The beach at Wilderness on the Garden Route. watercolour 14 inches by 7.

While the chills of February continued in the UK we have been lucky enough to have been travelling , and mainly golfing, with great friends, in South Africa and then relaxing, with a bit more golf in Mauritius.

The weather, the food, the wine and the people were all fantastic and we all had a great time.

Now you can’t golf all day so I have had a few hours to paint some quick watercolours along the way. For the first time in many years I decided to take little sketch book of 9 inches by 7 watercolour paper to do most of the paintings. The book, made by Khadi Papers proved ideal and not too large to use sitting on the beach too! The larger painting are 14 by 10 on Arches Cold pressed paper.

So here are the best of the  paintings that I produced over the two and a half weeks away and I do hope you will enjoy seeing them. They were fun to produce, often only taking 30 minutes of so. You can see that in some of them!

First of all we were at a lovely Golfing hotel called Fancourt near George on the Garden Route in South Africa. A very nice place to stay and three lovely courses, so we played 5 times there.

In George and in Wilderness on the coast we found stunning restaurants. The Town House in George, probably the best steak I have ever eaten! The Fat fish in George, really good fresh fish and super wine, and maybe the best restaurant I have ever eaten in in our 4 visits to South Africa. It is called Serendipity it is in Wilderness on the coast. Truly magnificent and hosted by the most delightful  Rudolf and Lizelle! Go there is you can!!

Enough of food, here are some watercolours.

The Golf courses provide lovely views of the Outeniqua mountains  so here are my interpretations.

Early sunset at Outeniqua

Two holes, 5th Green and 14th Fairway on the Montagu Golf Course at Fancourt

The Heads at Knysna  on the Garden Route

Boats sailing in the lagoon at Knysna. Watercolour 14 inches by 10

After a week golfing at Fancourt we then drove to Franschheok for a few days before flying on to Mauritius.

Franschheok is a delightful town and in the heart of the wine region of South Africa. We did some tasting, and too much swallowing, the highlight being the small but beautiful Vineyard of Stonybrook. Again lovely meals in Franschheok where all the restaurants we tried were really good. (Ryan’s Kitchen, Grande Provence, and Monneaux)

So time for a few more watercolour paintings there too.

The immense mountains that surround Franschheok. Watercolour 14 by 10 inches.

Vineyard and Mountains at Franschheok

And so on to Mauritius. The climate in Mauritius is delightful, hot , sometimes sultry and warm seas to swim in. Once again we stayed at the Shangri-La Le Touessrok which has access to the Bernhard Langer designed Golf Course -Ile Aux Cerfs.

These watercolours were produced there, painted exclusively whist lying on a sunbed!

These sketchbook watercolours painted there from photos or memory.

Boats sailing on the East Coast of Mauritius

Sunset

More yachts sailing!

Yachts on the horizon

And so back home to the UK, but wait , in the meantime Spring has arrived in Kent, how good is that!

Happy Travelling

Brian