Paternoster Wedding

Anri was born on the West Coast and was fortunate as a young adult to spend five years on a farm outside Paternoster. She knew then that she would like to get married here one day. Young people almost always leave our quiet shores and Anri worked in both the Netherlands and then settled in London. Here she met Rodrigo and the dream took shape!

As I painted Anri, her feet grounded in the soil (ah, in fact it is very clean sand!) of her birthplace and her eyes on the wonderful Rodrigo, the painting started to become very symbolic. They are turned away from us, towards their future overseas. The little boat points to a distant place too. I chose very controlled colours so that everything would echo the sea, sand and sky. Don't you just love the eye contact of the couple, fingers entwined and the groom's pants gamely rolled up?And of course, that lovely dress that leaves us speechless!

My thanks to West Coast photographer MARIÉ MALHERBE for the use of some of her material for the painting and for the photo I have reproduced here.

Chimneys and Saplings

150 x 200 Acrylic on canvas board.

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I am still finding lovely details in the homes of Paternoster, details that salute the cottages of the past. A chimney, of course is most important. All the fishermen's cottages used to have enormous wood-firing ovens inside with plastered outside chimneys. I showed many of these chimneys in cottages in my earlier posts last year. Here you see a modern version.

Then there were saplings, the almost straight thin branches used for ceilings, and in my painting used as veranda coverings. In my own home saplings give a cozy atmosphere to the main bedroom. There are 3 paintings in this little set now, and I will leave it at that. The photo shows the set together.

It is shiveringly cold in the Cape at the moment. Not being able to leave the house or to travel at all, I have rounded up some friends who gave me photographic material for the next three West Coast stories. There are some paintings taking form at this very moment. The first of these: another West Coast bride! Remember Canadian beauty, Melissa in my older blog The Bride and the Sea? So I am painting my second wedding!

The Bride and the Sea

Strandkombuis at Yzerfontein on the West Coast, is renown for beautiful weddings. No wonder! Yzerfontein has many acres of pristine white beach. A wedding can take place on the sand, maybe in the 'long-shadows-hour', shortly before sunset. And afterwards in the disappearing light, guests can enter the beach shelter for a feast to remember!

A lovely venue! Now add a striking bride! Melissa Madore, a tall, dark-haired French-Canadian beauty, met Tiaan, a South African who has spent much of his youth in Europe, when they were both lecturing in Taiwan. Melissa came to live in South Africa for a year - it became five years! Where to get married? Being such seasoned travellers, they had plans to marry in Kenya where they once had a holiday. Not very practical if you have to transport all your guests including Tiaan's newly-born nephew over there!

In Melissa's own words: "I still very much wanted a beach wedding. Then we looked at Strandkombuis and we both fell on our knees, thinking: 'This is it! This is the place!' "

All the guests, including the bridegroom and his best man, wore white. The chairs had white cotton dust covers and a white tent-type shelter with a flower-covered arch was ready for the ceremony. Then Melissa appeared in a sensational dark blue dress with lots of frothy white lace echoing the sea and the foamy waves. Striking and original! I did not want to paint the wedding photographs and used three different photos to work out a composition where the bride looks down onto the scene from the dunes higher up.

Shilpa Shetty bridal look

Tarun Tahiliani presented the hot and sultry Shilpa Shetty as his showstopper at the HDIL India Couture Week . Tarun dressed up Shilpa as a bride, and there must not have been a man there in the audience who would not have wanted to tie the knot with the gorgeous actor. She took the ramp with a confident stride, wearing a coy smile along with a majestic red-gold brocade and zardozi lehenga studded with semi-precious stones. The beautifully studded neckpiece, made Shilpa look every inch the breathtaking bride.

Eesha Koppikkar bridal look

Bipasha bridal look

Eesha Koppikkar bridal look

Eesha Koppikkar looks gorgeous with her bridal costumes and make-up . She is dressed as a bride on the ramp of a fashion show.

Bipasha bridal look

Shilpa shetty bridal look

Bipasha's Bridal look

Look at the bengali bride, she is none other that our Bipasha Basu. And no, she’s not secretly married. The bridal for her first Bengali film 'Sab Choritra Kalponik ' .

Eesha Koppikkar bridal look

Shilpa Shetty bridal look