With a name inspired by a fascinating and potently layered history/culture book, “Guns & Rain, Guerillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe” by David Lan, this just-as-potent little gallery, now ten years old, has grown steadily under the directorship of founder Julie Taylor. British anthropologist and playwright, David Lan, born in South Africa, wrote about guerrillas and spirit mediums, culture, identity, land, struggle, change….themes that are echoed in the strong curatorial focus of the gallery…..
Running concurrently with the FNB art fair, as part of the Open City programme, “Soft Power Too” was on show at the delightfully situated Guns & Rain Gallery in Parkhurst.
Guns are hard; rain is soft…what can not be achieved by the barrel of a gun is often more lastingly achieved by soft subtleties…the steel fist in the velvet glove…
“Soft Power, Too” was an exceptional line-up of South African artists—Hedwig Barry, Bev Butkow, Aneesah Girie, Hannah Macfarlane, and Princia Matungulu—all of whom work with materials that challenge the conventional boundaries between painting, weaving, sculpture, and textile art.
“Soft Power, Too” celebrates Women’s Month in South Africa, and also marks a decade of Guns & Rain’s commitment to supporting women artists.
While in Jozi, after attending the FNB art fair, Kelli and I relished the chance to visit Guns & Rain gallery and we spent a few hours with Julie, immersed in Soft Power on every level !!!!
Princia Matungulu weaves soft traditional fabrics, legacies and layers, and hardens them into intricately determined statements…
Princia Matungulu weaves soft traditional fabrics into something else….
Then comes the soft power of Hannah Macfarlane who painstakingly beats fibre into soft felt creations…
Inviting touch, these softly wilted felt flowers by Hannah Macfarlane need to be lifted, touched and loved …
Such mood these felt flowers have – resonating with the stunning red Amaryllis flowers blooming with Kelli, in my sister in law Clare’s Harare garden …
Kelli in Clare’s garden…
Close to my heart, loving textiles and fine craft as I do, the elevation of traditional crafts into modern art making, into fine art, is so empowering.
A pod, a nest, a womb…. handle with care…
Fibre art, textile art, soft sculpture, deceptively soft power by Hannah.
Alluring… glistening beads enveloped in sensuous folds of handcrafted pink felt…
Well, I am posting yet another of Hannah’s creations, I just can not resist touching them…. This one appeals to my love of ecosystems, the natural world, in its echoing of a gorgeous sea slug, a felt mollusk- but it could just as easily reflect something more ominous, more visceral, with a rasping radulla and casting spiky shadows on the gallery wall!
Yet, when you do dare to touch it, it’s all about seductive softness …
A gorgeous sea slug, a felt mollusk- or something more ominous, more visceral in those shadows…
I stand in awe…with Julie in front of Bev Butkows work…
The celebration of depths of texture and unexpected layers in this creation by Bev Butkow is mesmerising…
The work keeps revealing more of itself as one stands and stares…tiny beads nestled in a pink coral bed…
I feel like a deep sea diver…..
#allthingsconnected Bev Butkow
All these layers and textures are a feast for the senses….diving for pearls….
Like diving into an underwater world of anemones and corals- or diving into the layers of a woman’s imagination…,
I am drawn to the abstract paintings inspiring the soft sculptures…,
Bev Butkow painting
Or vice versa….?!
Bev Butkow – which comes first, painting or soft sculpture?
Julie herself is an embodiment of ‘soft power’, a gently spoken yet strong woman of vision, a powerhouse!
Julie Taylor and Lin Barrie with Bev Butkow soft sculpture … and of course my trusty Design Life Zimbabwe tote bag…
Hedwig Barry whose work always resonates with me, delights with potent small ‘squashed earth’ sculptures – enamel on pewter, they are truly life celebrations and a reminder to #rememberwhoyouare …
(NB Do look up that beautiful song by Zolani Muhola, and Remember who you are…)
Here is a detail up close of the hills and valleys, Hedwig’s geography of life….
Hedwig Barry – the geography of life….
Aneesah Girie layers soft fabric into firm stories ..almost toffee like and edible!
Here is a delicious detail…yum
Aneesah Girie … a delicious detail…
Collages and layers, stories and art, satisfying landscapes hard and soft, at Guns & Rain…
Soft Power Too – a satisfying celebration of women!
September 2024 and it’s the FNB Art fair in Jozi- that melting pot of art creativity culture food that is the cornerstone, the crucible, the powerhouse, of Southern Africa.
As a professional practicing artist, and as an art writer/poet, visiting art fairs gives me an in depth dive into other artists practices and affirms layers of synergies with our collective works, so inspiring! This is my very personal review of the FNB Art fair, interwoven with musings on how my experiences there relate to my own work……
As we arrive at the VIP preview night, Sandton City venue, one of the first powerful images we are stopped at, mesmerized by, is this by the esteemed Zimbabwean artist KUDZANAI CHIURAI..
make up artist Kelli Barker with artwork by Kudzanai Chiurai (Zim artist)
Blending curatorial and commercial interventions, FNB Art Joburg is proud to have the following seven specialised sections: gallery HUB, gallery LAB, MAX, GIF, ETC, AUX, and ORG sections.
In the Gallery HUB, the fair’s central section, we find BKhz, blank, Eclectica Contemporary, Everard Read, First Floor Gallery Harare, Gallery MOMO, Goodman Gallery, Kalashnikovv, SMAC, Stevenson Gallery and Suburbia Contemporary.
