My thoughts and art practice, Art of the Earth, for the Earth, in the Earth…. EARTHART, Art with Heart…

Over the last few years in my art practice I have been digging into the earth, mining for information and delving into traditional art colours (with the invaluable advice of my fellow Xangana Mahenye community creatives….)

My friend Enock, head of gardens at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge and my mentor in so many cultural practices, from fire making and hunting to earth pigments and tree bark dyes, is a deep ‘mine’ of information, to whom I often turn!

Here is Enock’s senior wife in white, with her collection of earth pigments….prior to renewing the traditional paintings on the walls of her homestead..

Enock’s wife pounding earth pigment to a fine texture in her churi, using a mhusi…

LOVE & PEACE is the delightful result, a painting on the wall of her personal sleeping hut..

Earth also comes into its own as a floor finish… needing to be periodically retouched, here smeared by hand by Enock’s younger wife, then polished, burnished, with a favourite perfectly shaped rock…..

Another friend, Makokwe, also a talented chef… invites me to his home to join in painting with his wives and family..

Look at this gorgeously graphic striped bedroom wall, gloriously decorated for her own bedroom by Enock’s senior wife….(and the colours are just too beautiful not to smear on myself…)

Makokwe’s wife applying earth colour to a living area…..and we create patterns together…

Another kind of earth…Enock’s mother has kindly obtained some fine red ochre for me, from the Hippo Valley area, which is used as a skin and scalp conditioner..

Excited, I scrape some to use as a wash with water on watercolour paper, then I draw into it straight from the stone, wet and dry, most satisfying……

and yet another kind of earth…many years ago I took this poignant photograph of a young girl dancing at her Komba graduation, celebrating her arrival at the edge of womanhood… her face and body decorated with a fine clay which at that stage I did not know the name of, or the source of…

Now, at last, living in the Mahenye community, I have discovered what this pigment is.. KAOLIN!

There is a traditional kaolin collection site on our Kaya Nyala plot within Chief Mahenye’s village, shown to me by another friend (Head Chef at Chilo Gorge Lodge) Peter Chauke. (When I first saw the site near our goat boma, I had not known the import of it, had just assumed the rather odd white turds that I observed were those of a spotted hyena, with loads of calcium content!!!)

Our geologist friend Tim Broderick kindly commented on this photo that I sent to him, note blue comments in the photograph below

This sumptuous kaolin is tactile, challenging and absorbing to work with, both on skin – as in these two body paintings of Kelli’s a few years ago …. (Kelli Barker, Make Up artist)

And kaolin is a wonder, making marks on my hand made papers…… applied directly as a paint ….

or applied here with a fresh Phoenix reclinata palm leaf as a stencil… Lin Barrie, Palm Connection, diptych, 1 and 2, kaolin earth on handmade paper, monoprints, each 45 x 32 cm

My earth pigment art journey is never ending, ongoing, experimenting with the wonderful range of earth colours from our Mahenye Village on the banks of the Save River opposite Gonarezhou National Park.

Ongoing, incorporating my attendance at the wonderful workshop ‘A Material Practice” conducted by Ann Mary Gollifer and Mma Motsei Nkwemabala at Origins Centre, Wits in 2024.

Ongoing, my own art embraces earth, mixed with acrylic painting and poetry… as in my painting Red Earth Pangolin, using red earth from Mahenye on my canvas ..

……truly this is Art for Impact, using the red african earth found in my village to encrust the scales of my painted endangered pangolin, the secret nocturnal visitor that leaves digging and tracks in that same red earth ……….

my painting Red Earth Pangolin has been sold through Strauss & Co in Johannesburg, in support of the African Pangolin Working Group ….Mission Statement: to conserve Africa’s pangolin species and the habitat they occupy

Some of my earth pigment paintings are translated into my “Abstract Thoughts” collection of wallpapers, with Robin Sprong Wallpapers, Cape Town…

Inspirations from the walls of xangana village residences that I have admired over the years, paintings I have done with earth, now translated to the walls of contemporary city homes… such as this one “Earth Pigments“, my painting on paper using real earth, and which has been translated to wallpaper…

Also in my Abstract Thoughts Collection of wallpapers, are “Beneath the Surface“, and “Of the Earth” – two abstract wallpapers derived from another large triptych created using earth pigments directly onto the canvas, that you’ll see below….

“Beneath the Surface”…

“Of the Earth”….

“Pangolin Trilogy”, my triptych, acrylic on canvas, was the starting point for creating those two wallpapers….again this was truly an Art for Impact piece which sold at auction to help support ConservEarth Project Pangolin.. mission statement: HELP US RESTORE WHAT WE HAVE LOST. For humans and wildlife to co-exist, we need to implement sustainable living practices, not just for the survival of wildlife, but for the continued existence of humans too.

“Pangolin Trilogy” in work, using red earth from Mahenye…

The sale of this painting helped raise funds for ConservEarth Project Pangolin.. in creating pangolin-friendly electric fencing around Sabi Sands Nature Reserve … (a subject close to my heart as we also have erected pangolin-friendly electric fencing around our Kaya Nyala property..with the lowest electrified wire being at least 50 cm off the ground so that pangolins and other low to the ground creatures can not inadvertently get entrapped in it..)

My poetry often accompanies my artworks…

I always love to see how my artworks translate into their new homes…and look at this, the ‘translocated pangolin’, from our Zimbabwe lowveld to the bright lights of Johannesburg.. my Pangolin Trilogy”, triptych, in her new home on a wall in Jozi, Sandton…

I continue always on my journey with earth pigments and handmade paper…. embracing the transdisciplinary approach of such Earth Material luminaries as Ann Gollifer, Botswana artist with Guns & Rain Gallery, and Dr. Tammy Hodgskiss, Curator at Wits Origins Centre. a fascinating art journey from the Stone Age to Contemporary Art!

Here is one of my termite interventions at Kaya Nyala, earth pigment painted onto handmade paper and then left in the earth itself for termites to add their marks onto over time…

A giant land snail shell is a perfect receptacle for my earth pigment…

My snail shell holds the earth, and I add water, then I sketch the enticing fibonacci spiral that creates a giant snail shell on my paper…note the earth balls and the kaolin (goat earth, I call it…since I am finding more and more of it near our goat boma at Kaya Nyala!)

and the final result – a very satisfying giant snail shell fibonacci, pencil, ink and kaolin ..

I sketch the self same shells on paper with black and beige art pigments and ink…