Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).
You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/02/10/goodbye-wethersfield/
After taking a walk to see the bushmen paintings and Anglo Boer War etchings I featured for last week Thursday Doors post, we travelled into the tiny town of Nieu Bethesda to do a little exploring. I’ll tell you a bit more about this fascinating tiny town in due course, but today, I am featuring the garden of the Owl House.
Helen Elizabeth Martins in a South African artist who worked with concrete and glass. She installed her elderly and ailing father, who was believed to have been emotionally abusive to his family during her younger years, in an outside room which she painted black. She ended her life at the age of 78 by drinking caustic soda.
“Helen Martins’ Owl House, often cited as South Africa’s finest example of outsider art, is an extraordinary, other-worldly home of concrete and ground glass sculptures. Her creativity conjures up an array of emotions: from wonder to excitement, curiosity and sadness.”
You can read more about Helen Martins and the Owl House here: https://www.graaffreinet.co.za/listing/owl_house_nieu_bethesda
Let’s start with pictures of the concrete and glass structures in her garden:
If you’d like to learn more about Helen Martins, you can watch this 7 minute video about her life:
roberta-writes.com 
Gorgeous photos! Thank you sharing this with us.
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My pleasure, Denise. I am pleased I discovered this interesting museum.
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Looks like a fascinating place.
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It was, very intriguing and unusual.
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This absolutely amazing. What a tragic life, but she turned it into amazing art. Thank you for sharing, Robbie!
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My pleasure, Jan. I am glad you enjoyed this artwork.
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Westerns always have dark interiors–few windows, no lights. These doors reminded me of that.
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Yes, these outside rooms and creations were a bit dark. The inside of the house is quite different and colourful, quite beautiful and an unusual way.
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always sad to hear a talented soul leaving voluntarily.
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HI Wayne, it is. It is believed she was going blind due to her work with glass and the ground glass in her paint. There are jars and jars of glass in her store cupboard which I’ll post next week. I think she couldn’t cope with idea of losing her sight and not being able to enjoy the light and colour she loved so much.
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she left such beauty in her wake
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The video gave me a very eerie, sad feeling. What does the place feel like in person?
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HI LIz, I think that Helen Martins story is told as one of loss and sadness, but I did not feel her house was like that. I thought her artwork showed great happiness and joy in colour and life. I think she found spiritual redemption through her self expression.
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That’s good to hear. I think maybe the errieness was the way the video presented the story of Helen’s life.
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Yes, I think it was intended that way.
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What an extraordinary, mesmerizing artist! Thank you, Robbie, for showing us her work and life through your words, your great photos, and the fascinating video.
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Hi Dave, I am glad you enjoyed this post about Helen Martins. Her youth was sad, but I felt her spiritual redemption through her art was uplifting. I did not feel her house was dark or sad, but rather exciting and imaginative.
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I agree, Dave. I very much enjoyed reading the link that Robbie provided about Helen Martins.
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Helen Elizabeth Martins sculptures are interesting and make one ponder
Great photos and background as always
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HI Bella, yes, her life was a bit sad but I think her artwork brought her great happiness in later life.
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🤗
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Wow, so cool, Robbie. I’d love to visit the Owl House garden!
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HI Priscilla, it was a fascinating place to visit. The inside of the house is even more interesting and unusual.
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A strange and magical place. But a sad story. (K)
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HI Kerfe, it is a sad story, but I think Helen derived a lot of pleasure from her artworks.
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Yes, I think that’s evident. Probably what kept her going for so long.
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Yes, artistic people are prone to committing suicide.
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Fascinating. Thanks for this!
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Thank you, it was a very interesting, albeit creepy, place to visit.
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Wow, what a fascinating, quirky place…I love it and the story behind it we have something similar near us but with giant statues…but what a gruesome way to die x
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I reckon she was full of sorrow, trying to find the redemption that wasn’t there to find. A very inventive woman with a
degree of creativity the rest of us can only marvel at. I don’t think I would like the lady, but I could respect her.