Travelling with my make-up and body artist daughter Kelli Barker, and stepdaughter Kimberly Barker with her partner Klaus Findt, we form a team of dedicated art lovers eager for new visions and experiences…
Thursday 5th is the vip premier of FNB…and we stop to chat with Valerie Kabov and Marcus Gora of Zimbabwe’s First Floor Gallery -where we find our friend Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, winner of the FNB art prize 2024!!!
We spend a lot of time at this First Floor Gallery booth over the course of the art fair, unashamedly loving our Zimbabwean homies, our artists of whom we are so proud!!! So bear with me as I start the blog by listing those on this booth….
Gresham, born in 1988 in the vibrant high density suburb of Mbare, Harare, lives and works in Zimbabwe.
His work has dynamic, yet at the same time dreamlike energy, hovering between figuration and abstraction, telling stories, making sense of life…echoing traditional proverbs with harshly poignant visuals. Strong for me is the recurring motif of the chair which takes on a life and a mood of its own in so many of his paintings…..…
NB: some of these photos below of First Floor Gallery artists’ work, are from the First Floor Gallery website….
Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, winner of the FNB art prize 2024…that chair…
Also on First Floor booth are:
Amanda Mushate
Born and living in Harare, Zimbabwe, Amanda is just twenty-seven, with a powerfully growing art voice… After studying at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studio in 2016, she was mentored by Gresham, developing a vibrant and unique personal style. I always feel uplifted viewing her works, using as she does music and hope as inspiration. Mushate’s ribboned, exuberant tracks across her abstract canvases also embrace subtle figuration.. such as these receiving hands, in this delightful detail from her larger work, “Ndagamuchira – I received”, 2024, oil on canvas, 194 x 153 cm
Amanda Mushate, “Ndagamuchira – I received”, 2024, oil on canvas, 194 x 153 cm
Pebofatso Mokoena
Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa
Mokoena is completing a Master of Arts in Fine Arts at Wits University. His intricate mark making creates a multi layered universe on his canvas, embracing politics, architecture and the environment.
Here below is a layered otherworldly detail from his larger work on show- which strongly reminds me of the ‘discworld ’ writings of Terry Pratchett – another master of reimagining the universe in unexpected ways….. Detail from “Memorabilia”, 2023, oil on canvas, 200.00 x 150.00 cm
Detail from Pebofatso Mokoena, “Memorabilia”, 2023, oil on canvas, 200.00 x 150.00 cm
Troy Makaza
Born in, and working in Harare, embracing form and texture, Makaza employs his unusual medium, silicone, which can be drawn with, cast, painted, woven and tied. Makaza’s works are unique, weaving and ‘stitching’ threads of silicone into contemporary creations. Silicone tapestries!! I first met him years ago at Mbare Art Space, that brewing pot of dynamic young art talents stirred and stewed by mentor and master artist Moffat Takadiwa. Even then I was taken by Troy’s innovative ‘embroidery’ with silicone….
Here is his installation at the fair, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased”, 2024, silicone infused with pigment, 128.00 x 54.00 x 3.00 cm… it seems to me that this reflects the holy trinity, three related strong figures in composition with smaller others…..
Troy Makaza This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, 2024 silicone infused with pigment 128.00 x 54.00 x 3.00 cm
Winner of Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019, Troy is also holding a solo exhibition in Harare in 2024.
Here is an up close look at the way he ‘embroiders’ with silicone ….!
Troy Makaza detail…
Grace Nyahangare
Born and working in Harare, Zimbabwe, Grace Nyahangare is a young painter, who is building monotype printmaking, photography and oil into dreamlike canvases which are the result of passing through numerous metamorphoses. I feel a whimsical resonance with the work of Paul Klee when I look at this work, “Nhaka yehupenyu”, 2024, oil, printer’s ink and monotype on canvas, 150.00 x 120.00 cm….
Grace Nyahangare Nhaka yehupenyu, 2024 oil, printer’s ink and monotype on canvas 150.00 x 120.00 cm
Again Chokuwamba
Born and living in Harare, Chokuwamba graduated from the gallery residency programme, after finishing his studies with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio. He won the Best Emerging Artist prize at the Zimbabwe Visual Art Awards 2023, and had his first solo exhibition in 2024 titled ‘Drowning in my Senses.’
Kelli is entranced by his lush painting “Floral Bath” on show, and states it as her absolute favourite painting of the fair….
Again Chokuwamba, “Floral Bath”, 2024, oil on canvas, 150.00 x 190.00 cm
Again Chokuwamba, “Floral Bath”, 2024, oil on canvas, 150.00 x 190.00 cm
Victor Nyakauru
Born and living in Harare, Zimbabwe, Victor Nyakauru is a skilled found object sculptor, recycling waste materials into art statements… his mission being “…to juxtapose materials such as stone, metal, wood, bone, plastic, leather and any other found objects to form part of a body of art,”. Reflecting on life, culture, he layers found objects into tsumo (proverbs), communication, conversation, #allthingsconnected
Nyakuru has spent many years teaching and mentoring at the National Gallery Visual Art Studio in Harare. He is currently representing Zimbabwe in its National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
Detail from Victoria Nyakauru’s assemblage
Proceeding through the fair I am impressed by the size and spaciousness of the art booths. Nothing feels cluttered, as can happen at various other fairs… this FNB fair feels well considered and thoughtful, an expansive yet welcoming space to browse and to absorb each artists offering….
