When I arrived in Cape Town on Friday the 17th I was greeted by a very friendly butler, named Lizo, at the Old Foundry Hotel, where I spent one evening.

Then on Friday Night (the actual reason for my trip to Cape Town) was to meet up with Michelle Paterson (Director of MContemporary gallery)

, Louise Rush (the manager of the gallery)

as well as a couple of their collectors, especially Paul and Dimi Korkidas, from Australia, for dinner at Thali – a contemporary Indian Restaurant in Cape Town.

It was truly a wonderful experience. One I will never forget.

The next day I spent 5 hours at the Cape Town Art Fair

Apart form the sensory overload, it was great to bump into fellow artists like Elske Henderson:

It was also insightful to do the walkabout with curator Sean O’ Toole who talked about his curated solo booths project at the fair.

It was interesting to hear him commenting that artists-‘friends’ for eg: Jeanne Gaigher who was accepted and despite their age, Gerhard Marx as well as Joachim Schonfeld were accepted- as if age should matter. And he also mentioned the ‘art world politics’ where Marx left Goodman for Everard read, etc…..So afterwards I cornered Sean and asked him if my work was not accepted because I am too old, or not his friend, or not with the ‘right’ gallery or is it my work that was not strong enough?

I probaby caught him by surprise, but as a critic I feel that he should be able to handle a straight forward question. His answer was that he was not responsible for the selection, but that the “Art Fair People” chose the 10 galleries that he had to work with. mmmm…..

Anyway,

Up next was a visit with some family members. Here I am with my belated mom’s eldest brother and his wife (Fanie & Annatjie Kruis), whom I haven’t seen since my mom’s passing more than 20 years ago.

As well as my cousin Stephan Kruis:

Then on Sunday I spent some time with an old school friend (Jeanine Kotze) and her family in Stellenbosch. They took me around town and we had a wonderful time catching up.

Unfortunately I left Stellenbosch the next day with a tummy bug, but are on my way to recovery. Looking forward to get back into the studio.

xxxx