Following the Steel Wings

Last weekend we drove to the little town of Clarens in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains, known as an 'artist's haven' as so many artists live there, or visit regularly. Apparently it is also a Biker's haven, as both times we have been we've had these growling, throbbing machines follow and overtake us all the way there. Once in the village, they're parked outside the pubs and restaurants while the leather-clad, be-studded, tassled and tattooed riders mill around on the pavement and occupy tables not too far away from their metal beasts. 

I started sketching the approaching road, but found it a bit stressful and decided to relax and enjoy the scenery - but grabbed a quick scribble at a 'pitstop' in Harrismith. It must be one of the prettiest places to fill up and get coffee and a snack - rose bushes and flowers everywhere with sandstone mountains as a backdrop - bikers had stopped here too so in they went.

Late afternoon and over a beer at the Clarens Brewery, I started sketching some wire sculptures outside the window, when more bikers arrived and I had a view of them through the doorway. I discovered that it was, in fact, Harley-Davidson weekend in Clarens, and that the Steel Wings raise funds for Aids orphans and other charities. They did seem perfectly nice and normal once you got chatting (my husband chatted while I sketched) in spite of the intimidating outfits.

On Saturday I sketched at a wedding - a commission and the main purpose of our trip - scary... a whole lot more pressure than choosing your subject and it either working, or not and nobody cares. I'm still fiddling around with those!

With the annual Cherry Festival on this weekend in nearby Ficksburg - we were delighted to find bucketloads of the beautiful fruit being sold along the edge of the town square, and the cherry sellers happy to be drawn if I bought their wares, which I did in abundance.

Thumping exhausts alerted me to another group of bikers having breakfast across the square, so I found a spot behind the row of bikes and did another sketch while my husband watched cricket inside before they roared off, and we drove more sedately, back to the city,

The Sheds

After a long dry spell from any drawing or painting while admin and emails and a short trip to the Cape occupied my time, I finally got out for a bit of sketching time. First over lunch with my husband at a pub called the Jolly Roger, where I sketched a scene across the street, until a flamboyant woman and her young date/friend/son? sat down at a nearby table. I couldn't resist furtively getting her down on paper, hoping very much that she wouldn't spot me and ask to see the results - not sure if she would have appreciated them...
Then I made a last minute sketch date for our group to go to a new market at some renovated old mining warehouses on the outskirts of the city called The Sheds@1 Fox on Saturday. Only four of us turned up with such late notice, but with interesting industrial spaces, delicious food and drinks stalls spread around, nice music and a relaxed vibe, we'll have to go back and explore it some more. The Happy Me in the bottom sketch is not, incidentally, referring to the wine in the foreground (though it could!) - it's a 'bubble tea, gourmet coffee, smoothies and mixology' shop in the background, which I did indulge in at that time of day!