Kelli is transfixed….absorbing layers of art with joy..
I am captured and enraptured by the use of earth pigment always – and so this visual feast of pigmented fabric hanging free as a huge triptych, stops me in my tracks…here is Kelli with this wonderful art assemblage by Moshekwa Langa – Drag paintings using soil on canvas-
moshekwa Langa – Drag paintings using soil on canvas..
This is powerful and so inspiring for me- an Elemental use of natural earth pigment, and presented similar to the way I work and display my own painted and earth pigmented canvases…
Lin Barrie, “Clay”, 80 x 180 cm, acrylic and earth pigment /clay on loose canvas, and “Water and Earth”, 153 x 170 cm, acrylic on canvas, with a Mahenye clay water pot in foreground ..
In playful mood, at the next booth Kelli and her sweet sister Kimberley get lips … tongue in cheek
Kelli and Kimmy
By the way, Kelli and I are staying with art lovers and collectors, Kimmy Barker and Klaus Findt and I am loving revisiting my “Nike Victory” painting which graces the wall, taking flight in their open plan kitchen in their art-filled Westcliff home!
Lin Barrie “Nike”
At their FNB booth, Julie Taylor of Guns & Rain gallery shows Raymond Fuyana- a talented young deaf artist from Zimbabwe. Here is his work titled ‘Sossusvlei’…surreal juxtapositions giving a sense of Raymond’s inner world, his images speaking volumes in the absence of him being able to hear the world around him…
Raymond Fuyana, Sossusvlei
At the Aux theatre, here is powerhouse collector and art advisor Karabo Morule (Capital Art).. talking in a session on Friday with Susie Goodman of Strauss & Co and Gail Bosch of iTOO Artinsure … This debate was deeply energizing and instructive to participate in and I look forward to a further lunch with Susie and Khetiwe at Strauss & Co next week……
Karabo Morule Capital Art and esteemed mentor!
“Porous” with artist Clive van den Berg – represented by the Goodman Gallery- whose booth filled with his work reflecting skin and land themed paintings resonate with me ….
Friday 6th September we do a Marianne Fassler /Leopard Frock Collection tour…. Where we meet the delightful Mandla Sibeko, managing director of FNB art fair. Karabo and I have fun in the upstairs paper room- such layers of delicious texture and colour…
Karabo Morule with layers of sumptuous fabrics
Here are Zimbabwean collector Peggy Mapondera (of Mapondera Collection) and Vongai (of African Born Art Movement) relaxing and absorbing the eclectic collection of art at Marianne’s home.
Peggy and Vongai
Marianne Fassler’s home is a multi-hued textural fantasy of fabric, fine art and charismatic crafts;
Kelli prances and postures in the changing room…
Marianne and her husband Charles avidly collect African art and craft, with no discrimination between the two, all equal heritage value in their sight….(an ethos I fully embrace), and she welcomes us into their space and presents her uniquely personal and uplifting view of their combined passion for African art…
This collection particularly resonates with me, loving the multiple layers of culture, much as I collect and use art pieces in my own home…such as these mutsvairo (traditional brooms) hanging on Marianne’s wall…
mutsvairo collection Marianne Fassler
My own mutsvairo are my go to brushes -used for very satisfying mark making on my canvases
Lin Barrie mutsvairo brush -one of my favourite art tools
This Gresham painting glows in the dining room at Mariannes house…
Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude
next to such beaded glorys as this Mandela piece by Mayeye Makubele..
Mayeye Makhubele beading
My passion for fashion and art with heart and story matches Marianne’s xibelani tsonga skirt, flying high! ..(for more on these Tsonga xibelani skirts please view my culture page https://wineandwilddogs.art/culture/ )
Mariannes traditional tsonga skirts (xibelani) mix with vintage fashion!
xibelani at Marianne Fassler atelier
I am thrilled to see this affirmation of my home village culture- we live at our homestead, Kaya Nyala, in Chief Mahenye’s village south East Zimbabwe, and the xibelani are a revered tradition -hand beaded and stitched, each made of 16 gathered yards of striped woven Indian cotton- legacy of ancient dhow trade up and down the east coast of africa. This ‘salampore’ xibelani fabric is very much still in use by our ladies ..,
xibelani are a revered tradition -hand beaded and stitched, each made of 16 gathered yards of striped woven Indian cotton
rest time between dances…,,
Friday 6th September 6.pm finds us at Circa Gallery (Everard Read), that Fibonacci marvel of art architecture ….like entering into a gigantic snail shell
At Circa Gallery, Robin Rhode presents a photography film installation and art on canvas. Born in Cape Town and inspired by street culture Rhode creates drawings, paintings, photography, and films. In Rhode’s work, urban walls become his canvases, static images are put into motion, and the artist becomes a performer and street interventionist – right up my street, excuse the pun…
Robin Rhode
Robin gives us a wonderful artist led walkabout at Circa Gallery, with sundowners on the rooftop at the book Everard Read Darwin Room…(where we met Kim Kandan, FNB fair manager)
the Darwin room and top deck at Circa Gallery
Saturday 7th we visit the faded but grand old Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) …this is where Gresham, as winner of the FNB art prize 2024, will have a solo exhibition next year …
the impressive colonnaded facade…
earthen vessels continue to entrance me…and here are some beauties at JAG
earthen vessels at JAG
In the same space as the vessels, a full wall of earth pigment that I look up to, dream into…
FNB art prize 2023 winner, Lindokuhle Sobekwa walkabout at JAG..maps, photographs and family history incarnated
Lindokuhle Sobekwa
Wow! I find a Norman Catherine artwork to admire- I used to co-create with him at Deadly Designs in Zimbabwe – we created art t shirts back in the day…. and here I am wearing an ART CLUB t shirt by Githan Naidoo!
