| Judy writes The portraiture workshop was a result of my having consulted with a South African artist, Sonia Jacka, who was painting a portrait of Archbishop Tutu to be auctioned off for housing in the township of Masiphumelele. (Sonia also has created a beautiful and informative web page about the workshop. She was also a wonderful host during my stay. See her elegant description of one of our painting spots below.) Before I left for the trip, my friends in the Akron Society of Artists asked me if I would see Archbishop Tutu, and I told them I couldn't IMAGINE that I would as it is a very big country, he is often away from it, and he is a very busy man. Circumstances conspired to make me late getting to the gate at Heathrow for the plane to Capetown and everybody else had boarded; just as I got to the gate, one other person arrived, also late. I turned and found Archbishop Tutu smiling at me! I told him he was the reason I was going to South Africa. He and I walked down the jetway together, talking art! | |
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There were fifteen very enthusiastic South African artists in the workshop, with three models every day. |
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 Zonke modeled for one of my demos |
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 Natasha, future fashion designer: |
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 And her sister, Nicole ...The world is waiting for them! |
When the workshop was over, I was shown all over the Capetown and Cape Point area for a week by my host family. I found South Africa too beautiful for words, but Sonia Jacka has come close: "Hi, Judy, I thought of you today...Remember your rock, you wanted to paint it but the wind was blowing too much. You should have seen it this evening. The sun was setting...and casting it's beautiful glow across the sea and onto your rock. There was some cloud moving across the sun...like a luminous silk scarf draped over the sun with this warm glow shining through it, and...toward Houtbay there was such drama in the sky with rock and mountain trying to push its way through the cold grey clouds. ...It was so beautiful you would have had tears in your eyes." |
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 View of Capetown from the top of Table Mountain. Robben Island is eight miles off shore. The World Cup Soccer Stadium is shining to the right of the hill. |
 Inside Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island. He was imprisoned for 27 years. |
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 Toward the Cape of Good Hope ... painting on the road to Cape Point. |
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Just as we'd packed up our paints, the baboons came. Plein air painters in the USA have to watch out for bears and moose. Imagine having to watch out for baboons! They have very long canine teeth! |
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We locked the car doors fast! They know how to open the doors. On the last day, my host family treated me to wine tasting in the wine producing area and to dinner (I had wart hog) in an elegant restaurant with a view of the valley and the mountains. (South African wines are excellent. Try 'The Spattered Toad.') |
| To my Akron Society of Artists friends: Sorry, but I was not able to bring back the mongoose hairs you hoped
to make brushes with; the mongoose who visited my cottage daily was too elusive to catch. He loves his daily swag of eggs that he
steals from the chicken coop, and they make his coat sleek and shiny; so it would have made good brushes. And by the way: the wonderful cool north light we portrait painters love so much ... in South Africa it's the south light they love. Think about it. —Judy |
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