Growth: Dry Protea Nitida (800mm diameter)

Protea Nitida is also known as the “Waboom Protea” in Afrikaans. (The wood was used to make the spikes in our ancestral ox wagons.)
In this circular painting, I combined the loose brush strokes and subtle colours of greens, browns and pinks to bring tribute to this beautiful Protea flower in it’s dry state.
This artwork is part of my Growth-series of paintings:

Growth:

• Growth is the process of growing
• It is progressive development
• increase,
• expansion
• gain
• improvement
• and surge

Growth is what we need in life to become.

My solo exhibition in May this year, was titled:  Shelter in the Shadows with works produced during lock-down 2020.  I still find my Shelter in the Shadows in these uncertain times, but Growth has become crucial to me.  I often challenge myself – I re-invent myself to bring to you, my viewers, fresh and new works of art.  Also, I challenge myself to move forward and grow.

The times we live in now are unpredictable and unusual. It feels like everything can change at once and that one can rely on few things. Therefore, it is good for me to spend time in nature. The one thing that stays constant when I walk on Table Mountain, is growth. The fynbos seeds still fall into the soil, germinate, and grow. Strong winds blow. Rain comes – or stays away. The hot sun scorches. Fires rage on the mountain slopes. Seeds burst open. Pollen blows in the wind. Roots establish. Flowers bloom extravagantly. And the fynbos grows. The Creator takes care of the creation.

The past six months, my art has been drawing me into a space of new freedom.  I ventured deeper:  Observing the fynbos I so love, more keenly. Spending more time on the fynbos-rich mountain paths.   Thinking and experiencing creation more deeply, allowing it to move me – and my brush – differently. I find myself creating with greater freedom. Decisions flow more easily – faster. My mark making is looser. I am leaning into the process.

This is how I grow. This is how fynbos continues to grow on my canvas.