2015 has arrived and I can’t wait to see what it has in store. I must say 2014 was an incredible year both personally and professionally and I wanted to share with you some of the experiences that stood out for me .I took part in my first two exhibitions (the first of many) , I produced some works that were extremely intricate and challenging yet fun and rewarding at the same time. I made new friends within the industry and was fortunate enough to visit many beautiful locations throughout our incredibly special country. My personal highlight though would undoubtedly have to be a magnificent proposal from my remarkable boyfriend of 6 years ! Quite frankly 2014 was a winner!!!
April 2014– I will NEVER forget finally seeing Joan Armatrading live at the “Anthems of Democracy” concert held at the Nelson Mandela Theater in JHB. The concert hosted many fantastic local performers, the entire production was phenomenal. Joan is someone I REALLY admire artistically and her music is always on my playlist when I’m in the studio. What a highlight, I’m still trying to recover from the elation!!!! 🙂
May 2014– Taking part in my first exhibition at “Art In The Park” was a fantastic experience. I felt tremendously lucky meeting talented local artists, David Johnson (http://www.davidjohnsonart.com/), Vincent Reid http://www.reidstudios.co.za/galleryvincent.htm and Kerry Michau http://kerrymichau.daportfolio.com/ Just to name a few. With 5 pieces sold, new friends gained, fantastic contacts made and a HUGE amount learnt about how to actually go about exhibiting, Art in the park was wonderful!
July 2014- Kruger National Park! What a fun holiday, nothing quite like a girls’ camping trip to the bush with your best friend. The winter bushveld is always extraordinarily beautiful and artistically inspiring, two weeks just wasn’t long enough!! We really enjoyed wondering aimlessly around the reserve, getting up to respectable nonsense (as only two best friends can) . We ended off our trip by spending a couple of days with our good friend Chris (Chris Martin Wildlife photography) http://www.chrismartin.co/ at his home in Leadwood private game reserve, it’s always great spending time with Chris.
Discovering Winsen’s Canvas in JHB (http://www.winsens.co.za/) and Rosemary’s hand made brushes in the UK (http://www.rosemaryandco.com/ ) was definitely a highlight- the respective products produced by both of these companies have made a huge improvement to the quality of my work.
To get a regular “bush fix” throughout the year we took a few trips to Imfolozi Game Reserve . Any time spent in the bush is always appreciated. These trips resulted in some nice images to consider painting which is always a bonus.
The Hilton Arts Festival was definitely a top Highlight, I really hope to partake in this festival again. It was such an enjoyable experience and it was so nice to reconnect with artists from the Art in the Park expo. It was an absolute privilege to meet artists such an Ingrid and Leon Fouche’ ( http://www.fouchestudios.co.za), what extremely talented, helpful, down to earth people they are. I definitely hope to be a part of this exhibition again, i’ll be sure to take some better photos of my display next time around.
I worked on MANY different pieces this year but these were some of my favourite, I so enjoyed the painting process and felt a real sense of accomplishment upon completion of these works.
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK trip Oct 2014- this one pretty much takes the cake, during the most amazing camping trip in one of my favourite places on earth, my wonderful boyfriend proposed… He even managed to organize a double rainbow display just before he got down on one knee, what a champ 😉 Our game sightings were incredible too, I saw my first Side-striped jackal and had some beautiful up-close sightings of quite a few different owl species. The sighting of the African Scops owlet (seen below) was an absolute privilege, this extremely well camouflaged little bird was the inspiration behind my logo, the beautiful soft call it makes at night is my absolute favourite nocturnal African sound!!!!!!
Ending off 2014 in our KZN Midlands with a few of our close friends was the perfect end to a fabulous year, the best way to welcome in 2015.
All in all 2014 was an incredible year, i am so extremely grateful for all the unbelievable opportunities I was able to experience. I met so many extremely talented people in such a short space of time (check out Peter Stewart’s work http://peterstewart.fineartstudioonline.com/ , he is an incredibly talented artist and a lovely person too). Priceless memories were made throughout the year and the best part of it all was that as the year drew to a close there was the most prominent feeling that 2015 is going to be even better!!!!!
Here’s wishing everyone a fun, fulfilling and productive year ahead… I have big goals for 2015 and i look forward to sharing the journey with you.
