The Applecart Man

Dirkie has been a regular visitor to our home for the past six years or so...

He is not normally welcomed by Odi, our rather noisy, but ineffectual ‘guard’ dog, whose ears prick up as he shuffles up our driveway, her shrill barking announcing that a very scary intruder is on the doorstep!

But Dirkie is harmless… A ‘coloured’ man of indeterminate age from the local township, who arrives most mornings with a large gap toothed smile and a joke for the ‘masa’. He hobbles up the steps to the front door then watches the koi in the pond outside the studio as he waits patiently for someone to come out and greet him.

He is a familiar figure tottering along the roads of our small suburb and one often encounters him enjoying a sandwich and coffee on the doorsteps of those who don’t shoo him away. No one knows exactly how old he really is; but we think that the fact that he walks the streets of Wilderness keeps him healthy and impervious to the vagaries of his difficult, yet interesting life.

According to Dirkie, the reason that he has been unable to work for most of his adult life has nothing at all to do with consuming vast amounts of cheap alcohol and everything to do with the fact that he fell from an apple cart when he was young and gainfully employed at a farm in the Langeberge.

What made him creep into our hearts is that he has never once asked for money, preferring a less obvious approach. He stands on the doorstep and shoots the breeze for a while then leaves us chuckling, confounded by the stark contrast of his razor sharp wit and his outwardly dilapidated appearance.

When I decided to paint him, I wanted to capture the warmth and vitality of his extremely weathered face. I rendered him very loosely, hinting at his obviously poor eyesight and trying to capture the warmth of his character in his defining feature; his one-toothed grin…


Once the artwork was completed, I waited impatiently for Dirkie to visit again so I could show him the painting.. When he finally arrived and encountered the artwork which is quite large, measuring 116x116cm. He gazed at it in silence for a while then turned to me, shaking his head and said; “Sjoe masa, maar ‘n ‘hotnot’ is mos ‘n lelike ding…”*

*Afrikaans “Heavens! But a hottentot is an ugly creature”

Visit http://www.peterpharoah.com/ to view more of Peter Pharoah's artworks.

Inspired by Life - Peter's imagination takes him places

Wilderness artist, Peter Pharoah draws inspiration from many things; one of them is Island Lake where his studio is located, he often stalks the herons and little egrets in search of the magical mix of colour, light and pose that will translate into an inspired artwork.

With his camera at the ready, he has become attuned to capturing that perfect image which may become the inspiration for his next painting. Recently his wife Tracey, who is an advertising, marketing and web consultant, spotted two boys en-route from the Wilderness Heights squatter camp to the Bundu Café with a handful of coins… she captured their animated discussion of how these unexpected riches would best be spent and Peter used it to create an artwork entitled “To the Spaza” which is now part of his limited edition Print Collection. “It’s not often that one of my photographs makes the grade... so I was thrilled when Peter told me that he would use it for reference for one of his paintings,” Tracey said.

One of Peter’s recent paintings entitled Bafana Bafana (which means "boys boys" as well as name of the South African national soccer team) captures the energy of a group of young boys kicking around a ball in Tanzania and was painted with a view to commemorating the excitement of the 2010 Soccer World cup tournament as a first ever African event.

With a pioneering aviator grandfather Victor Smith, and father Hugh Pharoah, who only recently retired as 747-simulator instructor as well as two brothers who fly commercially, it is small wonder that Peter too loves flying, although he often admits that hang gliding is his first love.. The couple are fortunate to have travelled extensively through Africa and South Africa and although over recent years, their wings have been somewhat clipped with two school going children, Peter still likes to wing it around the country in his Jabiru J430, visiting faraway places in search of inspiration. He has recently returned from a trip to Cape Agulhas and Augrabies.

Experimenting with textures and techniques which are applied with brushes, knives, or even his fingers to achieve unconventional effects is what makes Peter’s work so unique. The fiery, warm colours in many of his paintings has drawn people from colder climes to take a "special memory of Africa" home with them. His gallery is in Wilderness on the banks of the lagoon and on the N2. By: Pauline Lourens (George Herald 2010 02 18). View article on the George Herald website : http://www.georgeherald.com/news.aspx?id=304.

Find out more about Peter's amazing collection of artworks and prints by visiting his website at http://www.peterpharoah.com/.

Augrabies - Place of Thundering silence

The Khoi people have called it the “Place of Great Noise”, yet I came here to enjoy the silence, the tranquility of this stark, rocky region of the North Western Cape, just a stone’s throw from the Namibian border.

Although few sights are as awesome as water thundering down the through the gorge when the river is in full flood, it is the silent sentinels of the kokerbome that inspire me, the silhouetted klipspringers that watch warily as I stroll through the rocky terrain enjoying the early morning light and the freshness of the air.