Fynbos landscape with Helichrysum; Aristea and Klaas Louw bush (Grounded series) 1700x1100mm

This large fynbos landscape showcases a variety of Helichrysum flowers in creams, whites, and yellows. I combined them with the striking blue Aristea capitata flowers and the fan-shaped Klaas Louw bush. All of these fynbos plants grow on Table Mountain, and the painting was inspired by my experience of painting on the mountain during the recent Art on the Mountain initiative.

The result is both dynamic and striking, capturing the energy, movement, and rich biodiversity of the Cape Floral Kingdom. I am especially pleased with how the layers of colour, texture, and flowing forms evoke the feeling of being surrounded by fynbos in full bloom high on the mountain slopes.

This artwork is part of my Grounded series:

Grounded marks my return to sea level after the extraordinary weeks spent on top of Table Mountain during Art on the Mountain. Even though I’m back in my familiar studio, I feel as though the mountain has followed me home. Its stillness, its weathered presence, and the quiet strength of its fynbos have settled deeply into my way of looking – and painting.

In this new series, I continue to explore the plants that captivated me on the mountain, but now, I am seeing them through a different lens. Up there, surrounded by wind, rock and sky, these plants felt heroic – tenacious little anchors clinging to ancient sandstone. Back here on the ground, they feel intimate and familiar, like old friends I’ve carried home with me.

This series will accompany me from 2025 into 2026 – a gentle, steady continuation of what the mountain began. Grounded is about allowing those mountaintop insights to settle, deepen and take root. It is a reminder to stay connected to the earth beneath my feet, to my own rhythms, and to the quiet and patience of the fynbos.

I am often humbled by the beauty and complexity of the natural world, and I cannot help but feel gratitude toward the One who imagined this landscape into being. In painting these plants, I hope to honour that creativity with my own.

Working once again in my studio gives me the chance to slow down and translate altitude into clarity. Grounded is both a return and a beginning: a way of rooting the energy of the mountain into the year ahead, and letting it grow into something new.