Tuesday 20 February 2018

Remembering uKhahlamba

Holidays are great but often it is really hard to get back into a working routine once back home. Facing a large blank canvas is also something many artists find challenging and setting up a painting routine is hard. A warm up drawing is a useful way to break the impasse. 


Mountain range - graphite 

This year, though, starting a new painting was so much easier. I received much inspiration during my short trip to the mountains of the Southern Drakensberg while I was on holiday. I have one new painting well on the way and ideas for a few others. I love painting and once I get into the groove after a break I can’t understand why I struggle to start painting.


Here’s a cropped WIP section - just the very top of the canvas Remembering uKhahlamba. In Zulu, uKhahlamba means the Barrier of up-pointed spears. The Afrikaans settlers called the mountain range Drakensberg - the mountains of the dragon. This vast escarpment stretches for some 1000 kilometres from the Eastern Cape as far as Limpopo Province in the North.