In my travels I have been fascinated by the 'church towns' that were established from the 1850s. Nieu Bethesda is one such village. It's in a beautiful valley at the bottom of the Sneeuberge (Snow Mountains) which means that winter might not see me visiting. It attained a 'municipal status' in 1886 and a 100 years later, the death of one woman revitalized the town.
Helen Martins was a rather reclusive resident of the town after returning from teaching, amateur acting and a sad divorce in 1930, to help her rather nasty dad in his ill health. After his death in 1945 she started transforming her life and the town. Hundreds of sculptures, some almost life size, stand in her garden which is now a museum. I visited the artworks yesterday.
I watched the DVD in the visitor center first, which helped brief me on the story. I have also been reading a gifted book on her life, which is quite heavy going but fascinating. On entering the garden I was overwhelmed and realised that I can film this to absorb it all later. I then back traced and took photos. It's hard to describe what happened to me after a while but I felt like I knew the artist and the sculptures themselves came to life.
Inside her home there is quite a contrast in colour from her mostly grey artwork. She used crushed glass from thousands of bottles as paint and it's a different effect. I'm still amazed at how cool it is Inside the karoo houses with their high ceilings and shaded windows. I walked through the home and felt like I was unceremoniously spat out the back door into the bleak world. There are vendors selling quite good replicas right outside and if I wasn't traveling I might buy something but unfortunately I left my portion of the remarkable Helen unpurchased.
I decided to stay another 2 evenings in this quirky town so I can explore more tomorrow.
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