Kinross Bentley

20/01/2026

When the Bentley brothers of Bonza Bay were heavily active in the Progressive Federal Party Youth in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we gave a whole new meaning to the term "political party".
Yes, we backed the PFP's anti-apartheid policy, but it didn't stop us from enjoying a good party, or "the jol" as we used to call it.
And it was encouraging how many young women, many still at Clarendon Girls' High, joined us in canvassing, hosting voter registration tables and, well, partying.
The Hobnob at the Bonza Bay Hotel was one of our favourite haunts and, having studied fine art under Jack Lugg from 1985 till 1988, I often carried around pen and paper to capture something of our youth as it passed all too quickly.
I have recorded the story in a PDF book, "Apartheid's Child, Freedom's Son (and the ANC's Fool!).
Most of my drawings are also captured in another PDF book, "Life Lines".
Both are available as downloadable PDFs for R200 each.
Contact me on [email protected]
Meanwhile, anyone who knew the likes of Peter Thesen, Dave Tarr, Philip Harper, Trevor Promnitz, Kim Demeretz, Kim Leyland, Eugene Potgieter, Philip Marcus and many more besides, might recognise some of them in these drawings.
Another factor we dealt with was military conscription. Yes we were young, but we also had to grow up fast because the state had us for two long years in our late teens and/or early twenties. Not to mention the one- and three-month "camps" throughout the 1980s.
This is a small cross-section of my drawings featuring my siblings Ian, Alistair and Don, as well as a few of the others mentioned above and many more whose names I've long ago forgotten. There's the odd self-portrait here too.

27/12/2025

We visited the Addo Elephant National Park near Port Elizabeth in overcast, often drizzly conditions yesterday and enjoyed a wide variety of exciting sightings.
Unfortunately, due to the standing water and cooler conditions, no great herds of elephants were seen at watering holes.
Instead, we encountered several males on their own and females with their young.
There were interesting birds aplenty, along with zebras, red hartebeest, kudu and an ostrich that ran alongside the car for a while, which was rather comical.

21/12/2025

I'm looking forward to adding a new section to my series of PDF Books on the Lady's Slipper mountain just outside Port Elizabeth.
These are a few images I got while hiking up to its summit from the Telkom tower side to the north-east on Friday, 19 December 2025.
This gave us a fresh angle on the upjutting heel of the "slipper".
My imagination saw something quite crazy in these rock formations. The "heel" appears like an oddly grinning soul, while the entire shape suggests some sort of large cat embracing the peak. And the whole mountain looks a bit like a large primate head in profile, with a big black eye. (I had smoked nothing that morning, I promise.)
Also stunning were the views out towards the Cockscomb mountain. I did not bring my rather heavy camera with a zoom lens, but the cropped image included here I think gives a fair reflection of that beautiful row of mountains.

11/12/2025

The curse of having had an art training under the legendary Jack Lugg is that I can't just take a leisurely stroll.
Every visit I've made to Schoenmakerskop and the Sacramento Trail has ended up as a bit of a photoshoot.
Over the past few months I have compiled the best of my images from those walks - from the natural rock sculptures and pools at low tide to the surging surf so nearby, from the towering dunes of Sardinia Bay to the incredible views from the fynbos-bedecked ridge over fingers of rock piercing the great Indian Ocean ...
Every visit is different. Time of year and time of day, what the tide is doing, sunny or overcast, and of course which route one takes. All determine what images will be forthcoming.
I have walked past places that on one day spark not interest, but on another make for lovely photographs.
One aspect about the rocks along this shoreline that really stands out for me is that, as in the Cederberg, nature has created the most incredible abstract figurative rock sculptures. I make no apology for focusing on these.
My PDF books are, I believe, unique. I produced my first photographic record of a city in 2020. "200 Years, A Celebration of Port Elizabeth" was published by GFI in early 2021.
Since then, more than a dozen towns and cities have been similarly documented, albeit perhaps not in as much detail.
The PE book, too, has been reworked and is now available as a PDF, titled "Kin Bentley's Port Elizabeth".
I'm now homing in on a few specific areas in this city, having already done the Market Square and Donkin precincts.
These books contain plenty of historical information, but it is really the images that make them.
I'd like to see people show them large, either on a TV set or even projected onto a screen.
Of course I work on a laptop, so at that scale, suitably zoomed in, you can enjoy them just as much.
It is even possible to view them on a smartphone using a dual drive, which is a flash drive that fits into both a USB and mini-USB port. You don't fill up your phone's storage because the books are saved on the drive. I have all my PDF books saved on such an inexpensive 64GB dual drive, and it is only half full.
There are many people who, due to age or infirmity, can no longer get out into the streets of towns or the rugged coastline and mountainous areas. These books are ideal forms of escape into nature. They also provide mental stimulation because of the research that goes into them.
Please contact me if you're interested at [email protected]. I have a welter of material you can download for a small fee that will help support a retired journalist.