Norman Catherine and Lin Barrie with an Art School tshirt at JAG
Surrounding the fair with art + culture, Open City will take over Johannesburg as the continent’s culture capital from 29 August – 13 September 2024. And on Saturday night we enjoy the After party with BantuSpaceships – Ulenni Okanov and Thando Mlambo at Open City X Untitled Basement in vibrant Braamfontein …
Ulenni and Thando work their magicThando MlamboSerpant is an art form in himself!
Sunday, the last day at the art fair, and we take a last stroll through our favourite booths….
The vibrancy of a Penny Siopis painting welcomes us back to the art fair .. and sucks Kelli into its carmine, crimson and cerise splattered depths……
Kelli immersed in Penny Siopis…
We enjoy a last chance in catching up with Marcus Gora and Gresham in front of Gresham’s powerful painting..,.
Kelli the make up artist is drawn to Steven Cohen’s surreal body art and make up, magically and gently preserved onto tape straight off his body after a show…. fragile resilience
Make up made permanent on the wall….
Performer, choreographer and visual artist, Steven Cohen has always inspired me with his interventions in public places, in art galleries or on stages…
The patching, stitching and use of natural bark fibre and fabrics in these layered textured artworks by Christine Nyatho of Amasaka gallery (Uganda) are immediately satisfying to me…
Christine Nyatho of Amasaka gallery
Blessing Ngobeni rounds off my view of the art fair with a flourish- one of my favourite visual artists always… master of storytelling, ngano, Blessing perfects writing fables and reality with his paintbrush.
Lunch on Tuesday at Strauss offices with Susie Goodman, Khetiwe McClain, Arisha Alistair and many of the Strauss team is a treat. I am surrounded by amazingly diverse diners and varied artworks on the inspiring walls, and we are treated to a delicious lunch and wonderful levels of chat including art, the growing intersection between art and craft, ceramics and traditional pottery such as the magnificent clay pots of my Mahenye Village, art auctions and secondary markets, craft, family cookbooks (including a great bean soup recipe!) and more… plus I rediscover long lost friends!!!
an art filled lunch awaits, at Strauss & Co.
Thinking about the magnificent clay pots I have seen at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and those of my own Xangana home village of Mahenye, (seen after wood firing by an aged and talented Kokwane ‘grandmother’) … we discuss around the Strauss luncheon table the fact that there is such a growing place for this ‘craft’, now thankfully elevated to art, as seen by the powerful presence of ceramics and clay in most art fairs…..
this is a welcome development for me, given my interest in traditional crafts, soft sculpture, beading and clay…which I embrace in various art installations such as this one from my Burnt Offerings exhibition 2023….
Lin Barrie, Burnt Offerings…a mahenye clay cooking/grinding pot, incised, nestled on a snare wire nest, a hata…with Simpli Simba giant snail shells.. that’s a story in itself…
Snare wire; a deadly hata, yet it provides the meat to fill the pot and nurture the belly of the beast.
Lin Barrie
I am embracing the use of real earth pigment, clay, in my painted canvases as well, as in a painting currently held by Strauss & Co. for auction, titled Red Earth Pangolin….
After a great luncheon at Strauss & Co. I head to “Home of Synergy” …a guesthouse owned by Marcelle Bosch with whom I have communicated for many years, both of us passionate in our love for cultural art, especially the beads, ceramics and fashions of the Venda and Tsonga communities with whom we have shared artistic visions. My thumbs up for craft being recognized as true art!!!! …beading made by Blessing Runodada and Susan Sithole at Mahenye holds a high place in my heart…
thumbs up for craft being recognized as true art!!!! …
Marcelle is planning to host art and cultural tours in and around Jozi – an exciting concept which I fully endorse, seeing the level of superb craft/art collections she has around the lovely spaces of her guesthouse- such as this superb beaded work by a Tsonga artist friend of hers called Ester- such vibrancy…note the very satisfying and meaningful use of dozens and dozens of safety pins …(follow a future blog for more on the traditional crafts of the tsonga communities in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, Limpopo province)
Ester – beaded and pinned magnificence
During the week we visit the Guns & Rain gallery to view Soft Power Too – a group exhibition by Princia Matungulu, Hedwig Barry, Bev Butkow, Hannah Macfarlane and Aneesah Girie artworks…the fascinating intersection between painting weaving textiles and soft sculpture……
Here below I am lost in admiration, with Zimbabwean homie, founder Julie Taylor, in front of my favourite soft sculpture by Bev Butkow… (follow a future blog for more on the iconic Guns & Rain Gallery…..)
Later in the week comes a true art treat at The Leonardo – dear friends Glenn and Caryl Stutchbury greet us under the immense multi-metalled Chandelier in the Port Cochere..gold, silver and copper repenting the mineral wealth of Africa….
