Inspiration: Jonkershoek

I joined Intuition Sunday Walks again, and as always it was an incredible experience - an inspiring, relaxing, thought-provoking, educational, spiritual, awe-inspiring and humbling experience. I forgot to take my camera, so used my phone to take some pictures. I used Photoscape to just give each photo an extra little bump up the aesthetic scale - to do justice to the scenes I experienced, something that's never truly possible with a photograph, in my opinion. We can try as hard as we can and we can express certain aspects of the landscape, or the flowers, or the mountain, but we can never truly and fully represent it. However, artists like me will never stop trying either! And these photographs will be the inspiration of some new artworks. 

New work: A Perspective On Time

A Perspective on Time

Mixed Media on wood/board

36.8 x 32.3 cm (unframed)

2013

Part of my Beach Meditation series, which are inspired by land art that I created by placing or arranging found pebbles on the beach. Each of these land art pieces were made as a prayer or meditation. 

This particular painting is focused on time - the rings of circular 'sun' design being divided into 12 sections for the months of the year, into 24 sections for the hours within a day, and 28 lines symbolizing a moon cycle. The focus of this particular 'meditation' is about using our time wisely in ways that support our goals, priorities and dreams. 

I've been giving a lot of time away freely the last few years, and I've also wasted some time on doing things that made me neglect my own needs, as well as the people I love. I am learning to find a balance in the way that I spend my time, making sure that everything I choose to spend time on, is done for and with the right reasons and intention. 

Inspiration: Suikerbossie

Photos taken during a group hike with Intuition Walks (intuitionwalks.com), doing the Suikerbossie Contour walk, towards Orange Kloof & Constantia Nek through a indigenous forest to the waterfall at Myburgh's Kloof.

Spend a moment...

spend a moment outside

and feel

the wind against your face

spend a moment in the sun

and soak

the rays into your skin

spend a moment under a tree

and touch 

the rough skin of its trunk

spend a moment on grass

barefoot

and wiggle your toes into the green

spend a moment in the rain

and taste

the fresh drops wash away the dirt

spend a moment in a field of flowers

and see

the colour reaching into your heart

spend a moment in a forest

and breathe in

the trees and layers of growth and decay

spend a moment in the ocean

and hear

the roar of the water, the power, the rush

spend a moment outside

and be you

be free, be wild and happy.

Janet Botes, 2013

Inspiration: Paarl Mountain

During the weekend I spent time in Paarl Mountain nature reserve with hubby Pierre Bezuidenhout and during our walk took some photographs of the breath-taking scenes and interesting plant life surrounding us. Expect to see glimpses of these in my new artworks, I feel very inspired by our outing!

West Coast Fossil Park

We visited the West Coast Fossil Park this weekend, and it was a wonderful and enriching experience. Check out the Fossil Park's website at www.fossilpark.org.za. And the park is really worth a visit - make sure to join a guided tour!

BONES: Stories, secrets, history

Bones tell stories
Bones keep secrets
Bones contain history 

Secrets about the past
locked away in sand and rock
Stories about life before now 

Uncovered, polished and displayed
Stories about days long forgotten
Secrets that may teach us something about today

The Grad Show Exhibition At Michaelis

This week I had a peek at the exhibition of art by the grad students from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. These are some of the works that I find really inspiring, impressive or interesting: