Find solace in the Nieu-Bethesda labyrinth

If you've never been to Nieu-Bethesda then you really don't know what you're missing. It's not just another Karoo town nor is it a place where nothing grows yay high. Yes, it's a small village, only has dirt roads with no street lights, has no petrol station or a PEP. I once read a travel piece where the writer said a small town is really only a town if it has a PEP. Anyhow. In Nieu-Bethesda you will literally find…

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Nieu-Bethesda’s owl sellers

Nieu-Bethesda's biggest export item, as in what people take away with them, must be their cement owls. It all started at the Owl House where Helen Martins transformed the house and then the yard, the latter with the help of Koos Malgas. Although there are so many different cement figures in the yard, the owls are the most prominent. No wonder it's called the Owl House. It's also the one thing most visitors to the village want to go home…

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A stroll around Art in the Park

Art in the Park truly has been a part of Port Elizabeth's being for much longer than I can even remember. 35 years ago I can remember my mom having a stall at Art in the Park and how we spent the whole day playing around St Georges Park and going through the stalls. The stalls stretched all the way from the entrance at the art museum past the pool to the first big trees and then down to the…

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Figures in a line

A lot of the figures in the Voting Line art piece on the Donkin Reserve are based on real people. One of the things I like is the fact that you notice different personal or clothing features on the figures every time you visit.

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Walter Battiss Art Gallery – the home of Fook Island

The Karoo Heartland town of Somerset East is a place full of interesting and quirky attractions.  One of them is the Walter Battiss Art Gallery which also houses the local tourism information office.  Battiss (6 January 1906 – 20 August 1982) was generally considered to be the foremost South African abstract painter but is probably equally as famous as the creator of the quirky Fook Island.  Fook Island was Battiss' "island of the imagination" for which he created a map,…

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Madiba’s glasses

On my last visit to Cape Town I wanted to make sure I got to see the Madiba inspired "sunglasses" placed next to the promenade at Sea Point.  The art piece was created by artist Michael Elion, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town as part of World Design Capital 2014 and was in the news recently when it was defaced.  I popped by early morning before heading off to World Travel Market Africa which I was attending... ... and…

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Concrete, glass and colours at the Owl House

The Karoo Town of Nieu Bethesda is the kind of place everybody needs to try and visit at some stage in their lives.  Its not a big tourist orientated city but rather a small village that embrace their visitors.  The most famous attraction in Nieu Bethesda is the world renown Owl House. The late Helen Martins spent most of her life in the town and the latter part of it transforming her ordinary Karoo home into a place of colour and light.  Over the…

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Anton Momberg’s Route 67 sculpture

Route 67 on the Donkin Reserve in Port Elizabeth has some really interesting art pieces ranging from real taxi's mounted on a wall to the 470 square meter Piazza Mosaic next to the Pyramid.  Then there's also the Voting Line with Madiba's figure at the front standing under the tallest flag pole in South Africa sporting a 10 m x 15 m South African flag.   Looking across the reserve towards Algoa Bay stands a lone female figure on a pedestal. (Shouldn't men put all women on…

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Donkin mosaïek op Roete 67

Een van die mooiste kunsstukke wat deel uitmaak van die nuwe Roete 67 kuns- en kultuurroete in Port Elizabeth is die reuse mosaïek op die Donkin Reservaat.  Die moasïek wat deur studente aan die Nelson Mandela Metropolitaanse Universiteit gedoen is verteenwoordig aspekte van die Ooskaap.  Die sluit in diere, voëls, plante, mense en vele ander dinge.  Route 67 bestaan uit 67 kunswerke wat die 67 jaar wat Nelson Mandela in die publieke oog deurgebring het verteenwoordig.  Dit begin by die…

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Donkin Mosaic

The 470 square meter mosaic next to the pyramid on the Donkin Reserve is one of the art pieces that has been installed in the area as part of the Route 67 development.  The mosaic celebrates the many cultures, heritages, diverse histories and abundant fauna and flora that characterises the city and province.  The mosaic was done by students from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and is made up of a lot of different details.  I have posted a similar…

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