About

It all began in 2017 when I spotted an old Reader’s Digest, “Atlas of southern Africa”, peaking out on the bottom shelf in a Red Cross charity shop. Flipping through and running my hand across the beautiful pages, I knew that these pages would become my canvas. So, I purchased the book for all of R40. Later on back at home, as I was going through in more detail, studying the vastness of our country, I picked up on places I had been and immediately images of the local flora and fuana, that reminded me of the area, came to mind.

So began my project to map out the incredible biodiversity of our country, cutting out the pages from my atlas, conjuring up my own experiences, researching the area and deciding on a species to paint. This is a celebratory project, often highlighting the endemic and iconic, but also a reminder of our impact on the world around us as many species are, or have been, on the verge of extinction, due only to us. However, I would also like to pay tribute to the monumental efforts by many people, national parks, conservation units and organizations to restore and protect some of these species and their environments.

At the moment, I have been focused on southern Africa, but this project definitely has legs, and I’d like to see where it takes me. I already cannot walk past a second hand or charity shop or market without taking a peak in to scratch around, looking for old maps.