Simon's Town is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula, south of Cape Town. For more than two centuries it has been a naval base and harbour (first for the British Royal Navy and now the South African Navy). The town is named after Simon van der Stel, an early governor of the Cape Colony.

The town has many beautiful, well-preserved buildings dating from as early as the 17th century, although the buildings in the historical centre on St George’s Street were mainly constructed in the 19th century,
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Boulders Beach is located a few kilometres to the south of Simon's Town. Here small coves and beaches are interspersed between boulders of Cape granite. There has been a colony of African penguins here since 1985.

The Al Azhar Mosque, in Aspeling Street, on the tight hand side of the image, was founded in 1887 by Imam Kassiem Gamieldien who served as its first Imam. The buildings surrounding it have long since gone, but the mosque remains and continues as a place of worship.

The Shafee Mosque in Upper Chiappini Street, originally known by the name of its founder Imam Hadjie, was the fifth mosque constructed in Bo-Kaap, in the late 1800s.

​Visit the gallery for more images which are are available as high quality prints on non-archival paper or on stretched canvas. Click here for prices.

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I completed this piece: "Copper Milk Churn" last year. It's a special piece, being created on metallic scratchboard, so that the copper foil backing is revealed through the ink coating as the image is created. Most of my works are also available as prints in a variety of sizes on both high quality papers and on stretched canvas. However, this piece has proved impossible to reproduce satisfactorily and so it remains as an original only. A true one-of-a-kind!

"Copper Milk Church" is one of a number of my original works which is currently on exhibition in the Richard Crowie Hall at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town. This exciting exhibition, curated by Jill Fearon, features work by a number of Cape Artists, and runs until 21st March, 2019.

A balcony is not like a stoep, open and easily accessible to every passer by. It is more private, more a family affair, and in times gone by, almost a way of life. People would sit on their balconies of an evening to gossip, smoke and watch the passing parade, and District Six had many balconies, especial in Hanover Street. People would keep their pets there, string their washing out to dry, and as a playground, it was safe and near at hand.

Most of the balconies have long since been condemned and demolished, and with it a tradition, known as the 'skel', practiced by women neighbours when they quarrelled. In a wordy battle the woman up on the balcony had a distinct advantage for she could empty the contents of her dirt-bin (or worse) onto her adversary. This was rare though as these exchanges more usually consisted of bawdy comments and quick witted quips. A crowd would gather who listened with the ears of connoisseurs, while children would cheer and clap hands when one or other woman uttered such a riposte to leave her adversary speechless for a while. The saving features of these street-to-balcony skirmishes were that the two opponents were unable to engage in physical violence; rather they provided free entertainment to their neighbours, and they lived to fight another day!

The Cape Malay fishermen, who mainly lived in District Six, recognised two seasons. There was the season of the small fish, such as harders, which lasted eight months, then came the season of the big fish, particularly snoek. The fishermen never risked their money in banks, rather they wrapped their coins in lappies (little bits of rag) and through them on the roof of the four-poster bed which most of them inherited.
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They would often discuss the snoek run during the season. An early season, with fat specimens at the outset, portends a wet winter, but if the fish only began to run in late April or early May, the Cape winter would be dry and brief. A snoek with soft and pinkish flesh is suspect and few will eat it, and if appears slightly luminous when hung in the dark, it must not be eaten even if freshly caught. You have been warned.