Namaqualand

 

Namaqualand is an area of South Africa that for the most part is a semi desert arid region. Once a year the landscape is transformed into a sea of wild flowers. Depending on the rainfall of the season the blooms can be quite spectacular and certainly inspiring to artists like myself as well as many photographers. I have been painting this area for a number of years now, choosing to spend a lot of time on each painting. The technique I use is rather labor intensive. I paint using paint knives of different shapes and sizes. The Many layers require drying times between each layer keeping the colors crisp and clean. The end result is has a very textured and dimensional feel to it. My goal is always for the painting to have a feeling of  “being there” when viewing the completed work. On average a painting will take me between 3-5 months depending on its size but I have spent up to two years on a single piece. The artist who first inspired me to go see Namaqualand for myself is Hugo Naude, as ever time I saw one of his paintings that truly appealed to me personally, it was of this area. Even though our techniques are very different I would have to say I was influenced by his work. This will be an ongoing series for probably the rest of my life. I have now been painting full time since 1991.