Category Archives: Mauritius
Sun, Cyclones and a Great Holiday in Mauritius!
A Mauritian Sailing Boat at Sunset
We have stayed at The Shangi-La Le Touessrok on the East coast of Mauritius before and it is always a great place to be when the weather is cold and stormy in the UK.
This recent trip was no exception , even though we arrived at the end of one Cyclone and then another smaller on came along too. However that didn’t cause us any issues and the warm beautiful beaches and the lovely golf course at Ile Aux Cerf made every day a very warm and delightful experience. With temperatures well over 30C dipping in and out of the sea and the fabulous beach side pool was just the thing we needed in January!
Time too for some sketching, which is quite tricky in such heat, but it is fun to to be sitting on a sunbed juggling the sketchbook, paints and brushes. I use a 11 inch by 10 inch format 300 gsm sketchbook when travelling, and these watercolours were in Volume 13 of my “Travels with Brush” books!
So here are the very quick watercolour sketches done during the time we were there, some on the spot and some from photos taken and a couple from photos from previous visits to the resort.
Mauritius is a great and very friendly Island to visit. Nestled in the Indian Ocean, it is a long way from the UK but well worth the journey for the warm weather and relaxing way of life.
Happy Travelling
Brian
Happy Hour at the Beach bar!
Towards the Reef
Boats and Mountains
Sailing at sunset
Fishing Boats
Turquoise Sea and Surf
Week 9 of Lockdown – preparing for coming home!
Mauritius – Paradise Isalnd
HI Everybody
As things appear to improve and Lockdown is easing very slightly it is time to think about travelling home from my virtual journeys.
But first we have to enjoy our few days in Mauritius having got here from Johanesburg.
Mauritius is a very nice holiday location, very friendly people and lovely hotels, good food and excellent local rum too.
Over the years we have enjoyed a good many trips there and never been disappointed, indeed quite the opposite.
These paintings were done earlier this year whilst there and be there will be a lovely way to end our journey, get on the plane and whizz back to England.
Mauritius has really lovely beaches and excellent golf courses, often adjacent to each other. This first painting was done sitting on a loiunger looking out to sea, oh I can feel the warmth even now!
By the beach
There are fishermen everywhere and lots of great little boats to paint all over the island.
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Fishing boats
The Mountains from the Beach
Often there are views from those beaches to the extraordinary mountains of Mauritius and boulders everywhere indicating it’s violent pre history when the whole large island must have been a continuous series of volcanic eruptions on a colossal scale leaving unusual large basalt mountains all over the island.
So now after a final dip in the sea we must fly home to London and hopefully get ready for a bit more easing of the lockdown!
I will be able to play Golf again!
Yippee!
Stay safe and well and who know maybe in a while we will be really travelling again
Brian
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30 Degrees, hot sun in January-Whats not to like! -Mauritius in 2020
The view from the Lounger at Le Tousserok beach. Sketchbook watercolour 9 inches by 8.
Hi Everybody
We have just returned from 10 delightful days in Mauritius, staying at the Le Tousserok Shangri-la Resort on the East coast. It is a long way away but the beautiful January weather makes that journey worthwhile.
For us it is a mixture of Sun and Pool and Golf as well when we are there, and The Shangri-La is a great place to stay at. Of course it wouldn’t be a holiday for me without the watercolour kit and so I also get some time for a few watercolours of the sea and the boats and mountains.
I think its the only place that I have ever been to where I can sit on a comfortable lounger at the beach and paint watercolours!
So here are those watercolours, some just sketches in my Sketch Book. This sketch book is a Khadi papers one and very handy on travel. There are also a couple of watercolours that are larger and were painted in the comfort of our balcony.
I hope you like them and this vision of just a little bit of this lovely Indian Ocean island.
Mauritius is an Island formed from huge volcanoes and large Basalt rocks are everywhere. It is also very fertile and Coconut Palms and Sugar cane grow everywhere, making the island very green. You are never very far from the mountains which make for some wonderful scenery.
“The Mountains by the sea”. Watercolour 14 inches by 10 on Arches paper.
Everywhere around the coast are many small fishing boats and the fish in the restaurants are very good.
“Fishing boats and a shack by the beach”. Sketchbook watercolour 9 by 8 inches on Khadi paper.
“Yachts at Sunrise”. Sketchbook watercolour 9 inches by 8.
There are fisherman all over the island, some fishing from the shore and some standing for hours waist deep in the sea catching their supper.
“Fishermen and boats by the sea”. Sketchbook pen and Ink watercolour 9 inches by 8.
“Boats at the shore”. Watercolour 14 inches by 10 on Arches watercolour paper.
We have now visited Mauritius on quite a few occasions and have always enjoyed it there. The people there are delightful and even though it is far away it is so lovely to go there for some seriously good weather in January
I hope you will enjoy this and maybe my other posts on Mauritius and elsewhere .
Have look at my Artfinder site too, maybe something there will catch your eye.
http://www.artfinder.com/brianswatercolours
Happy travelling
Brian
10 Days on Paradise Island!
Mount Bambous from The East Coast of Mauritius
Hi All
We have just returned from 10 days in Mauritius, we think of it as a paradise island, especially in January when the UK is cold and the weather is so fabulous in Mauritius.
We returned again to the Shangri-La Le Touessrok Resort , on the East coast at Trou D’Eau Douce, which we really like, and where as well as great facilities and beaches there is the very challenging Ile au Cerfs Golf Course to play.
I have never played golf anywhere except there that requires a lovely 15 minute boat trip to get to the course, it is really a great experience.
