painting the valley of the red gods

There's something particular about returning to a place you loved when you were young. The Valley of the Red Gods, tucked into the Western Cape of South Africa, is one of those places for me — and for David too. We spent a lot of time here as students, climbing routes, camping, getting happily lost among the red sandstone towers. Coming back, sketchbook in hand, felt like a gift.

The Valley is extraordinary. Enormous formations of red sandstone rise up from the landscape, surrounded by fynbos — the low, dense, wonderfully aromatic scrub that's completely distinctive to this part of the world. If you've never come across fynbos before, it's a type of shrubland found only in a small corner of the Western Cape, and it's remarkably beautiful in its own quiet, textural way. As a subject for a watercolour painter, it's irresistible.

I spent a morning sketching on location, trying to capture the towers, the open sky, and those fynbos in between. It was one of those sessions where you forget the time entirely. When I got back, I knew I wanted to share it, so I redid the sketch as a proper lesson — working through how to approach the warm sandstone colour, the luminous sky, and how to suggest the fynbos without overworking it.

That lesson is now up on Patreon for members, and I'd love for you to paint along with me.

And a little note: I'm still in South Africa for another week, visiting family and revisiting old haunts. When I'm home, I'll be sharing a longer post with all the sketches from this trip — the places, the light, the colours that are so different from anything I paint in Europe. I can't wait to put it together.

Happy painting!