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.
¶
Posted 31 January 2010
† mGlier
§
All Botswana Posts
‡
°
Also tagged: Africa, African Ecology, African ecosystem, African landscape, African middle class, African wetlands, antelope, Baobab trees, Botswana, Delta Camp, Field studies, Gaborone, Ilala Palm, Kumakwane, Mike Glier, Mirrored world, Nxai Pan, Okavango Delta, Plein air, python, Savannah, Suburbs, Tuli Block
“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 [...]
¶
Posted 02 September 2009
† mGlier
§
All Botswana Posts
‡
°
Also tagged: African buffalo, African Traditional medicine, antelope, Baboons, Black Plover, coucals, Delta Camp, Elephant attack, 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 [...]
¶
Posted 28 August 2009
† mGlier
§
All Botswana Posts
‡
°
Also tagged: African Wildlife Drawing, Botswana, Delta Camp Botswana, Elephant drawing, Elephant foraging, Elephant impression, Elephant in the bedroom, 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 [...]
¶
Posted 25 August 2009
† mGlier
§
All Botswana Posts
‡
°
Also tagged: Aerial photograph, Africa, African ecosystem, African Fish Eagles, African landscape, African Wildlife Drawing, Botswana, Crane, Delta Camp Botswana, Ecosystem, 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
Although the Tropic of Capricorn runs through the middle of this dry and warm country, there is sledding in Botswana. Rre Motsewabeng demonstrated his technique on the side of a steep kopje, a dome of rock of that protrudes from the flat sand sheet that covers most of the country. As a boy, he and [...]
¶
Posted 13 July 2009
† mGlier
§
All Botswana Posts
‡
°
Also tagged: Africa, African middle class, Botswana, consumer culture, domestic, egalitarian, fences, Gaborone, global culture, homes, household, Kumakwane, Misperception of Africa, River Walk Mall, rock sledding, Seretse Khama, Suburbs, Tarzan, the Batswana, Tropic of Capricorn
I am renting a car from Rre Malesu. He had the following to say about the land of Botswana: We are not a contrary people. We are a nation of introverts. We keep quiet and don’t complain a lot. But people are becoming more opinionated. Our first President Khama had a proverb that sums up [...]
¶
Posted 07 July 2009
† mGlier
§
All Botswana Posts
‡
°
Also tagged: Amarula, ancestors, Botswana, construction contractor, edible insect, folk stories, impressions, interview, Khama, Mopane, Mopane Worm, Morula tree, People of Botswana, perceptions, President Khama, proverbs
