Nature/ Nurture/ Landscapes

Nature and wide open spaces are a very important part of my life, and therefore my art.

Trees (particularly Acacia thorns and Baobabs) often crop up in my work, because for me, trees are such a special part of life. They speak of fresh air, flowers, strength, life, peace, permanence. They are large living beings who do no harm, but bring goodness and life to the planet, home for birds, shelter for anyone who cares to rest in their shade. Even when they are cut down, they carry on giving, in the form of fuel for fires, building materials, compost etc. Thorns provide protection or pain. 

I particularly love Baobab trees. They are so quintessentially African. They represent happy memories for me because I grew up in Harare, as landlocked as you can get, but whichever direction we travelled in for holidays, whether to Mozambique or South Africa for beach holidays, or to any of the lovely spots we frequented along the Zambezi, from Victoria Falls to Kariba or Mana Pools, we always had to go through a lowveld area dotted with these comical amazing trees. There is a wonderful one on the road to Beit Bridge from Harare, which is hollowed out, and has a cathedral like feeling when standing inside it. These giants are called “the tree of life” and the hollowed out ones, in particular, speak of shelter. Thus, for me, the connection between the lost generation of children needing nurture and these life giving trees.

However, there is also a series “children of the shadows” in which the trees are a metaphor for dark shadowy places, the heartbreak of growing up in a broken society, and in these the faceless children emerge, casting shadows forward into the light, in hope of a better future.

Recent Work

In recent years, I’ve worked more and more with mixed media and hot encaustic wax, to incorporate my photography into my paintings. It has lent itself remarkably well to my current themes and methods, including a range of works on a very different format, with tall and thin boards, deep edges and wrap-around images, giving them a 3D sculptural quality.

It is no surprise that, with our recent move to Prince Albert, the joy of living in these wonderful Karoo surroundings is coming through in my newest work, whether encaustic, oil painting, ink/bleach painting or, most recently, cyanotype printing, which imparts a great sense of the nostalgia evoked by living in a town/area where one feels as if one has stepped back in time.

Recent themes are ‘Don’t Fence Me In’, which began with my angst while living in a crime riddled town, and then became a celebration of freedom as we moved to the Karoo, and ‘Celebrating Karooness”, which speaks for itself!