29/11/2025

THE ANIMALS (PART 4, LAST)
Spanning half a century, these are the remainder of scanned/photographed versions of my original sketches of animals done in locations far and wide, from northern Namibia to Britain, East London, Port Elizabeth and the Karoo.
Please also check out the first three parts on this page.
The aim of a sketch is not to achieve a photographic likeness, though it is great sometimes to get enough time to include details. But these drawings are always unposed and therefore totally true to life. They are moments in time and space.
The rhino, for instance, was sketched when I was a junior reporter on the Evening Post and accompanied a photographer out to the Seaview area after this fellow had escaped from the game reserve.
My role was to write a story about the escape and capture. But I couldn't resist "capturing" the rhino as it ambled along Seaview Road in the inside cover of my notebook.
* To really "get into" these drawings, especially on a cellphone, click on each individual image and zoom in to engage with the line. It is that line quality that one only achieves with training under an expert like the late Jack Lugg.

29/11/2025

THE ANIMALS (PART 3)
During some 50 years of sketching people, places and whatever else seemed worth drawing, I naturally included many animals.
Having posted the "A-L" in parts 1 and 2, here are the M-P as per the names I gave each when I saved the scanned or photographed images to the computer.
We start with meerkats, sketched in the East London Zoo, also called the Queen's Park Zoo, probably around the year 2000, when our kids were young.
Some of these were done in northern SWA-Namibia during a three-month "camp" as a military conscript in 1983.
Others were done on farms where I've spent time on hiking holidays, or in parks in the UK, where I worked for two years (1990-1991) as a correspondent for SA Morning Newspapers.
The last one, of a cat, was at our family home in Bonza Bay, probably in the early 1980s.
I spent four years (1975-1978) learning to draw under Jack Lugg at the East London Tech art school. Then came two years as a military conscript, where I honed my still very basic skills.
Mr Lugg always stressed the importance of line quality, and I took this deeply to heart.
The basic premise is that the line looks and feels best when there is a direct energy link between the figure being drawn and your hand as it moves the pen or pencil across the page, taking down the image.
The key is only to look at the page occasionally. Your focus must be on the model because it is that which is dictating what goes on the page, and the more immediate or spontaneous the process the better the line quality and hence the picture.
The sketch is not meant to be a photographic likeness of the figure drawn, but rather to capture its spirit, or character, often with amusing exaggerations which can especially occur if the sketch has been rapidly done.
On occasion I have used watercolours to flesh out the sketches. This is a perilous process because you can easily destroy a unique original drawing. However, when it works it adds a new painterly dimension that can really enhance an already good sketch.
Just to note that these scanned or photographed versions of my works do not do full justice to the originals.

27/11/2025

THE ANIMALS (PART 2)
This is the E to L of scanned or photographed versions of my drawings done over the past 50 years.
Back in 1975 I began a four-year fine arts course under Jack Lugg at the East London Tech art school. I ended up spending 32 years as a hard-news journalist, but kept up my drawing throughout my life.
People and places have been the mainstay of my output, but as animals crossed my path they couldn't escape being included.

27/11/2025

THE ANIMALS (PART 1)
During the past 50 years that I've been sketching the passing show, I've mainly focused on people and places.
But when animals are around I haven't hesitated to draw them.
This is my A to D of animals, based on how I have named them when saving the scanned or photographed images on my computer.
There are some drawings done in the army in 1979-1981, others in the UK in 1990-1991 and the rest wherever else I have found myself, but largely in East London (till 1984) and Port Elizabeth.

