Every Sunday morning, if the light is good, I take pictures of progress in the studio. These two landscapes one featuring an elephant and the other a springbok have gone through more changes than most. Almost daily I tested them, unhappy with their color or gesture or mark and the connections between land, light and [...]
The 24″x 30″ works illustrated here were made on site in Botswana. The larger works are based on field sketches but were made in the studio. All works are oil on aluminum panel. The titles are incomplete at this point. Click the thumbnails and click once again to see larger images.
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Posted 31 January 2010
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Tagged: Africa, African Ecology, African ecosystem, African landscape, African middle class, African wetlands, antelope, Baobab trees, Botswana, Delta Camp, elephants, Field studies, Gaborone, Ilala Palm, Kumakwane, Mike Glier, Mirrored world, Nxai Pan, Okavango Delta, Plein air, python, Savannah, Suburbs, Tuli Block
The pace has slowed, but there are more posts and paintings about Botswana to come in the next few months, the first of which has been composed by Meleko Mogkosi, fellow artist, friend and traveling companion in Africa. By Meleko Mokgosi Rudy, our guide at Tuli Block, a game preserve on the eastern border of [...]
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Posted 08 October 2009
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Tagged: Africa, Botswana, braai, lions, Meleko Mogkosi, Motswana, People of Botswana, Racial dynamics, racism, Sashe River, Solomon’s wall, stereotypes, Tuli Block, Tuli Safari Lodge
The following pencil and gouache studies were made in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.
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Posted 12 September 2009
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Tagged: African wetlands, African Wildlife Drawing, Botswana, Delta Camp, Field sketches, Field studies, Gouache drawing, Mike Glier, Mirrored world, Nature, Okavango Delta, Pencil drawing, Plein air, Red lechwe, Travel Art
“If a hippo surfaces nearby” said Matsaudi Noga in a voice reminiscent of a flight attendant reciting safety instructions prior to take-off, “please do not attempt to jump from the boat”. I had just settled into the mokoro, a hand hewn log that serves as transportation in the Okavango Delta, when Matsaudi continued with the [...]
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Posted 02 September 2009
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Tagged: African buffalo, African Traditional medicine, antelope, Baboons, Black Plover, coucals, Delta Camp, Elephant attack, elephants, Fork-tailed Drongo, Game guide, Giraffe. Donkey, Hippopotamus, interview, Lenamile Baikgodisi, leopard, Mabele, mangosteen, Matsaudi Noga, Mokoro, Okavango Delta, People of Botswana, python, Red Billed Buffalo Weaver, Rock painting, Safari camps, Safari safety, San, Survival, Traditional African painting, Tsodilo Hills, warthog, wild asparagus plant, Ziziphus Mucronata
The full moon rose over the Okavango Delta as I lay in bed listening to the elephant wade through the water. The sloshing was a fresh sound, just like a person walking through the shallows only louder. And it grew even louder, so I got up to see if the elephant was really headed to [...]
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Posted 28 August 2009
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Tagged: African Wildlife Drawing, Botswana, Delta Camp Botswana, Elephant drawing, Elephant foraging, Elephant impression, Elephant in the bedroom, elephants, Full moon, gesture drawing, Gouache drawing, Ilala Palm, Movement, Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta is formed by a river that has nowhere to go. The water that forms the Delta once flowed to the sea, but a fault in the earth’s crust is raising the floor of the Kalahari, blocking its path. As a result, the frustrated river has lost its snaky shape and has become [...]
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Posted 25 August 2009
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Tagged: Aerial photograph, Africa, African ecosystem, African Fish Eagles, African landscape, African Wildlife Drawing, Botswana, Crane, Delta Camp Botswana, Ecosystem, elephants, Field sketch, Field studies, Green Pigeons, Hippopotamus, Ilala Palm, Kalahari, Mirrored world, Mokoro landscape, Moremi Game Preserve, national park, Okavango Delta, Okavango delta adventure, Pencil drawing, Primal landscape, Red lechwe, Saddle-billed stork, Saddle-billed Storks, Savannah, seas of grass, Skull, swamp, Sycamore Fig, sycamore figs, Vervet monkey, visual traditions, wart hog, water lilies, Water lily, Waterbug, Wetlands
“I find it embarrassing that I have not visited most of Botswana’s significant tourist attractions of even seen some of her various landscapes. What I can say is that although much of the land is under ‘threat’ of loosing its natural appearance through rapid development, the government still manages to conserve and sustain the most [...]
Waiting for the Land Rover to arrive for the evening game drive, I lifted the cream soda from the curve of the cast concrete bar, slipped off the cow hide stool, and meandered around the edge of the lodge bar to view the frieze of African film stills. My favorite photograph featured a hot “native” [...]
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Posted 11 August 2009
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Tagged: African photography, African photography criticism, Animal photography, Botswana, Botswana Artists, Botswana Contemporary Art, Composition, Gaborone, Image analysis, Interpretation, National Gallery of Botswana, Nxai Pan, Ostrich, Tuli Block, Wildlife photography, Wildlife photography criticism
Nothing botanical has as much charisma on the African stage as Baobab trees. At sunrise they begin the day in mauve, a difficult color in which to dress unless you have the dignity that comes from living a 1000 years or more. As the sun rises over the winter savannah, the trees turn white-pepper pink, [...]
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Posted 30 July 2009
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Tagged: 1000 year old trees, Africa, Baobab trees, Botswana, chromatic, Landscape, Planet Baobab, Savannah, Sunrise, Sunset, surface and form, Tree portrait, weaver bird nest
