2020 to 2022 – Prints produced from original photographs transformed using AI tools into something previously unseen.
This tree and her siblings live about 50 meters from my studio in the grounds of Bushrtail Enviromental Centre. People might walk past without paying any attention to her. She grows there quietly and privately.
Skeleton Gorge lies on the Eastern slopes of Table Mountain above Kirstenbosch. The mountain side is shaded by indigenous forest. These boulders have formed a ribbon at a specific elevation.
Upper Falls at Silver Falls in Mpumalanga Province (Nguni name for “the place where the sun rises”). The stream is dry for most of the year. But here. the gift of overnight rain made itself felt.
This is one of many small solitary trees growing in very rocky ground on the “heuvel” (Afrikaans for hill) just behind the studio.
Trying to get to the essence of this tree using both drawing and digital abstraction.
Many streams run down Table Mountain into the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. If it rains heavily, they become noisy torrents, otherwise “tinkling’ streams.
From a detail.
The Kloof (gorge) which lies about 150 meters from my studio, points towards the sun around the summer equinox. Before dawn, I went into the kloof to take photographs of the rising sun. However, I “felt” something taking in a deep breath behind me. It was this tree.
Detail of cave wall formed something like 240 million years ago. These are the oldest caves in the world.
Just a small bush growing at the side of the kloof trail that leads to the secret valley with its three streams.
There is something eternal about the spread of indigenous forest growing out of the hillside strata where fallen boulders come to rest.
The studio is surrounded by a large variety of Eucalyptus trees. These flowers are the fruit of one of the trees just a few meters from the studio door. The flowers, clinging to the fonds, are at (human) eye level.
From an original image of frosted grass captured by Liz Palthe, who manages Bushtrail. It can get very cold in this region and this magically changes the living environment.
Branches of two trees overlapping. When one looks up through the canopy for a long time, strange things can happen.
These eucalyptus flowers are extraordinary. I was so taken by their beauty, I almost forgot to document the image.
Ferns are everywhere in the Kloof. Therefore, it is easy to overlook them. Yet, they are so ancient a species and so beautiful, to miss them is to be unaware of something eternal.