Heading Out.
What primeval instinct makes us want to explore?! To leave the safe, comfortable environment in which we wallow and enjoy and exchange it for a foreign, strange land where uncertainty, a certain amount of trepidation (excitement really!) and the mouth-watering anticipation of adventure and new experiences beckon? A small and easily ignored premonition tells us not to be completely foolhardy and rather spend some quality time painting petunias in the garden and attending to the broken door in the kitchen, amongst a hundred other urgent chores………but, well, just look at this map of Southern Africa…………see those delicious roadsigns: “ N2 / M41 / R304 / Track PL47 / 4WD Only…………..” and soon – emptiness of wilderness, a great endless sky, stillness – I have come home to my own cathedral in the bush, presided over by nature and obeyed by creatures large and small. Not even my dearly beloved Elizabeth (after 50 years) can completely grasp this gnawing hunger for the wilderness, the emptiness of the great plains, perfection, paradise, call it what you will.
The desire for understanding nature and creation I suppose stems from some kind of throwback from the dawn of mankind – some disguise it with material wealth, achievements, beautiful surroundings and culture – all that mankind has achieved stems from nature and her rich bounty – the answers were there all the time, just waiting for man’s realization that we are dependent on the natural world for our very existence just as the different species are interdependent on each other – there does not exist such things as cruelty, greed and hatred in nature, only one instinct dominates – survival above all else.
I hope to portray in a small way my observations, experiences and love of nature in my paintings.
