The synergy between Wine and Wild Dogs may not be immediately apparent, but read on……..!!!!
My art, Painted Wolf Wine and Conservation go hand in hand…at a wine tasting, (Inn on the Vumba, with #GordonAddams…)
Save The Date: Listen in on the 23rd September – a “Wild Chat’ with Jeremy Borg of Painted Wolf Wines (PWW), Gerhard Perold of Perold Wine Celler and Cole Du Plessis of Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT)- who together will present fascinating facts and wine tasting to raise awareness of Lycaon pictus, these charismatic animals that we commonly call, amongst so many other names, Painted Wolves, Painted Dogs, African Wild Dogs
Wild Chat….
Listen in to the Wild Chat and “Paint your Palate” !!!
Learn about the conservation work of EWT with Cole Du Plessis
Painted Wolf Wines produce award winning blends, worth exploring the range….
Jeremy, master winemaker, and his wife Emma Borg are passionate about wine, wild dogs and conservation…
Jeremy and Emma, with my painting “Pep Rally” in the background
As an artist, I am passionate about the same, but I aim to capture in paint the emotions they capture in their wines!!!
I am constantly aiming to capture movement and character. i am fascinated by the energy and charisma of African wild dogs, and never more so than when I am watching them at play and socializing as a family, in their pre-hunt “pep rally”….
Hunting Solo, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2 x 3 feet, by Lin Barrie, on display at Perold Wine Cellar
My large painting “Pep Rally II” was displayed at the excellent Painted Wolf Wines tasting room in Paarl, but it has outgrown its space and is migrating northwards to Madikwe Hills Safari Lodge, classic wild dog pack dispersal!!!
This will be an apt new home for the dogs, as Madikwe stocks the wonderful Painted Wolf Wines as well!
Pep Rally II, acrylic on loose canvas, 106 x 180 cm, by Lin Barrie
My association with Jeremy and Emma is a long standing friendship, with huge admiration for their ceaseless efforts on behalf of African wild dog conservation, (and for Jeremy’s excellent wines!)
Wine Label by Lin Barrie for Painted Wolf Wines
Gerhard Perold of Perold Wine Cellar in the United Kingdom holds delicious stocks of Jeremy’s wine for his customers, and I am honoured to have some of my art featured for sale in his lovely tasting space…
the Perold Tasting Rooma warm welcome at perold wine cellars, with Gerhard Perold…
Red Wine and Wild dogs…guess what I used to paint the background of these canvases…
Red Wine I and II, acrylic on stretched canvas, each 41 x 51 cm, by Lin Barrie, on display at Perold Wine Cellar
Ha Ha- no- not red wine!!!! I used acrylic, brushes and my favourite old palette knife to create the strokes and the feeling of spilled red wine….
As a contrast to all the action in the previous paintings, my large canvas called “Resting III”, on display for sale at Perold Cellars, is probably how we all feel after a evening spent with good friends and family, a good meal and a glass or two of wine, Relaxed!
Resting III, acrylic on loose canvas, 106 x 180 cm, by Lin Barrie, on display at Perold Wine Cellar
Long may EWT, PWW and Perold Wine Cellars continue to promote and support the awareness and real conservation of our African Wild Dogs, in wilderness and community areas alike…
Cheers!
Jeremy’s wine-tasting on the banks of the Save River, Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, Gonarezhou National Park
Hornbills I, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on loose canvas, 104 x 179 cm
I still sketch and paint,
Giant eagle Owl, by lin barrie, charcoal on handmade paper
and birders take flight onto the internet airwaves, going virtual!
ground hornbill flying, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on craft paper, 46 x 64 cm
Rooting around cyberspace clues, digging into virtual exhibitions and online zoom chats and podcasts, happy birders find fascinating birds, information and art…
Guinea fowl III, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on brown craft paper, 30 x 42 cm
I have gladly contributed to the Virtual Bird Fair run by Birdlife South Africa,
Carmine season, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 90 x 90 cm
My art reflects the diversity of birdlife that surrounds us in Africa, and my field sketches try to capture the movement and character of whatever I see around me, in this case Birds Birds Birds!
