Back from Korea! Inspired & hard at work...

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I am back in the studio!

After participating in the second South Korean leg of the Global Nomadic Art Project by Yatooi, visiting the Northern Cape, hiking in the Cederberg and attending the launch of the Snake Eagle Thinking Path in Matjiesfontein, I am back in the studio and hard at work...

• View photos of my work for the Global Nomadic Art Project / Work in the landscape on Facebook / Work for the exhibition on Facebook / On the Yatooi website (on the photo above: Me & the other artists standing in a river on Nochu Mountain, South Korea)
• View photos of land art I created in Brandvlei, in the the Northern Cape: Website | Facebook
• View my post about the launch of the Snake Eagle Thinking Path, and photographs of my work

Above: some of my work as part of the Global Nomadic Art Project in South Korea. 

Land Art in Brandvlei, Northern Cape, South Africa
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Nuances: Riemvas-Brandvlei

Archival print on cotton paper 90 x 40 cm
R4 750 View / Buy

I've also updated my website's events page // And view the full latest newsletter

Fear & Loss - Industrial Karoo

If you're in the area, please support and attend this incredible exhibition curated by Katie Barnard du Toit. I am participating, exhibiting an artwork entitled "Bone Country", which will only be available for view on my website after the opening of the exhibition.

Sketchbook day 4: favourite place

WILD & STILL: my first solo exhibition

WILD & STILL is now open! Strijdom van der Merwe gave a beautiful opening talk and many people watched, and participated, in my performance art piece on the opening evening during June's First Thursdays. 

This exhibition of artworks aims to achieve a tension between the raw power of the wilderness and tranquillity in our local natural landscapes. The artworks include still snapshots of wildness, in the form of paintings, drawings, mixed media work, and original limited edition prints. 

Featured in the diary of the Country Life!

Detail from "Eye of the Storm"

Detail from "Organic Matters"

Detail from "Forces of Soil"

Detail from "Tanglewood"

Preview and buy works from WILD & STILL: stateoftheart.co.za/curator/15/wild--still 

View photos of the exhibition and artworks on Facebook. 

and

JOIN ON 14 JUNE FOR MY ARTIST WALKABOUT AT 11AM

StateoftheART Gallery, 61 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town.
The gallery is next to G2 Art Gallery, on the fan walk, between Bree street and Loop street, in the heart of Cape Town. 

See you there!

more info, see the catalogue, and watch the video:

janetbotes.com/wild-still-exhibition

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: February 2014

More information on this work and two other new Nuances works:

Spirit of the Desert: janetbotes.com/spiritofthedesert

Sinai Mountains: janetbotes.com/sinaimountains

Oludeniz: janetbotes.com/oludeniz

I am also doing some interesting 'experiments', drying kelp and sea lettuce:

See more

And... this morning I spent my early morning on Gordon's Bay beach to create land art. View photographs on my website or facebook page.

Land Art: Upington, September 2013

It seems the theme for this Upington visit was rocks (symbolic for stability and as lines in/on the earth) and twigs (growth, direction and building). Except of course for the sheep's scat (yup, 'skaapdrolletjies'!)...

Creative Energy and Flow at Site_Specific

I was very privileged to be one of the artists for the 2013 Site_Specific International Land Art Biennale, held in Plettenberg Bay from 10-17 August. I met incredible artists, professionals and also members of the public (some as young as 5 years old, while others were retired and had a lot of experience and wonderful stories to share). I'd like to share the work that I did during the week...

Inspired and fascinated by the splatter patterns of water on sand,
the idea started to form around
the connection and borders
between land and sea. 

Sea to me = Spatters Waves Foam Water Flow

&

Land brought me to soil, mud, "grond"

Only after I started playing and experimenting with the mud on the sand and rocks did I find out about the ship that got stranded just up the coast towards Knysna and Wilderness, leaking oil. My artwork incidentally or accidentally gained a new layer of meaning.

"Flow" and "Riding the Wave" became slogans for my week - realizing I had to manage my energy levels, taking advantage of the inspiration and creative flow, because time seemed to fly past sooo quickly!

...The sands of time...

Painting with Mud.

Connecting with the rocks that has not yet eroded into sand.

Flow. Drift. Splatter

Flowing with clarity and energized focus.

Creating, Working

Being in the moment.

Drifting along, swept away by emotions.

Feelings, thoughts that ebb and flow like the tides.

While oil seep into the cracks of our survival.

Spluttering, Crashing against rock, 

hitting your head against a wall to leave your mark.

Flow, Focus, Have Faith

that you are in the right place at the right time.

That everything can be healed, washed away

By water. Or by Time.

 For images of work by the other Site_Specific artists and participants, go to: 

• pinterest.com/sitespecificafr/landartbiennale-photo-competition/
• facebook.com/events/418591894888932
• sitespecific.org.za
• landartsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2013/08/sitespecific-2013-huge-success.html