#37 White Light – Egret preening

White Light - Egret preening (910mm x 610mm acrylic)

Working with light and colour makes the painter feel like an alchemist of the sun, for in the same way as the air gives voice to the flute, so too does the sun give the gift of light, which, when passed through a prism, offers a rainbow to the artist. But every now and again the sun becomes visible with an unusual clarity, moments which inspire and can become the focus of a painting. The egret shown here only held out its wing for a few brief seconds before rotating its elegant neck in the other direction and starting to settle the feathers on its back, but those few seconds were enough to fix my attention and inspire a wish to share the moment. But, as with many ideas, that brief moment led to many more as I then needed to better understand what I had seen, so many hours were spent watching and sketching egrets before the process of starting the painting in the studio even began.

Study sketch for 'White Light'

One of the big challenges that faced me in this work was the almost total absence of colour, with everything being reduced down to the endless shades that join black to white, and it was only whilst fusing the shades, bringing lightness back to areas which had become too dark, or adding highlights to dark areas that I began to fully appreciate the complexity and range of the shades available.

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#36 Genet

Genet (610mm x 500mm acrylic on stretched canvas)

What do you see when you look into the eyes of a genet; a hunter maybe, a focusing of interest, or is it already an intention, a waiting, knowing, and do you see a mouse, paused in caution, or a dove quietly feeding in the clearing; is all silent, or can you hear the sounds of the veld, a rustling of the grasses in the breeze, or just your pulsing heartbeat…?

What is it that you really see when you look into the eyes of a genet?

Silent moments in time offering journeys within.

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#35 Gliding by – Humpback whale

Gliding by - Humpback whale (L300mm x H320mm x D120mm composites)

Sculpting whales takes me to another place, for in the studio late at night, when  the world outside is silent and asleep, a single light over the plinth focuses my attention and allows me to access a deeper knowledge, drawing on all those special  times spent in the company of these extraordinary ocean mammals.  My fingers trace invisible lines across the surface of the clay as a whale slowly emerges from the recesses of my mind, bringing memories to life and sharing those silent spaces between heartbeats, for at its essence I sense that, in its purest form, sculpture is poetry made visible.

And at times my imagination takes me into the water with the whales, the translucent blues and greens breaking through the surface like sacred shafts of light in a great cathedral as a lone humpback glides slowly by, its long flippers giving it a wonderful sense of weightlessness, pure ocean grace and harmony that touch my soul with an inner joy. And then the whale begins to sing, an ancient song passed down through countless generations that carry into the ocean realm the call to life itself, mystical transcendent notes that make every moment deeply real as I slowly bring the form of the humpback whale back into the light of day.

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#34 Looking Back

Looking Back (910mm x 760mm acrylic on stretched canvas)

Looking back from the edge of time

click on image to enlarge

Over twenty years ago I had a silent face-to-face encounter with a gorilla, and apart from the total engagement of its eyes and very immediate presence, I felt that it looked right into my soul, the outer world falling away into a very real moment of connection between species, a moment leaving its echo in glimpses of other lives since then, following their own inevitable journeys of survival, a path for some, a tightrope for many. These moments of connection come seldom in a lifetime, more frequently with the primates such as the baboon spoken of in this painting, and, of course, the extraordinary close encounters with whales and dolphins that I have had over the years.

I have never forgotten that moment with the gorilla, for it etched into my being a deeper comprehension of the indivisibility of all life, and each experience of connection has brought me closer to the thread of belonging which binds us all within the universal struggle for survival. This is part of my story as an artist, to speak of these threads and to make visible the invisible aspects of our lives which are lost or hidden in the rush of modern life.

‘Looking back’, being artwork #34, marks the two-thirds point along the 52 Artworks – A Year in Nature journey. Now we start looking forward towards the exhibition and events when the year is complete, so please make sure you are on our database through Facebook and other social media/website if you wish to be notified of events, but till then, the painting and sculpting continue..

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#33 Klipspringer

Klipspringer (1020mm x 760mm acrylic on stretched canvas)

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It was late afternoon when the head of the storm reached us, the clouds tumbling overhead and casting shadows that chased each other across the landscape, showers like the legs of the rain-bulls of the San connecting the earth to the sky, shades of grey and brown fusing and diffusing right before our eyes, light and dark, cold and wet, inspiration and exhilaration bottled into a massive cold front as it sweeps across the Cape, sending leaves and tumbleweeds into pockets of shelter before being plucked out and sent on their way. The Cape of Good Hope gives way to the Cape of Storms, drawing us into this endless turbulence of air, water and light.

And then, in the midst of it all we saw them, two klipspringers, momentarily etched on the solid skyline of a hill before the curtain closed and they were gone – five seconds that have lasted forever.

