Autumn between Reitz & Kestell

It was end of March 2018. I was on a solo bike trip through the northern part of the Free State. Cosmos flowers were blooming in all their beauty. There was only one problem. It was raining. When you are riding a motorbike, you are trying to avoid getting soaked. 

I came to this spot between Reitz and Kestell where the sun broke through the clouds. In the background a storm was racing towards me, but where I was at that moment it was dry enough to get off of mike bike and take a few pictures.

In 2024 I used one of my photos from that day and painted the scene in watercolor.

In 2025 I used the same reference to paint this painting in oil. But this time it had more personal meaning.

As I was carefully placing the windpump to be the focal point, I was thinking about those clouds in the background. In comparison the importance of rain in nature dwarfed the value that one rusty windpump had. Rain provided water for everything surrounding the windpump, while the windpump maybe only provided water for some livestock and maybe the owner of the farm. I'm not saying that the role of the windpump is not important. Just saying that I was letting everything in nature point towards the windpump, while everything that pointed towards the manmade structure was actually depending on the clouds for its sustenance. So, maybe in the process we are sometimes missing what is overwhelmingly obvious. 

I could not help myself; I just had to make the rolling clouds prominent as well.