And Glenn, Director of Operations, hosts us to view the awe inspiring local art collection at this iconic mile high hotel/apartment tower, filled with elemental art….(follow a future blog for more on the iconic art exhibited in The Leonardo….)
Lin and Kelli at the foyer of the Leonardo
Please note: photographs in these blogs are copyright of Lin Barrie unless otherwise stated, thank you.
Xibelani is a vibrant and colorful fabric that is popularly worn by the Tsonga women of South Africa. It is a type of traditional attire that has been worn for generations and has become an integral part of Tsonga culture. In this article, we will explore what xibelani fabric is and its uses.(reference : Makotis Africa)
Xibelani fabric is a lightweight and flowy material that is made from polyester or cotton. It is typically printed with bold and bright geometric patterns that are inspired by traditional Tsonga designs. The fabric is made into a circular skirt that is worn with a matching top and headscarf. The skirt is gathered at the waist and has several layers of fabric that create a voluminous and dynamic effect when the wearer dances or moves.
Xibelani fabric is primarily used for cultural and ceremonial purposes. It is worn by Tsonga women during traditional dances and celebrations, such as weddings, funerals, and coming-of-age ceremonies. The skirt is an essential component of these events and is often worn with traditional jewelry and accessories, such as beaded necklaces and bracelets.
Apart from cultural events, xibelani fabric has gained popularity as a fashion item in recent years. Many designers and fashion enthusiasts have incorporated the vibrant fabric into their collections, bringing it to a wider audience. The skirt has become a symbol of Tsonga culture and identity and is often worn with pride by Tsonga women all over South Africa.
In addition to its cultural and fashion uses, xibelani fabric has also been used as a form of protest and activism. In 2016, a group of Tsonga women wore xibelani skirts to the #FeesMustFall protests, which were aimed at highlighting the issues of high tuition fees and inequality in South African universities. The skirts became a symbol of resistance and unity among the protestors, and many people around the world took notice of the power of the xibelani fabric.
My passion for Art, Community and Conservation, my long and happy association with Tusk Trust and Painted Wolf Wines, has borne the fruit of many fundraising events, and this is the latest…
Together with many other artists, I have contributed my art to the African Pangolin Working Group, for “Together for Pangolins”, a pangolin fundraising at Circa Gallery, in association with Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg.
Strauss & Co. Auctioneers are the purveyors of the artworks- so exciting!
Pippa Ehrlich, who directed the film My Octopus Teacher, will be the guest speaker,…
and Painted Wolf Wines will be standouts at the event!…
Lin Barrie, “Red Earth Pangolin” mixed media on canvas, with real red mahenye earth pigment, 110 x 120 cm, 2024
Raw red earth
crusting precious scales
Copper claws
create a fibonacci spiral.
Curved creature
embracing
the world.
Lin Barrie
The red earth used in hut paintings, Jamanda Community Conservation Area, in Mahenye Village, place of my bush home, Kaya Nyala, inspires me… here is part of Chef Makokwe’s homestead hut wall…gorgeous linework…(he works at the neighboring Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, where pangolin tracks are sometimes seen by delighted guests…)
The earth pigment is dug up and laboriously ground to a fine powder… here seen being processed by Chilo chief gardener, Enock’s wife,
Enock’s wife pounding earth pigment in her pestle and mortar
love and peace is the message Enosk’s wife inscribes on the wall of her own sleeping hut….
I get hands on with the wives in applying the various earth pigments found in our area, to a raised clay brick floor, a sitting and eating area, a patio… at Chef Makokwe’s house in Mahenye
Precious pangolins, who dig for termites and make homes in this very same red earth, are found in these remote villages and protected lowveld places…including Jamanda Community Conservancy, Save Valley Conservancy, and Gonarezhou National Park, (Gonarezhou Conservation Trust GCT)….we even find evidence of nocturnal diggings and pangolin tracks in the Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge gardens…and in our own Kaya Nyala homestead in the Mahenye Village.
Mahenye is a Campfire area of Zimbabwe, (the origins of Campfire indeed started in this very place, brokered between Chief Mahenye, Clive Stockil and National Parks… read the page on Clive Stockil for background..)… similar to the CBNRM areas in Namibia. The electric community wildlife management fence around Jamanda Wilderness Area is being investigated to make sure it is “Pangolin Friendly”… no low wire to entrap and electrocute a slow and coiled pangolin, as has happened with some electric fences in the past…. a similar admirable effort is being made country wide through the Tikki Hywood Trust and yet again wonderful progress is being made in South Africa such as the Sabi Sands Nature Reserve pangolin friendly fence, supported by Chris Renshaw and the team at Conserv Earth.
More on that initiative in a coming blog!….
Creating the painting, I lay red earth pigment into the pangolin scales with my palette knife…
A pangolin, termite connoisseur, is a creature of the earth, living in the earth, digging in the earth, often coated in earth, and that real red earth features in this painting as encrusted pangolin scales, is so apt!
Watch out for the next blog in the ongoing journey of this pangolin painting……. a further auction to be held at Strauss & Co.
Roses for Remembrance; Love and Loss….Nature’s Palette from our artists’ brushes and palette knives…
Surrounded as I am by African wilderness, gardening with and painting indigenous African plants in the majority of my working days, and as much as I love the deceptively simple yet challenging lifestyle of embracing wilderness, yet still I relish the simple, full blown and lush scented beauty of an exotic import, a classic rose.