Corvus sketch, by Lin Barrie, charcoal, A2
Experimenting with charcoal handmade from my mopani wood fire, I sketch the characterful crows that occasionally visit our bush house…
Cape Parrots in our Zimbabwean Lowveld are now called Brown Necked Parrots…
The wonderful feisty Cape/Grey Headed Parrots in the Save Valley Conservancy and Gonarezhou Park, in our Zimbabwean Lowveld, are now called Brown Necked Parrots…
Brown necked parrots, oil on canvas, framed/glassed, 61 x70 cm
Flight and movement fascinate me as I try to capture the expression, the immediacy of that buoyant feeling…
great egret, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on canvas board, 46 x 61 cm
Flight entrances man always, and my experiences of flight, observing and feeling at one with birds in flight, remain forever seared in my mind, such as my experiences with Pennant Winged Nightjars in the Mukuvisi woodlands
And lets hope that preservation of our unique birding systems, whether in suburban gardens or protected wilderness, whether on mining dumps, open seas, sandy shorelines, in wetlands or on alluvial river banks, remains a key concern for all thinking people.
Water is Life, Life is Culture, by Lin Barrie
Pomona Art Wall in Harare displays murals by some of Zimbabwe’s artists, one being our late and dear Daryl Nero. Empowered by Miracle Missions, the wall reflects some of our concerns about wetlands, water and eco systems, here is some of my art from that ….
Water is Life….
I leave you with my large painting, titled Hornbill and Diamond….. it poses a large question, currently very pertinent as diamond mining seems to be edging its way into our protected areas within Zimbabwe…….mining activities over fragile ecosystems?
Hornbill and Diamond , acrylic and oil pastel, by Lin Barrie
Kelli Barker Body Art and Make Up and Lin Barrie Art in a collaboration, beating Covid!!
The inspiration behind this collaboration between myself and Kelli, for a photoshoot with Daxion Photography started with my acrylic painting called “Energy”…
Energy by Lin Barrie, acrylic on canvas, 2 x 2 feet
My original acrylic painting celebrates colour and movement, mark-making …it celebrates the positive energy we can generate in our everyday human interactions…..to overcome the negative fears of Covid na disease that the whole world has faced in this year of 2020….
Here I start painting Kelli in the same style as my “energy” paintings…
Lin Barrie and Kelli Barker
the challenge of painting on a 3D surface pleases me…
Painting on a 3D surface pleases me…
Furthering the theme, this series of photos portrays gestures of friendship in these challenging times…. our Zimbabwean Tsonga tradition of greeting, “hand on heart”, versus the western style “handshake”…
here are my initial charcoal sketches…
Hand on Heart by Lin BarrieHandshake, by Lin Barrie
The Hlengwe people of south east zimbabwe (northern Tsonga region towards the Limpopo River) use hand clapping as a form of friendship greeting and thanks…plus a gesture of Hand on Heart…. The hand on heart greeting is called Kusheweta.
Photograph by Daxion Photography
and so Kelli’s pose, here professionally photographed by Daxion Photography, reflects the Hand on Heart gesture to convey social connection, trust and friendship in these difficult “covid” times…
Photo by Lin Barrie
Hand on Heart, eyes wide open to the possibilities of human friendship and trust….
eyes wide open, hand on heart…Photograph by Daxion Photography
Eyes shut….trusting….
Eyes shut….trusting….Photograph by Daxion Photography
The stunning black and white version of the Daxion photographs…
Eyes open, black and white….Photograph by Daxion Photography
The end of the long dry winter season in the lowveld brings drifts of russet leaves between dark stark trunks…
detail from my larger painting, Mopani Winter Woodland
I know this is the season to watch out for deep red eyes between the tree trunks,
the eyes have it…
Huge dinner plate ears turned inquiringly my way……
my, what big ears you have…
amidst drifts of gold and red fallen mopani leaves…
Leaves which are just the colour of my Wild dog’s eyes…
Wild Dog, acrylic on strteched canvas, 28 x 20 cm by Lin Barrie
As I drive looking for wild dog dens, deep red mopani leaves nestle in fossilized elephant footprints at pans long dried…
Sunrise and sunset bring glowing colour through the mysterious dark trunks of mopani forest…
My painting is called Mopani Winter Woodland, acrylic on loose canvas, 80 x 180 cm, …
An ideal play ground for Painted wolves, aka African wild dogs to leap and wrestle before heading out to hunt with their family, as in my paintings below…
Pep Rally I, acrylic on loose canvas, 90 x 88 cmPep Rally II, acrylic on loose canvas, 90 x 88 cm
I can’t get enough of this winter season, the shapes of the leaves reminding g me of butterflies fallen to earth…
my photographic and painted art tries in some small way to capture the essence of “butterfly”…
Butterfly on a mopani log…..
the feeling of a swarm of fluttering butterflies, bringing to mind the migrations of Monarch butterflies that drift across whole continents ….
