Fisherman's cottage

This is one of the fisherman's cottages at Arniston, where we holidayed - this old section is called Kassies Baai - and the whole place is a national monument, dating back 200 years, which for South Africa is a long history - I know it won't impress some of you ancients with 700+ year old architecture, but we are very proud of these humble little abodes! They look charmingly hand-crafted - uneven walls, rounded edges and softly moulded edifices. The people living there have inevitably embraced the modern world - electric power lines, cars, trailers and caravans now embellish the simple time-worn village - but the feeling lingers on...
I zoned in on the cottage above, trying to define the shapes of the white-washed walls with subtle variations of colour (which aren't so subtle after all) - a painting I've been thinking of doing for ages - it's a start, but I need to try it again... and again... (on Canson Not 24 x 32 cm)
The little sketch on the right isn't finished, but it gives an impression of what the light is like there on a sunny day - glaringly bright, the whites of buildings and sand melding into each other, and everything sun-bleached and washed out.

Now listen, here's something exciting! I've been invited to be a correspondent on the Urban Sketchers blog!! I feel very honoured to be joining the amazing sketchers there from all over the world - and to be another of the rather scarce dots on the map of Africa. I'm going to have to get out more to keep the urban sketches flowing, but that's a good thing - I've been rather house-bound of late. My introduction will be on the 1st of February, I think, so come and visit there, wont you?