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These are such interesting photos, Robbie. I can only imagine the curious mix of emotions you must have felt while walking through the rooms and gardens. I love the church and the structure with the open door. I shivered a bit at the inside view of the door from her father’s room. Thanks for sharing these with Thursday Doors and I look forward to the next installment. I think I’ll check out that video (although I’m a little nervous).
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What an unusual place!
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Hi Robbie, I hadn’t heard of Helen Elizabeth Martins so thank you for sharing. These sculptures are a little frightening to look at and seem to represent the darkness in Martins. That said, I think adding glass to the concrete is an original idea.
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Hi Barbara, I didn’t see them as dark but rather as a cry for help. The fact the statues are all reaching out in supplication is quite disturbing to me. A lot of the statues have strong religious undertones.
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Very interesting, yet a sad story, Robbie, but that structure built from glass bottles caught my eye. I can only imagine the mixture of emotions you experienced. Thanks for sharing. xo
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Hi Lauren, it was a strange and interesting place. I found it spiritually uplifting because she found so much happy fulfillment through her art. My husband did not like it.
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Wow, that’s a horribly sad tale of her life, but those photos and the house are really compelling. The one of glass bottles is especially intriguing. Great share, Robbie!
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Hi Mae, I was very delighted to learn about this village and The Owl House from a work colleague. I didn’t know about it and it was a great place to visit.
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Thank you for this amazing “doors” post, Robbie and for your introduction to the remarkable art of Helen Elizabeth Martins. I am inspired by her determination to transform her surrounding. Courage, resilience within a world that viewed her as an outlier.
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HI REbecca, it was very hard for women who were a little different and creative at this time when society was so conservative and patriarchal. Many Afrikaans men were very religious and narrow minded. The inside of the house is even more remarkable.
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Robbie, What an interesting house. The outdoor structure with the glass bottles looks amazing. I hope the art helped the artist. Thank you for sharing this with us.
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I’ve heard so much about the Owl House, although not so much about the artist herself. It’s been on my list of places to visit for ages. Even more so now!
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HI Chris, I liked Nieu Bethesda very much. I have a few more posts to share about the town and the things we saw there.
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Looking forward to the rest of the virtual visit, Robbie 🙂
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What a fascinating story, Robbie, but such a sad life, especially its ending. The number of statues and other artworks is almost unbelievable. Your story made me think of a visit I had (many years ago) to a house made out of bottles. https://heritage.noosa.qld.gov.au/nodes/view/312
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HI Norah, how very wonderful to very wonderful to visit a house made from bottles. Thank you for the link. It was an interesting place to visit and I found the inside of the house even more enthralling.
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It does sound interesting. It’s fun to learn about other places.
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Amazing! You get a sense of her soul from these pictures, so i can but imagine how it felt to be right there. Thank you for being such a wonderful tour guide, Robbie!
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HI Annette, I thought you would enjoy these pictures. You have such a wonderful artist in your sister and can relate to the urge to create. Helen was a sad woman, but her art gave her joy.
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How very sad. Beautiful work but her sadness shows in the pieces as well.
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I agree, some of the pieces are signs of a distressed soul. It is an odd and disturbing place to visit.
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What an interesting and creepy place, Robbie. It looks like a fascinating place to visit.but it’s so sad to hear about the troubled life that created it.
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HI Diana, it is a strange and interesting place. Helen Martins did have a sad life, as did many women who were free spirited in an ultra conservative and patriarchal society.
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Ugh, men. I want to write a book where women are in charge and men are supposed to be demure and obedient. See how they like it.
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That will be the day. Look what’s happening right now in the world …
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I know. But I write fantasy. 🙂
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Oh my! Fascinating art.
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Fantastic tour, Robbie. I really liked the glass bottle structure.
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Fanscinating. This reminds me of https://coralcastle.com/ built by Edward Leedskalnin. From 1923 to 1951, Ed single-handedly and secretly carved over 1,100 tons of coral rock,…
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Wow, that is something, Jules. Thanks for the link.
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I haven’t seen it in person. But when I was visiting the Florida Keys… basicall built on ancient coral – I read about it.
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