Mopani Leaf Butterflies, by Lin Barrie -diptych, acrylic on stretched canvas….each panel is 61x 91 cmdetail from my paintings…
Russet mopani leaves are an integral part of our lowveld skies,
gracing South East Zimbabwe with their glowing silhouettes against winter blue skies, enhancing game drives from Chilo Gorge safari Lodge into the magnificent Gonarezhou National Park and traversing the Save Valley Conservancy….
and all the while enhancing the seasonal winter promise of coming across the tell tale eyes of an African wild dog, peering through the camouflaging leaves…
“Shumba” by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 92 x 92 cm
Musings on the languid, lithe and lovely beast that we call ‘Lion’ …
lioness and young male in Mana Pools, photograph Lin Barrie
Panthera leo, creature of fable and bible, myth and immediate powerful reality.
My immediate and powerful reality.
Here below is my sketch in honour of the great artist Rembrandt, who acutely and empathetically observed and sketched lions in captivity:
Recumbent Lion, Ode To Rembrandt, acrylic on canvas, by Lin Barrie
I live with lions, have tracked lions, been growled at by unseen lions, sketched and painted many lions. Their powerful presence is part of my psyche, part of the ‘wild’ in me that celebrates every moment of being a part of the great web of bio-diversity that surrounds us.
Here is a gorgeous male, one of two we spent hours with in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park….
Kgalagadi Lion – photograph by Lin Barrie
Lions..constant inspiration and fascinating in their social family ties…
They hunt warthogs below our Senuko bush house, Tsavene, in broad daylight and their reverberating roars punctuate our sleep on most nights.
They impact fiercely on my beloved African wild dog packs, killing adults and pups when they can. And yet I have to accept that this is the way of the wild, the beast with the velvet glove….
Their footprints mingle with ours on walks and safari drives in the Gonarezhou, after nights spent tucked snugly listening to them, safe in the Mahove Tented Camp run by Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge.
And if we are lucky, we spot them in dense cover, peering at us….
Lion in Gonarezhou , photograph by Clive Stockil
Sometimes at dinner on the high deck of Chilo Gorge Lodge, overlooking the Save River, the roars of lions and yodels of hyenas on the opposite river bank nearly drown out the guests awed conversation!
How lucky am I… living in the wilderness areas of Gonarezhou and Save Valley Conservancy in South Eastern Zimbabwe
Let your mind go- Do yourself a favor and read The Rise of The Vaesons – an African Fantasy/eco-tale by Zimbabwean author P.J.Odendaal, featuring Lions, Wild dogs, and a host of fantastic African creatures..
In celebration of World Lion Day on August 10th, Panthera are proud to share the story of the lion ‘Shy’ and his quest for a safe and lasting home in the vast landscape of Kafue National Park, Zambia. Panthera, Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Willdife and the Zambian Carnivore Program, together with partners, are transforming this park into a stronghold for lions like Shy along with leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs.
Panthera Lion Program Director Paul Funston recommends the new book “The Last Lions of Africa” by Anthony Ham. He says, “With the world’s attention on the upcoming #WorldLionDay August 10, this timely book examines the main challenges and threats to #lion populations through the lens of stories from different parts of the lion’s range. It was my privilege to help the author with some of the research and it is my honor to have this photograph of the magnificent Humba that I took in Hwange selected for the cover. The answers to the threats lion face are diverse and a key thought process deeply engaged in this excellent new narrative.”
The book includes in-depth and previously unpublished information from places like #HwangeNationalPark and includes updates on the descendants of the famous Cecil. For more information: https://bit.ly/2PmFr11
The Kgalagadi lions are legendary, photograph by Lin Barrie
I am the child that wakes scared in the night, seeing a robber’s shadow always in the same position, his hooked nose defined by the handle of my half open bedroom door.
