Memories of the Kgalagadi Print

The artist just spent several weeks camping in the Kgalagadi Desert. It is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending for 900,000 square kilometres, covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. There is much beauty in its arid vastness. Good rains had covered the river beds with parchment-yellow grass, the lime-green new shoots gave hope to the life they support, while the grey/brown reflects the desert sand. On returning to her studio the artist felt compelled to convert these desert colors onto her canvas—a departure from her more brightly colored work. The symbols in the background are African and convey positive concepts such as: friendship, strength, balance, courage etc. "In wanting to mimic the dryness of the ground, in the symbols I utilized an old technique to finely "crack" the paint. Thus the work itself follows the same course as the dried river beds."