DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE SOMEWHERE WILD AND BEAUTIFUL, IN ABSOLUTE AWE OF NATURE?
The wonders of nature can reflect our inner landscape and at the same time, elevate us out of the mundane and show us possibilities.
I'm a contemporary mixed media artist, living on the East Sussex coast in the UK.
I try to capture the feeling and essence of being in nature, in places that excite me and give me hope and joy. The heart-swelling expanse, happiness and total awe that for me cannot be captured and expressed purely through photography or realistic paintings.
In spring and summer, I travel to coastal places in the UK and my paintings take on a colourful palette. In winter, my artwork reflects the dramatic beauty discovered during my daily beach walks in East Sussex.
I aim to preserve the rebellion and spontaneous energy in my work, inviting viewers to feel excited and empowered by the dynamic atmosphere within each piece.
For me, painting is a physical pursuit, exploring the materiality of paint. I paint fairly intuitively, from a mix of videos, photography and mark-making.
My studio walls are covered in photographs I take on my walks. I collect shells and textures I find on the beach. I decide on a general colour palette and often begin by mark making. I use a lot of cold wax medium in my painting as I'm able to build up layers and textures and carve back out of these later to reveal what lies beneath. I use all sorts of tools but very seldomly brushes.
Take a deep breath. Just be yourself. Celebrate your courageous journey. Whatever it took to get you here. Connect with your soul. Feel the excitement of being wild. Enjoy these moments just being where you are and belonging there.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
I grew up in South Africa in the 1970s and ‘80s during the height of apartheid. South Africa was a deeply polarised society, a place of such contradictions; it's wild natural beauty, and yet also, indescribable cruelty and injustice.
Growing up in South Africa was also incredibly exciting. We holidayed in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Always very adventurous and looking for new friends, I wondered off and joined another family on a beach when I was under five.
When I was four years old I watched my mother shoot a cobra with a rifle in our garden. We did not get a TV until I was thirteen, so we spent our youth looking for and having big adventures outdoors.
Life in South Africa happened all around us, all the time. Sometimes extremely frightening. In my teens, I saw a woman staggering down the road with a machete lodged in her head. I watched my father shoot at the ground next to a man's feet to get him to release his wife, whom he was dragging down the road by her hair.
Our school was closed several times because there were riots nearby in which people were being shot, and buses and cars were burning. Violence and tension in South Africa was a tangible thing that you saw and felt - the atmosphere charged and expectant.
I left my home to live abroad for the first time at just twenty-one, carrying South Africa's scars like a bad tattoo. In doing so, I gave up the feelings of belonging that come from living in one's birthplace and the excitement that came from living somewhere so wild. I have thought about and yearned for freedom, excitement and belonging for most of my adult life. I now find these moments in nature, particularly the sea, and in the interpretation of these feelings through paint.