21/11/2025

I've been working with words and pictures for decades, trying to capture something of the history and beauty of our built heritage.
I made some PowerPoint presentations of parts of Port Elizabeth and in this series, "Port Elizabeth, The Beautiful City", I take you through them.
I must say, since some of my photos date back over a decade, and some historic shots are from the 19th century, these videos do often come out like those old Pathe newsreels we used to watch at the movies in the early 1960s.
Indeed, my rather shaky hand holding the cellphone to film these recalls the production quality of 60 years ago.
I haven't watched these since I posted them as Covid was receding, but anyone with an interest in PE's built heritage and history should find them interesting.
This is Part 1. It's not my best effort. But there are plenty more parts after this.
I have distilled my photographic record of PE in a recent PDF book, "Kin Bentley's Port Elizabeth", which you can buy as a downloadable link for R150. Please email me at [email protected] if you're interested.
I have other similar PDF books on Cape Town (eight parts), Stellenbosch, Swellendam, Mossel Bay, East London, Grahamstown, Cradock, Somerset East, Bathurst and Graaff-Reinet. They were done using photographs I have taken over the past decade or so, but compiled essentially in 2004 and this year.
There are also about 25 parts to my "No Frontiers" series of PDF books which takes one off the beaten track to more remote places between the Orange River and Cape Agulhas, Cederberg and the Great Kei River.

Hi, I make no apology for the amateurish production you'll see here. I have neither the resources nor the ability to make a pro video, and I'll explain why. ...

10/11/2025

Redhouse Village and the section of the Swartkops River north of it form the focus of Part 25 of my PDF series "No Frontiers", which I have just finished working on. This is a photographic exploration of a historic corner of Port Elizabeth. Please email me at [email protected] if you're keen to escape visually into the "intimacy of wide open spaces". The download will cost you the price of a couple of coffees: say R90 for almost 200 pages.

09/11/2025

GET SOME FACTS WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
I've been following the travels of French tricyclist Kino Yves through Africa. As his vlog has progressed, he has built up a substantial following in South Africa and is currently (in terms of the videos he shares) in Graaff-Reinet.
The likes of Yves and Itchy Boots vlogger Noraly Schoemacher of the Netherlands, who has travelled most of the world on a motorbike, certainly provide great entertainment and rare insights into countries most of us will never get to see.
Noraly is especially noteworthy for her courageous travels through almost every Arab/Muslim country in the Middle East, including Turkey, Iran (briefly), Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Somehow a western woman can do things local Muslim women, who one rarely sees in her travels, cannot.
But the point of this post is really about what the likes of Kino Yves present in terms of a lasting record. His visit to Graaff-Reinet has thus far provided very little of interest about the town itself, the fourth oldest municipal district in the country after Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Swellendam.
Which is why I am recommending everyone interested in taking a slightly more cerebral look at the towns of the old Cape invest, very inexpensively, in my PDF books, such as the three I have created on Graaff-Reinet, whose covers I show here.
Using photographs, as opposed to video, I take you into the present and the past, often juxtaposing contemporary images with photos taken as far back as the 19th century.
Contact me at [email protected] and let's negotiate the purchase of downloadable links to PDFs on Cape Town (eight parts so far), Stellenbosch, Swellendam, Mossel Bay, Graaff-Reinet, Port Elizabeth, East London, Grahamstown, Cradock, Somerset East and Bathurst.
That's not to mention the 25 parts that I have completed thus far in a series I've called "No Frontiers", which takes in places off the beaten track, with a particular focus on areas of both architectural and natural beauty.

07/11/2025

This is the latest part of my No Frontiers project. Here, instead of remote corners of the former Cape Province, I have focused on a wilderness area almost in the heart of Port Elizabeth, namely the Aloe Nature Reserve on the northern escarpment of the Swartkops River.
Anyone interested in this PDF photographic exploration of this incredible reserve please email me at [email protected] and we can make a deal.
My previous most recent projects have focused on the Addo Elephant National Park and the Van Stadens Wild Flower Reserve.