I still remember that time in my life as if it was yesterday. We were just two mid- 20 something-year-olds, not yet married, but sharing a home. It was a fun, carefree, and exciting time to be alive.

My husband to be had purchased an oak dining room table/pool table from a Snooker and Pool Specialist in the city and we were spending a lot of our evening hours after work, and on weekends, socialising with our friends in our home. Care-free evenings around the table, care-free days in the sunshine exploring our local gorges, playing mashie golf, working on the house, and occasionally taking a drive into Durban to visit the local markets.

One such Sunday, we decided to head into the city as the weather was perfect and the beachfront beckoned. The Durban Beachfront used to have a real vibey market at the old Amphitheater which adjoins the magnificent sandy Durban coastline that stretches for miles in both directions. The harbour and port entrance start where the sandy beach gives way to the docks on the right. To the left the beach stretches on until it becomes wilder, encompassing sand dunes and beach flora and the more popular spots for the local fishermen.

Durban Amphitheatre

On the promenade though, in front of the old Amphitheatre, the crowds would throng to the market to pick up a few nick-nacks, arts and crafts, and some lunch, and chill to the music that was being churned out over the stereo system.

On this one particular day, we parked up near the International Exhibition Centre and decided to walk down to the beachfront. We spotted an art exhibition on the lawns outside the Centre and decided to drop in to check it out. It was a single artist displaying some 20-30 paintings. She was excellent. Neither of us had ever purchased artwork before and it was not something that we had even discussed doing together. A few pieces caught my eye (all scenes of nature and natural landscape, mostly based on real vistas in the UK, Zimbabwe, and South Africa). We walked away, both feeling a lot more fulfilled for the day and we got chatting about the pieces that we had seen. Turned out that we had both fallen in love with the same painting! We continued walking for a few minutes and then both had the same thought...we just couldn't leave the painting behind. It belonged in our home. So we raced back to speak with the artist and claim our first piece of artwork ever.

It had sold already!

We were so gutted!!! A couple who had purchased a number of her paintings on previous occasions had visited the exhibition in the few minutes since we had left for the beach, had spotted it, and purchased it on the spot.

She showed us over some of her others but although they were lovely, we just did not get that feeling of complete peace and tranquillity. None of them spoke to us as that one had.

But then she postured: what if she painted the scene again for us? and she would make it even better than the first iteration?

Done deal!

So she took it on as a commission instead and a month later we visited her in her home to collect it. It cost us R5000 at the time in 1997.

And this is the painting by Wendy Mills.

It's about 750cm x 1000cm.

We have since acquired a couple more from her; including scenes from our beloved Drakensberg.

This is my post for #MarketFriday by the lovely @dswigle . If you'd like to join in you can check out Denise's latest post here

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Photo of Wendy Mills painting taken by me on my phone.

Aerial View of Durban and coastline from canva pro library

Durban Amphitheatre from canva pro library

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