There is something very special about painting watercolours whilst sitting on a sun bed on the beach, but some of these watercolours were done like that from photos or memory as well as painting the scene right there on the beach.
They are all quick works, about 9 inches by 8, (they have to be with such hot sun!) and are in my Khadi Papers travel sketch book. They will provide the basis for larger watercolours to be painted here in the studio now that we are home.
Wherever you look in Mauritius there are little boats moored or sailing out fishing. They provide endless opportunities for sketches even if they were just a fleeting scene viewed as you drive by.
Anyway they were all fun to do and I hope you like them.
Mauritius is such a lovely island with delightful people who are all very friendly and helpful. They have a great multicultural population and although the locals all speak Creole to each other almost everybody speaks both French and English as they are the languages taught in the schools there.
With it’s large rainfall but beautiful sunny weather too it is a very green and lush island where the main crop is sugar cane, which you see everywhere you go and as well as exporting sugar the rum made from it is very good too!
So here are the watercolours from this trip.
Grand Baie on the North Coast
Boats at the beach
Big Mauritian Skies!
A farm by the road
The Ilot Mangenie at Le Touessrok. Secluded and only a boat ride away!
Two boats on the beach
Fisherman on the jetty
Now we are back in the cold of the UK, but with great memories of yet another wonderful trip to Mauritius.
Happy travelling!
Brian
It is January and 30 C — It must be — Mauritius!!
The Beach at Le Touessrok Watercolour 14 inches by 10.
Hi Readers
We sometimes like to escape the winter in the UK for a week or two and so this year we have just been to Mauritius.
Mauritius has a lovely climate, with a little rain so the whole countryside is very green, but the beaches are beautiful sand and the sea is very warm.
Most days in January the temperature gets up to 30C and even in the evenings it is very warm.
For my watercolour paintings it isn’t ideal as painting “en plain air” is very tricky (at least for me) but nevertheless I have managed to produce a few paintings during our holiday.
Some of them are for me unique as I painted then whilst reclining on sun bed on the beach at our resort of Le Touessrok. As one passer by said “well I have never seen that before!” Le Touessrok, now a Shangri-La hotel is on the East coast of the island of Mauritius, which is often described, especially by the delightful Mauritian people, as “Paradise Island”
At the end of this post I have added a couple of paintings that I produced on previous trips to Mauritius as they also give different aspect of the area.
We like to play golf there as well as soaking up the sun and the golf course, (which you get to on a boat!) is on Ile des Cerfs, and is very challenging, but beautiful. It was designed by Bernard Langer, a famous Golf professional.
Now we are back in the UK and it does seem cold here, but those 10 days in the sun will be good memory while winter is still here.
I hope you enjoy the paintings
Happy Travelling!
Brian
“Sailing By”. Watercolour 14 inches by 10.
“Homeward Bound” Watercolour 14 by 10
“Fishing off the Reef”. Watercolour 14 by 10.
“Grand Bay, at the north of Mauritius”. Watercolour 14 by 10.
And a couple from previous visits
The view from the Green at 11th hole at Le Touessrok, Mauritius
The Bernard Langer course at Le Touessrok from the air.
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Thanks
Brian
Golf and a Wedding at Legends Golf and Safari at Entabeni, and then a few days in Mauritius!
Dawn at Legends Golf and Safari
Hi Everybody
We have just returned from a wonderful holiday at Legends Golf and Safari where we enjoyed some golf and the opportunity to go to the Wedding of our good friends Ian Godleman and Lynnette Brooky.
We have been travelling with them (Pro Golfing Tours) on great golf trips for many years and this one was no exception, made even more exciting by being the venue for their Wedding. You can see more about Legends Extreme 19th hole at http://www.legendgolfsafari.com/extreme-19th
Theirs was the first Wedding to have been held on the Extreme 19th Hole at Entabeni. The tee has to be reached by helicopter and is over 400 metres higher than the green below which is in the shape of Africa.
The Wedding ceremony was held on the mountain top and after the ceremony we all teed off to see how good a score we could achieve on this totally unique, and very tricky Par 3 hole. It is the highest Par 3 tee in the world and was such a fantastic venue for the Wedding.
All the guests enjoyed the unique experience and we all wish them Good Health and Happiness for the future. You can see more about the Wedding on the Ladies European Tour Website.
I managed to paint a few watercolours whilst there and I hope you will like them. The views and the animals at Entabeni are really spectacular. I used some web images to help with the animal paintings on this occasion but we were lucky to see Lions, Giraffes, Elephants, Cheetahs, Rhinos and lots of Wildebeast, Antelope and Zebra. The trip to the golf course is daily safari, and one morning the Lions had made a kill just upside of our Lodge!
After our great week there we then travelled to Mauritius for some more golf and relaxation at le Tousserok. The location by the Indian Ocean and it’s fine golf course on an island is a really terrific destination. Not much time for painting, but here are two , one of which I painted quickly on the return flight of 12 hours from Mauritius to London. Painting in the cabin was a first for me and a bit tricky with the slight turbulence.
The last painting is one that I painted in 2008 showing the Bernard Langer designed golf course at Le Tousserok. I thought it was worth including it here.
Anyway please enjoy these paintings and if you ever get the chance, golfer or not do go to legends at Entabeni,it is really great place to go!
Happy travelling
Brian
Early evening at Hanglip
On the practice range at Entabeni
Towards the Entabeni mountains
Elephants in the sunset
Dawn at Wildside
The 11th hole at Le Tousserok, Mauritius
A Sandy Bay on Mauritius,
Painted on the flight to London.
The Bernard Langer course at Le Tousserok from the air
