First of all letting everybody know that I have been in Windhoek for over two months now! Yeah, I know no updates on the Blob! I have been extremely busy painting, drawing and putting my show together! As soon as I settled into my lovely apartment, I found an art shop and started working immediately. The ideas were there it was just a question of putting them on paper and canvas! I managed to paint eight works in three weeks! (Mind you Vincent did 350 paintings in one year!) The works just poured out of me, was hard to keep up with the body not being what it was before. One work took about about six weeks, a collage, Calle Windhoek Wanderings, a diptych of 2 meters X 1 meter. I walked the streets of Windhoek, indeed, I became an unpaid “streetwalker”! I had hoped to find objects to make a recycled piece of found rubbish, but had not expected to find such an incredibly clean city! Hence it changed direction and became just a collage of some found objects and the rest painted.

The biggest problem was that one day I bought oil paints by mistake! You would like to think that I would know the differences after so many years! AS I paint in the middle of the night the only excuse I can use is that I was too exhausted, just thought it was crappy acrylics! Hence the last three paintings took three weeks to complete and I am still not really happy with one of them, not much I could do about that. At home you can put them aside and then. Go back to it a few weeks down the track, i didn’t have he time for that.

So at night I have been painting while during the day I walked around Windhoek, familiarising myself with the town and it’s amazing people. I did find some time to go to Sosseis vlei I and Dead Vlei. This was on a tour. The country side is just amazing! Stunningly beautiful, haunting and intriguing. I could have stayed in Dead vlei for days.  It was just incredibly stunning. A white clay pan, dead trees, and orange sand dunes. Imagine a cobalt blue sky as the back drop and you get my drift. It was an amazing three days. I had decided to go on a tour as it was all arranged for you and worked out much cheaper than renting a car, organising accommodation and food.

Last week I went to Swakopmund for five days. This is a small German town on the coast. The temperature was fifteen degrees lower than in Windhoek! So after the heat we have had here it made for a lovely change! At least it was pleasant to walk, which I ended up doing for hours! I also did a tour of half a day on a boat. Together with my German friend Helga, before we were out of the harbour the first seal had jumped on board! Absolutely amazing! The next seal who jumped on board ended up on my lap! So cute! And for people who want to know, indeed, these animals still get culled! The big ones get shot and the babies still get clubbed to death once a year! Hard to take, but apparently the seal colony is far too big for the food available! The people use everything of the seals. Still, I found it difficult to accept! Mind you people here are shocked we kill kangaroos and koalas! Anyhow enough of that! We had Pelicans on board and saw thousands of flamingoes. Stunning absolutely stunning. We had oysters and champagne and a beautiful lunch. Such incredibly good value, three and a half hours for only $50 Australian dollars! This country is just amazing!