Cold Water, Warm Hands

This original painting shows Table Mountain low on the horizon, almost dissolving into sea and sky, while a Blouberg rock pool holds the foreground — still, cold, and bracing. The Atlantic here is famously unforgiving, its turquoise depths as beautiful as they are icy.

In 2020, I set myself the challenge of 100 sea dips - it was the perfect antidote to my post-pandemic funk. This painting is about that moment after the cold: salt on skin, breath returning, hands wrapped around something warm. It's a nod to Blouberg’s quiet rituals — early swims, rock pools, and the wide, friendly smile from the barrister at the coffee hatch that make the cold worthwhile.

Painted in layered blues and greens, Cold Water, Warm Hands balances exposure and comfort, vastness and intimacy — a familiar Cape Town feeling for anyone who knows this stretch of coast.

Medium: Acrylic on canvas board

Frame: Deep contemporary white-painted wood

Framed Size:  28(h) × 34(w) x 3,5cm(d)