MC Escher produced his famous Fish and Scales print in 1950 - at the same time as The Butterflies. And so, following on from my re-imagination of The Butterflies in yesterday's post, I've used the same method to produce the Fish and Scales Topographic Map of South Africa. You should be able to pick out... Continue Reading →
MC Escher’s Butterflies Print Re-imagined
MC Escher's work has always amazed me with the way he transforms reality: peeling it away in layers to reveal new structures and perceptions. Lately I've begun to wonder if I couldn't use one of his prints - The Butterflies - to blend his work with how Geographers use Geographic Information Systems to portray the... Continue Reading →
The Silence of Elephants – a haiga
I found this lovely haiku by Ingrid Baluchi when I was recently browsing through back issues of The Mamba Journal - it's the Africa Haiku Network's online publication that comes out twice a year. Right away I knew I would like to put it to imagery and - fortunately - we had already booked a... Continue Reading →
Lockdown Safari to Amakhala Private Game Reserve
In September and October South Africa began to ease the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions and our local Game Reserves began to open up. We were desperate to get out of town and into the bush so we took advantage of the special offers for residents and had day game drives to Kwandwe and stayed for two nights... Continue Reading →
The Yoga Teacher, the Blue Sea Moon and Ernst Haeckel’s Pitcher Plants
I wanted to make some yoga art with a difference and asked beautiful Cape Town based yoga teacher Shelby Kleynhans (@yogi_shelby) to send me some yoga pictures and ideas to work with. She told me that she had a special affinity for the moon, the sea and anything blue. So I masked out the background... Continue Reading →
The Yoga Teacher, the Mermaid and Ernst Haeckel
The long lockdown has sent me in some new artistic and photographic directions. Here's a great example. I wanted to make some yoga art with the beautiful Cape Town based yoga teacher Shelby Kleynhans (@yogi_shelby) and asked her to send me some yoga pictures to work with. These I will show you in my next... Continue Reading →
From the Ice Queen to the Mermaid’s Tail: three fantasy silhouettes
Sometimes my fantasy work just goes in all the right directions without me really knowing. In my last post I mentioned that Meagen had given me some great silhouettes to work with - she certainly did! I took her poses, masked out the background and it was then great fun to experiment overlaying the patterns... Continue Reading →
Bird Flight and the Black Swan – return to fantasy art
I think of the some of my photography as fantasy artwork. It's work that often dissolves a nude study into a spiritual natural scene. If you check out Symmetry Series: nude studies and new work at #NAF19 you'll see what I mean. It's no real surprise that I've wanted to do some more fantasy work during... Continue Reading →
In Tandem: Poetry to Imagery
Just before lockdown I shared a quiet couple of beers with Harry Owen and we talked about trying something new for the Virtual National Arts Festival. Seeing as we had lots of poetry and imagery between us why not collaborate? Here's a taste of what we have been working on. Aorta - Harry's unpublished poem... Continue Reading →
Now by Hannah Armour
One of the most memorable and heart felt poems in Harry Owen's anthology For Rhino in a Shrinking World was written by 10 year old Hannah Armour. So it was an easy choice to be one of our In Tandem series of video clips for this year's Virtual National Arts Festival. It's read here by... Continue Reading →