I am the child that hovers in delicious, terrible fear on the edge of my bed in the dark, knowing that there be monsters below, waiting until I can wait no longer to make the leap outwards over the parquet floor blocks as far as I can, away from that stygian hole under my mattress. Upon landing I dash to the dimly lit passage and bathroom, not daring to look at the darkness behind!
And now I am out and about in that very darkness, nervous but on a secret mission with my father and dog. He does not say why but we amble to our favourite place, the Mukuvisi Woodlands, for a late, very late, afternoon walk. A full moon rises orange behind entwined Msasa tree trunks.
I know these trees.
By daylight…
We run and climb and play hide and seek with our dogs through these trees.
By daylight…
We spot birds nests, orchids and frogs on our ramblings through these trees.
By daylight.….
But now it is dark.…..
Msasa Moon, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 3 x 3 feet
We come into the open, in what my father calls ‘the amphitheater’, to sit on pale beige sand still warm from the rays of the late sun, surrounded by dusk and an audience of whispering Msasa trees. We are peering upwards. I look at my dad and I am whispering as well, “Why?”..
Then, WOW!
An impossible moth shape drifts in front of the moon and over my head as the dog and I crouch low on the sand next to my father.
Bigger than any moth feasible, a fantastical beast floats its shadow over me, trailing two impossibly long white pennants that flutter against the African night sky. Only the presence of my father and my dog leaning against me enable me to look up in wonder and not fear.
It is not a huge alien moth but an exquisite fantastical bird that we have come to witness as it dances aloft like an oriental kite flown by a masterful string puller. Soon it is joined by another, their long pennants fluttering as they dip and swoop in aerial display. My father knows these birds. “Pennant-winged nightjars”, he says.
Pennant Winged Nightjars, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 3 x 3 feet
We crouch in wonder for many minutes, and I can feel my father grinning. What a gift he has given me. What a gift the dark has given me, and I wander home to my suburban supper in a daze; to an ordinary life under lights, macaroni cheese, and my second favourite T.V. series, Batman.
Am I to embrace the dark after all? My fascination with Batman the night avenger might indicate so…and now I am entranced with the promise of creatures of the night so elegant and so compelling that they exceed my wildest eight year old imaginations and fill me with awe.
When I awake in bed later that night, as I know I have to, the shadows of my bedroom seem more filled with promise than with fear. I pull my curtains open and the sinking moon smiles back at me.
Out there, somewhere in the dark, the pennant wings dance and fly.
“Pennants I, II and III” triptych by Lin Barrie
Lin Barrie:
A surreal avian memory, a bird which was a moth which was an oriental flying kite, which was a fantastical part of the African night sky, has remained one of the clearest, most resonating images of my young life. A hunter of insects by night, with seasonal display pennants that turn it into a fairytale creature of the moon…
Pennant winged nightjars, acrylic on stretched canvas, 3 x 3 feet detail from the larger painting
I think it has helped to form my fascination with synergies, linkages between elements of landscape, people and animals, such as the flow of water which becomes fish, the texture of baobab skin which so closely resembles that of elephants’ limbs, the shapes of monumental rock outcrops which take human or animal forms, plants which echo human parts, animal totems and people….
Whether we are humans living in sprawling cities or traditional villages, or dung beetles rolling our food stores; whether we are monumental baobab trees thousands of years old or whales birthing our young in cold currents; each of us has a vital role to play as strands of the greater web of life. Diversity and linkages between people, plants, animals and their environment are insurance for the future of our earth.
Biology became a passion for me during my school years. Plans to enter the world of medicine or science were superseded only by the decision to pursue the lonely path of an artistic career.
From my memories and my constant field sketches I create artworks on canvas with a treasured old palette knife inherited from my father with which I create expressive strokes.
I relish every visit to the magical miombo/msasa Mukuvisi woodlands in Harare, my childhood haunt.
