Grace/Genade/Ubabalo

Every piece of art starts with a unique motivation - for me, it's always of a personal nature. I don't paint someone that I saw - I paint someone that I met personally and my ultimate goal is to have their personality and story be translated onto the canvas. It's the real emotion behind peoples' smiles that fascinate me. The main focus of my piece will always be on the subject.
I paint in monochrome tones because no colour exists that can accurately represent every unique and colourful story - it is this contradiction that adds power to the artwork as a whole. South Africa is known as the rainbow nation but some stories already have their set palet of colours - because of the emotional situation that the subject finds him/herself in.

I believe that you don't have to travel on only one path, and I'm often led on a path of community service within rural South Africa. Here, I meet my Smiles of Africa. Behind the crooked smile and teary eyes, behind the Smiles of Africa lies more than the eye could see. The art-making process consists of firstly finding the perfect photograph as the subject. This is the biggest part of my art-making process because the photograph is the essence of the artwork, the story it's telling. It is essential to understand that the people I paint are real people living in Africa. They feel things differently coming from the circumstances they do. You have to keep the context of the inspiration in mind.

Everything that I see and hear on these paths of mine, brings me to this singular reason for my art - showing the real, pure beauty of South Africa's heart: its children and its people. Striving to convey to the viewer that Africa does not only start and end with its beautiful landscapes but Africa's true beauty lies within our communities and within our nation's people!

With grace, comes wisdom. This lady’s eyes show character, survival, and experience. Life experience that she wears with grace. Waking up every morning, grateful to still be alive and able. Able to have brought up her children and her grandchildren. Able to put food on the table, even if it is just a “bakkie mielie-pap”. Living through life and sharing the wisdom that she has learned over her years of walking the streets of Prins Albert, in the heart of the Karoo. A story that each of the beautiful lines on her face tells. If only we knew… Being a mother/ grandmother amongst the little smiles of Africa takes grace, care, and faith. Being the motherly figure throughout generations takes its toll, but…

Each line being a sign that a smile was once there and living.