In our Harare garden, Studio 214, my artist daughter Kelli Barker and I treasure the white iceberg roses we planted with my father Arthur Barrie. Dad’s mantra was “Save the Owls” and we learnt well; we do treasure every living thing, human and other, that shares our Harare garden space and our lowveld bush space.
Inspired by these hardy yet exquisite iceberg roses, I often paint them…and below is a soft detail from my larger painting, “White Roses”, acrylic on canvas, 3 x 2 feet ….
Here is detail from another painting, “Iceberg rose”, acrylic on stretched canvas, 60 x 60 cm…..diving deep into the petals- and finding Just Joy therein!!! “Just Joy” is the Dulux Colour of the year for 2025 – glorious golden yellow which is a glowing counterpoint to the pale lilac “sweet embrace” which is colour of the year 2024. ( Do I detect shades of Georgia O Keefe…?!)
Lin Barrie -detail from iceberg rose, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 61 cm
Oh that yellow!!!!!… Just Joy indeed.
The final reveal, at Picabela Rose Nursery, will be an art fundraising in October this year, benefitting the Harare Childrens Home. Picabela will be displaying various paintings by many Zimbabwean artists with the theme “Nature’s Palette”- set in their glorious rose gardens … Watch this space !
The burgundy iceberg roses I planted for Kelli at our Harare art studio, Studio 214, (burgundy being her favourite colour), inspire her art make ups, her photoshoots and her own abstract canvas art..
Kelli Barker, “Petal Pink, Nature’s Palette”, is a diptych, each painting of the pair being 60 x 60 cm…. Kelli’s use of all the shades of burgundy to barbie pink to palest lilac pink, come together in a sweet dramatic embrace….!! wait for the final reveal…
Another deeply expressionist abstract artwork by Kelli, is a painting titled “Blood Red, Rose Red’, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91 cm, inspired by intense blood/rose colours…. This is a most moving painting by Kelli, one of my favourites which makes me think of so many things; the petals and inner parts of a rose flower; a Life Force, the blood cells pulsing through the very organs of our bodies; a Sleeping Beauty (or Briar Rose as she is called in some fairytales), entranced by a witch to forever sleep, surrounded by an impenetrable thorn thicket…….. until such time as her true love finds her….. here is an exquisite and poignant detail from this painting…
and another detail, can’t resist the sumptuousness…
I often carry old fashioned scented rose flowers, gifted by dear friends, back to my bush studio to paint, even as the petals fall in the intense lowveld heat.. life and death, from freshness to decay, all things connected…
falling petals create impressions…
Falling petals create abstraction…I lay thick daubes of colour, petals dropping from my palette knife, (itself a treasured remembrance of my artist father who used it since he was 18 years old!!!)
Petals falling from above, gradually become a painting, “perfumed petals”…
Lin Barrie, “Perfumed Petals”, acrylic on stretched canvas, 60 x 60 cm, finished artwork, will be revealed here in October ….keep watching…
That painting translated into a Valentine’s Day photoshoot, first at our art studio, by Kelli, dear musician friend Hope Masike, Sebastien Lallemand, The Faz Pixels and my self, an Art collaboration …
This burgundy rose seemed to perfectly epitomize the gloriously colourful words and songs that flow from our dear Hope’s lips, as she plays and sings her haunting mbira refrains and speaks her poetical written words….
Scented Petals painting detail and our burgundy iceberg roses at Studio 214, photoshoot with Hope Masike… note Tammy Taylor’s gorgeous nails!
Afrte shooting at Studio 214, we then took Hope and the art to Picabela Rose Nursery for further Rose filled Valentine inspiration…
Kelli created petal pink art, nature’s palette, on Hope’s eyelids, with our trusty palette knife!…..
and laid Hope out on a bed of roses………
What is it about a rose that, above all other flowers, inspires poetry, remembrance….?
A fallen rose, a lost love, lying alone against my sunset coloured abstract canvas painting……
Lin Barrie, “Abstract”, acrylic on loose canvas, 90 x 111 cm….
Back to cool colours….The thought of the delightful iceberg roses I have photographed at Picabella on many visits hangs gentle in my mind….
as I near the completion of a large rose painting at my open air bush studio at our home camp, Kaya Nyala, on the banks of the Save River…
Art combined with the sweet embrace of domesticity…Cooking makes me want to paint, and painting makes me want to cook!!…. from open air art table…
open air art…monkeys in those trees…
to open air bush kitchen is but a few steps, and so in between painting roses I am making eland mince and sugar beans into my hybrid version of mauritian Haleem curry and Mexican cowboy chilli con carne, in my Kaya Nyala bush kitchen ..
Chili con carne in my open air bush kitchen
A wild life, surrounded by vines and monkeys, and supported by Dulux colors Sweet Embrace, Wild Wonder and Just Joy.
.In between overnight layers of drying colour, I take my mutsvairo, my bush broom, to dust the surface of my huge rose painting clean ..
and as walk my bush brick path, as I sweep my painted roses, I am healing, cleansing, remembering, clearing my mind, purging bad thoughts, allowing tears to fall, sifting sad and happy thoughts, making space for all….
