovered that Franschoek has just had a literary festival and all the galleries had exhibited topica work from ZA artists..much of it I loved.

                   Loops if you are still reading this..I thought of your newspapered "scripted trees!!!

                                                    Light sculpture..ground bottles bases..fantastic
When we left the gallery space we walked through the gardens, which are beutiful and have all manner of sculptures, including a large woven elephant [which I dont like], but to my complete delight there was a squirell abord, taking adavantage of the height to eat a nut.

Kind of puts all the "arty farty" stuff into perspective and tickled me very much.

We went into another gallery and Littles face turned stony and sour..clearly he was not up for a second hit of "culture", so I tried to cajole him along...not successfully...so ended up saying. “Its good for your mind to be challenged by this kind of stuff. “ He gave me an utterly dead pan look and responded: “My mind DOESNT need to be challenged by THIS kind of stuff.”  One very grumpy young man, who only managed a smile when we sat at a great cafe that sells his favourite beverage..Hot white chocolate drink!!!

View from the cellar resteraunt at Haute Cabrierre in Franschoek.

Onto the Haute Cabrierre cellars where I re stocked on white wine and their delicious champagne [If I can, I will bring a couple of bottles over for you and David, Tazzie...downgraded to 20kg luggage allowance though}and a superb lunch that Little scored 9 out of 10. He shared my one glass of wine with me and decided that was quite goos as well. Papa ..be warned, your son intends to press gang you into taking him for a "cellar lunch" again.

Little  faces his first major exams in a week’s time, so good luck to him, and we look forward to collecting him from Heathrow and onto our holiday week in Devon on 24^th June. The “Keeping Place” beckons.

Birthday Boy.

Congratulations to Tommy, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday 21^st May...wow! where has the time gone.

Kisses on the lips to all.

Dawn

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Toodaloo!

Just a quick post to say that Little and I depart for England this Wednesday [23rd]. we return on 11th April so I may not post for a few weeks.

I took a series of snaps of a gobsnackingly beautifull sky  late yesterday afternoon, just before dusk.

It started with a rainbow,and progressed to one of the most dramatic and colourful skies I have ever seen..the experience of watching the sky change was just like taking in a moving painting. During our trip to Botswana, Viki referred to me as a  "Sunset snob"..because I simply refuse to take pictures of sunsets..[ she is quite right as well!]  this is about as near as it gets...hope you enjoy.