Off the Beaten Track Painting

THE ART OF CREATING, CREATING ARTISTICALLY, IS ABOUT DISCOVERING THE SURROUNDING BEAUTY AND BEING ABLE TO COMMUNICATE THE MOMENT VISUALLY. A PERFECT REPRESENTATION OF ANYTHING IS EXCEEDINGLY INTANGIBLE. In April 2015, I mustered all of my courage to depart from the corporate world and embark on a creative adventure with photography and art. Since 2013, I had first started developing the brand BeanOn Photography and now Nicola Ann Art, specialising in professional Travel, Architectural & Dental Photography and creating Abstract Art & Fine Art Photography. When exploring I use all of my senses; a purely sensory experience that begs to be revelled in, observed in its finer detail. The sound of a wave crashing; the extensive shades of blue and green of the sea, the sky; the smells of an ocean; a wave’s force and foam’s caress on bare flesh; the taste of the salt from my fingers; different textures of beach sand, the accidental crunch of sand between my teeth, the golden, bronze, white colours of the sand; a child laughing. A stillness only found in the African bushveld; the crunching of vegetation beneath hiking boots; a wild animal’s roar, buffalo horns crashing together in battle; the colours of the earth, of the bush, the yellow of the fever trees, the feel of its powdered bark in the palm of my hand, the prick of a thorn; a setting ball of fire over the silhouetted scrubland, the sun heating my face when the sun rises; the smells of leaves and flowers, a bush fire, the pungent smell of sugarcane burning yet accompanied with a feeling of comfort, the sweet nectar of raw liquid sugar; the aroma of freshly chopped mangoes, coconut, passion fruit; the colours of the fruit each bursting with a different flavour. It is all-consuming, and I permit the currents of life to move within me, inhabit the discovery as a whole; to mingle mind and senses and absorb the beauty of the living into being within me.