My mutsvairo, always at the ready…
Sweet Embrace, the dulux colour of the year 2024, is a perfect colour. I use it with just joy (!) in this painting, together with earth-inspired Wild Wonder. The softest lilac pink imaginable, eat your heart out, brash barbie pink….!!
detail from my huge painting …
Lin Barrie, “Nature’s Palette, Sweet Embrace”, acrylic on stretched canvas, 141 x 173… watch this blog for the full huge painting to be revealed in the gardens at Picabela…
Picabela Rose Nursery remains a favourite place for us to retreat to in Harare, scented beauty and calm memories at every turn…inspiration for our paintings, mother and daughter…
detail from Kelli’s painting , pink on delicious pink …
we are so honoured to contribute artworks to the annual art fundraising.
Keep watching this blog, as a few of these paintings make it into that rose-filled scented space….!
Such a lovely garden setting for our paintings
Lin Barrie, Iceberg rose, 61 x 61 cm
joyous colour from the canvas created by Kelli…
All photographs are mine, and copyright, unless otherwise stated.
I took my last dose of malaria muti last night, a process, getting better but could not sleep, many thoughts and memories rolling inside my head: bittersweet lost times with old friends, some evil times… hopeful new times with old friends, some good times, emerging to the surface of my consciousness and jumbling together in the parade of images that rolls through the gardens, the landscapes, within all our minds at times, especially in the witching hours just after midnight.
Staring out of the dark window I waited for the lions… and waited..
midnight in the garden of good and evil…
That video gripped me, the wind-stirred soft movements of the fine curtains seemed slithery, a slippery slope….that feeling of my brooding shadow on the curtain felt like a presage or an afterthought of my monoprint titled Emergence, a slow emergence from dark thoughts into a brighter space, not an easy transition…
But thankfully, warm and comforting as a mud hut, an earth abode, our Tsavene bush house nurtures a fireplace in our bedroom, a textured earth ochre space …a space to lift ones thoughts, take heart….
so while I waited for the lions, I stoked the bedroom fire and sipped hot chocolate, sitting under a 1995 self portrait that I painted on Vietnamese silk (that was another life….),
Lin Barrie self portrait on silk 1995
and mused on my treasured gift of old, a stone steel and wood sculpture…
and admired the peripheral abstractness of the layered books, the well-thumbed stacks in my bookcase…
And then, then the lions came…. the voices that I was waiting for started roaring, male and female combined in body and voice, a hopeful new alliance, right outside my bedroom window…
Good, and Evil… I know this young male has lost his male companion in this last month, have heard them both call their defiance and challenges around our Tsavene bush house and around our old guest room called, aptly “The Lion Hut”, for weeks, then sadly, ones voice was cut off, gone forever, and I have wept for the survivor when, bereft of his relative, he has called many nights all alone, lost and looking….
Now in a turn of hope and new life, a female has tracked his lonely roars and joins him nightly in a deep duet… and my oil sketch of a lioness seems to suit the song I heard from her last night, out there in the dark…
Lioness
It pleased me to hear them sing, resonated deep in my body and uplifted my downward thoughts.
And so they came… and so, at midnight in the garden of good and evil, I printed the memory forever in my mind, to be pulled up, to emerge in years to come…
I recorded the lions calling outside my bedroom, a male and a female….so listen in, and remind yourself of the fragility of life, rejoice in the inevitability, the recycling of life….reminisce and remember with me…. #allthingsconnected
and I am delighted to see the @kim_williams_design @Decorex Africa stand featuring it as #abstract #wallpaper called #Creation in large scale with @robinsprongwallpapers #impressionistart #wallart
Past incarnations of Creation have been such as this bedscape:
This child of mine, Kelli Barker, has always been my best collaborator, muse and inspiration…
2024 started with us being creatively inspired by the launch of Design Life Magazine..
Kelli, Milly (magazine muse) and Lin in the photo…
Make up artist, canvas and body artist and hairstylist, plus health and fitness trainer, Kelli is fearless in reinventing herself, renewing herself, and in uplifting and embracing those around her …
After stopping to spend precious time with her sisters en route, Kelli has been travelling for the first part of 2024..
Off to LA she has gone, to fulfil a long held dream …
Creating amazing hairstyles..
Dreaming up body art and make ups for film shoots…
And finding her own ‘fro wig to fall in love with!!!
She’s an African child after all – and of course created a conservation biased pangolin theme make up for a film shoot-
She continues Making her mark…unafraid to face social issues
Los Angeles has been her home for a few months, Hollywood high on the list, with shoots at the likes of Beverley Hills Hotel, but this world is not all glitz and has brought her awareness of social issues such as homelessness as well ..
Kelli has worn many hats …
Such as this silver glitter cowboy hat, the real thing worn by Beyoncé..!!!
But truly, talking of wearing many hats.. Kelli has immersed herself in the world of fashion shoots, music videos, hairstyling, make up and body art at the Michael Vincent Academy (MVA) and has volunteered as a model herself, gaining deeper insight into the world behind the camera as well as the world in front of the camera…
Reality tv show, behind the scenes..
Kelli and friends on set at MVA…time to work..
time to play..
Kelli never goes anywhere without her proudly zimbabwean Nespresso pod recycled earrings by Amanda Le Breton…
Many special times spent with friends Valerie, Brad and their dear family.. including pup of course..
Touring the Getty Villa with Valerie, who in her turn, has joined us on safari in Zimbabwe with her family – all things connected…….