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#32 Falcon

Falcon (760mm x 910mm acrylic on canvas)

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There are times when little needs to be said, and the completion of this painting seems to be one of them. I could speak to you of the creative process and the interplay of light and dark, or the symbolism of the falcon and what they evoke in us, or I could explore the deeper meaning behind this particular piece, but I feel that this is one of those times when the work must stand alone, without words, and speak for itself…

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# 31 Porcupine

Porcupine (910mm x 610mm acrylic on stretched canvas)

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We watched as the porcupine slowly moved through the low scrub not far from us, inquisitively stopping, listening, sniffing the earth and reading the scent on the wind before heading off again, following one of the myriad of pathways that criss-cross this ancient Karoo landscape, along routes joining burrows to favoured feeding areas, pathways etched through time by the mongoose, the genet, and many other lives that make their home here. A place of whispering grasses where the cool of the night warms to another day – this is why the porcupine had come this way, for the first light of the sun had begun to show across the eastern horizon and it was returning to its burrow to wait out the sunlit hours before venturing out again across this silent land.

This painting, with its long quills and delicate hairs once again forced me to extend my technical abilities, an ever present reality which has become very much a part of the 52 Artworks journey. Every painting has taught me something new, knowing which brush to choose, the preferred consistency of paint, or a new way to use the mahl stick to reduce hand shake and enable fluid strokes; different skills explored in order to capture the hair on the face of a fox, the reflections in the eye of the francolin or the fur of the squirrel’s tail, all challenges which have added another dimension to this year-long creative adventure.

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#30 Resonance

Resonance - Hadeda Ibis (910mm x 760mm Acrylic on canvas)

The Hadeda sculpture posting a while back provoked an interesting discussion around how people feel about the call of this unusual bird, offering an opportunity for deeper consideration, and an invitation to seek an inner resonance with this very evocative call. For although it is heard in the ear, it can also be experienced in the heart, as many of these sounds of Africa are infused with a deeper symbolism and experience, offering us signposts with which to explore another dimension of reality.

Natural sounds can take us to a place of a deeper knowing, for some it might be the call of a fish eagle, the sound of the wind or the gentle splashing of a brook, all different sounds which can take us to a place within ourselves, and in that moment greatly enrich the experience of encountering nature, and reminding us that we are all connected to the earth at a very fundamental level.

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#29 Owl

#29 Owl (220mm x 150mm x 150mm to be cast in bronze)

Maybe this post should be titled ‘Owl Revisited’, as Artwork #4, which was posted on June 14th was also an owl, but, in the shifting nuances of the artist, I decided to explore this fascinating group of birds in another dimension. It is interesting for me to shift mediums like this, as it tests my overall knowledge of the subject and allows a different journey of expression. Paintings are all about capturing light, and as form is depicted using the interaction of light on the surface of the subject, a good understanding of  the three dimensions is therefore required. But, as sculptures can be viewed from all sides, a complex understanding of form becomes mandatory, a challenging but usually very rewarding task. I also find that sculptures seem to say something completely different when compared to paintings, with texture, stance and composition adding another repertoire to the artistic voice.

Last weeks’ visit to Papkuilsfontein near Nieuwoudtville greatly encouraged exploring this subject, as the nightly calling of the owls deepened the experience of nature at this wonderful place.

On another level, the time and focus needed to complete a piece like this requires an emotional connection to the subject. Fortunately owls form an important aspect of my consciousness, their evocative calls and elusive natures’ so often carry my imagination into the darkness beyond what is visible, a wonderful metaphor with which to explore the unconscious – of journeys of discovery into the unseen realms of the human condition. This is especially interesting for me, as it is the human condition which I am seeking to unravel in pursuit of a deeper understanding of our complex relationship with the environment, which of course includes the wonderful but threatened owls.

Time to wish to you all a happy Christmas season – and please remember to share the message that the giving of gifts is all about the act of giving and less about the gift, an often inverted paradigm in this age of mass consumerism.

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#28 Face-to-face

Face-to-face (710mm x 810mm acrylic on canvas)

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Nature encounters take many forms, some require patience and planning, such as watching the family of otters down in the reserve leaving their holt and moving along the shoreline, or spending time with the owls that we have come to know well in their darkening glade. Other encounters are unexpected gifts, the klipspringers at the ‘Hoek-van-Bobbejaan’, brief sightings of the caracals or the zebra foal, and sudden appearances of paradise flycatchers and black eagles, special moments that become treasured memories.

But when it comes to the squirrels, no stealth, planning or surprises are needed, for a visit to the Company Gardens in the centre of Cape Town would be incomplete without these mischievous little mammals scampering past you and making their excited presence felt, stopping awhile to check if you are of a generous disposition, and if not, moving on to the next potential carrier of good tidings! But try something different and the response is interesting, such as an inquisitive artist bending down to their level to gain a new perspective, for they then seem to lose their composure, the look of an uncertain challenge appears in their eyes, their tails go up, and they soon dart off to the nearest tree to gain the advantage of height.

I composed this painting to fully maximize on the strength of the light, for I wanted to explore the wispy fur of the tail, a challenge which required strong side-light on a dark background, features which added to the sense of drama and of a face-to-face encounter.

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