Pennants I, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 42 x 59,5 cm (A2) Pennants II, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 42 x 59,5 cm (A2) Pennants III, by Lin Barrie, acrylic on stretched canvas, 42 x 59,5 cm (A2)
“Fallen Tree”, acrylic on loose canvas, 85 x 200 cm is my painting of the incredible mopani winter woodland in the lowveld of Zimbabwe at this time of year, russet red leaves, filtered light at dawn and dusk and always, as I drive slowly through the landscape of the Save Valley Conservancy, the promise of wild dog dens…
Near the den of the Mbungu Pack, in deep woodland, monitored by the African Wildlife Conservation Fund, (AWCF), I know that at any moment I could spot the dogs…
Deep red leaves and golden lion’s mane grass frame my search…
There they are!… the wild dogs lie and doze, waiting for the cool of evening to begin a hunt
Dogs in Mopani 1, acrylic on loose canvas, 70 x 105 cm
…camouflaged like the patterns of persian carpets in the rust red mopani leaves…
Where do coats begin and leaves end?… a glorious medley of colour….truly a painters delight, and I love the alternative common name for these gorgeous tricolor hunters, Painted Wolves…. or Painted Dogs…
Mopani camouflage, acrylic on canvas, 88 x 88 cm
My painting “Pep Rally” (acrylic/oil bar on canvas, 130 x 100 cm) is typical of the interaction between young wild dogs just before they go hunting.
Exuberant and social, they bolster each others confidence, rearing up and playing..
Pep Rally I, acrylic on loose canvas, 90 x 88 cm
galloping and twisting sinuously in the growing pale light of the rising moon…
Painted Wolf Pep Rally, acrylic on loose canvas, 53 x 97 cm…
The hunters soon disappear into the mopani dusk with white tails flashing, as a full moon rises……
full moon rising
they vanish into the surrounding woodland, hunting food for the alpha female who waits patiently at the den with her pups ..
Mother and Pups, acrylic on canvas board, 61 x 76 cm
Originally posted on Global Health Diaries: As each nation mobilizes its communities to combat COVID-19, a virus that knows no borders, the global community unites in solidarity. Our new series, titled “In the World With COVID-19,” features reflective perspectives on…
In all my travels and wandering there is one constant, one inspiration… The all encompassing African sky above me, here in Zimbabwe…….
I’ve looked at clouds
From both sides now…...
From Up and Down…..
And still somehow
It’s clouds illusions I recall.….
I really don’t know clouds,
At all.
Sunrise, sunset, starry skies and full rising moons, the landscapes of the Save River below Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, Gonarezhou National Park and the horizons around my Tsavene Bush house in the Save Valley Conservancy are prime inspiration.
But the world is my oyster, clouds are my starting point and my point of departure, because without clouds, big skies, moody moons and sunsets just could not be the same!
From my homeland Zimbabwe, but also from the aqua and cerise skies of Thailand, the roseate skies of Florida, the warm and spicy skies of the Mediterranean and from the looming skies of wet season Kalahari, I draw amazement and inspiration.
So, this little A3 size abstract is from my “Serendipity” series…
Serendipity Series by Lin Barrie
As is this…
Serendipity Series by Lin Barrie
This is my wallpaper, Night Sky….(see the Clouds of Magellan)?! created in collaboration with Robin Sprong Wallpaper.
I have linked some of my large abstract paintings with similar sky photographs that I have taken on the banks of the Save River, below Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, on the edge of Gonarezhou, and at my bush house in the Save Valley Conservancy– browse on!
Big Sky with clouds of mysterious hue, on the sands of the Save River….
Kgalagadi Pan , acrylic on stretched canvas, 3 x 2 feet
Pan, by Lin BarrieImpressionist delight
and my painting, Sunset Impression, acrylic on loose canvas, 102 x 78 cm
After the Storm, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2 x 3 feet
After the Storm, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2 x 3 feetbig sky big clouds…
Big Sky, acrylic on loose canvas, 101 x 178 cm
Bushveld Dawn, acrylic on loose canvas, 88 x 90 cm
Bushveld Dawn, acrylic on loose canvas, 88 x 90 cm
Copper Dawn, acrylic on loose canvas, 90 x 88 cm
New Dawn diptych 2, and 1, acrylic on canvas, 2 x 2 feet – how I imagine waking up on the Algarve….Portugal!
New Dawn diptych 2, and 1, acrylic on canvas, 2 x 2 feet
Plum Horizon, flying high, up or down, clouds from both sides!?!
Plum Horizon, acrylic on loose canvas, 88 x 180 cm
Skyscape, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2 x 3 feet
Skyscape, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2 x 3 feet
inspiration is never ending….
Strange new dawn, acrylic on loose canvas, 85 x 180 cm
Strange new dawn, acrylic on loose canvas, 85 x 180 cm