Visiting the Getty Museum with Laura and experiencing the lovely walks in the streets of LA
Kelli’s walks around LA are extensive, (Ubers an expensive luxury), experience the sublime plus the grit and grime!
Her video of the inspiring street art, the graffitti of LA..
My latest painting is inspired by the indigenous, hardy Phoenix reclinata palms, (false date palms), that grow in abundance naturally in Zimbabwe, found framing the sky along the great Zambezi, Limpopo and Save Rivers and smaller riverways and springs. Cultivated in gardens such as mine and at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, and fringing road verges as trusty and decorative landscape accents that require minimal water and care. Beloved of birds and bats, they bear ‘dates” for animal consumption, and their deep green fronds provide nesting material for the multitudes of weaver birds that strip them almost bare when building their woven palm abodes; abodes that last many seasons, firstly filled with squwking weaver chicks and visited by eager arboreal snakes, and thereafter fading to old gold and providing safe haven for the likes of tiny blue waxbills who take them over to roost in, communally and cosily, at night.
‘Phoenix’ is the Greek word for date palm; an old name used by Theophrastus indicating that the tree was introduced to the Greeks by the Phoenicians. The specific name, ‘reclinata’, means ‘bent backwards’, referring to the leaves.
Here is my photo of Phoenix fronds in the garden of a new gallery, Art@84 in Harare,
Opening shortly…..there are 24 Zimbabwean artists showing work, a strong and uplifting collaboration which is most exciting…..
Using actual palm fronds from my garden, I stencil and print directly onto my canvas, nature is my muse….,……
And here is the final large painting…..
Lin Barrie, Palm Passion, acrylic on stretched canvas, 4 x 3 feet 2024
The very name Phoenix suggests what attracts me to this palm, a resilient survivor against all odds, withstanding dark adversity …. and refers perhaps as well to the deep red dye associated with the Phoenicians, and so, inspires my poem, Palm Passion…
Palm Passion
Palm prints
bleed joyful colour
into my canvas,
backlit and hopeful
against the dusky
menacing gloom
of dark silhouettes
which threaten
to overwhelm
my early morning,
anxious, inward vision.
Ominous spikes
turn to bright tipped
golden spears
on the sunrise
of my horizon
as I stitch nature,
culturing wellness
into a laced basketry
of creative fronds
framing the frayed,
the edges, of me.
Reverent landscapes,
biblical emotion,
grow as the dawn
breaks in my mind,
lapped by fronds
of fragrant hue;
acid lemon yellow
tempered by cool
celestial blue
and the rich red
of real earth.
Lin Barrie
the interiors at Art@84 are bright and inviting…
Colours of logos and furnishing are elemental and satisfying…
and large board displays by each individual artist resonate, (here’s mine….) a masterful concept by Rich who installed and built the whole concept from steel girders and second hand shipping containers…
Some more wonderful displays,
Honde Valley scenes
such as this powerful portrait from the stable of Village Unhu…
and this Zambezi elephant painting by Rich Conlon, set against the egg yellow repurposed container walls that form the backbone of the innovative gallery space conceived by Rich…
Speaking of elephants, I test a cappuccino from the resident barista, and he creates an elephant in my foam, which I drink slowly until only eyeballs remain……
The Brush and Bean Coffeshop within the gallery will be a welcome stopover for Harare art goers., mums from school and .general meeting place…homemade cakes, elephant coffees and art, what could be better than that!?…..
From artist John Kotze, here is a collage that is not a collage but is a meticulously painted masterpiece…
I love this portrait with axe; Fabuopus new style by an old hand…guess who…?!……..
Abstract palms, acrylic on stretched canvas, 40 x 40 cm was created by me during an abstract workshop with Mike White, most satisfying…
Lin Barrie, Abstract palms, acrylic on stretched canvas, 40 x 40 cm
and it lives, glows and breathes in this lovely gallery space …..
Happily, the white display boards suit everybody’s work,
The weekend of the opening is a great success
with many Zimbabweans and visitors flowing through …
Friend Yvonne Kuimba with her favourite palm painting… Pai and Lin
A smaller palm painting of mine, not yet on the opening show, waits in the wings…….ready to take flight….
Gorgeous locks are the best trend I know – embracing the vital natural health of our hair, be it brown black or blonde, thick thin or coarse- it’s all beautiful!
From Zimbabwe to Los Angeles, the trend of LOCKS is growing … Read this great blog by Alex GWAZE of #mudjournal …
Usher gathered a team of creatives – Usher directing the concept; Tino Chimuka doing the videography / photography; Kuda Chikwanda focused on the photography; and Tatenda Gora and Riyan Chindowa modelling. With everything in place they set off into the streets of Harare to put their locks to work in a format setting, suits and all.
Tatenda and models , suits and locks!!!
From suits and locks to fashion and bald heads…. It’s all in Alex’s great blog !
The shaving and shaping of hair for men and women alike is becoming more embraced… here’s Kelli with her Zimbabwean barbered hair style, heading off on her travels to Los Angeles to increase her knowledge and skill in make up and hairstyling …
Kelli Barker make up artist and hair stylist
And here Kelli Barker, Zimbabwean make up artist, studying at Michael Vincent Academy in Los Angeles, happily taking flight with a gorgeous full wig, all set off with a pair of amazing recycled nespresso pod earrings made in Zimbabwe by Amanda le Breton
Off to LA she has gone, to fulfil a long held dream …
wine and wild dogs 