"I thought I was in Paradise." Painting

Lbetho comes from my name, but also sounds somewhat African. My first series of abstract paintings is called "Africans Dreams" and is inspired by Africa. I paint since 1984. At that time it was my hobby. I started with pastels. Since 2005 I work with oil paint and in 2010 I started with abstract paintings in acrylic paint. At that time I also started to paint as a professional. I dream my paintings, I lie awake at night often and my paintings are shaped into my mind. If I sleep or I am awake, I am busy with painting. I discover beautiful shapes and colors from everywhere. The total painting formes in my head. Then it may take a while before I start the painting, but it remains in my head until the painting is complete. So I've often 3 or 4 paintings in my head, which just need to be put on the canvas. Most of the time, the painting looks different on the canvas than I had dreamed. But that does not matter. I like to make people glad and happy by my work. Therefore I use many powerful colors. I am inspired by nature. I live in the middle of a forest on a beautiful estate with many wild animals, such as Roe deer, foxes, rabbits, all kinds of special birds like woodpeckers, Nightjar. I paint not to nature, I do not copy animals, I create my own animals. The people must go looking into my work to find the animals. I also wish that people find new things to see in my work. I want to contribute to a better world with my art. I donate a substantial amount of each painting to charity. My motto is that I want to contribute to improve the quality of life of people and animals. Since 2010 I expose my work at home and abroad. There are exhibitions in Denmark, Italy (Ferrara, Bologna) and America (New York, Miami, Las Vegas). It's not my hobby, it's not my work, it's my life.