A month in the bush. A handful of wildlife paintings.
For one month, I have been painting where I feel most alive — surrounded by elephants, leopard and rhino. These are the works that are coming home with me. There is only one of each, and once they're gone, they're gone.
THE LION SANDS RESIDENCY AT NARINA LODGE
I destroyed my painting. A collector bought it the next day.
Last week, I spent an entire day on one elephant painting. Hours and hours, completely absorbed. I was happy with it: genuinely happy. And then at six in the evening, with the light dropping, I stood back and just… didn't feel it. In one moment, I picked up my palette knife and scraped the whole thing back.
I left it on the easel and went to bed.
The next morning, some collectors came into the studio. They walked straight to the scraped painting. They loved it exactly as it was — the marks, the ghost of the elephant underneath, all of it. They wanted to buy it.
And I love moments like these, when people fall in love with the work because it speaks to them, even if I can't hear it myself. So that was a really wonderful moment, and it took me by surprise.
Maybe I shouldn't get rid of my scraped paintings after all.
After a month at Narina Lodge, I've never felt more certain of what I'm trying to do, or more humbled by how much I still have to learn. I want these animals to carry real energy on the canvas — the kind that stops you in a room and leaves you certain they're worth protecting.
We share this planet. Not just with each other.
THE COLLECTION
The Lion Sands Works
Original oils. One of each. A portion of every sale goes directly to conservation.
-Help me name this-
When Darkness Sings
The Colour of Freedom
Together, We Rise
A Moment of Grace
View the rest
How did this happen?
Chosen as Artist in Residence at Lion Sands Game Reserve
For a full month, my only job has been to paint — with my own studio overlooking the bush, game drives whenever I wanted, and the freedom to set up an easel and work directly from life. No screens. No references. Just presence, as close to these animals as I could get.
Every painting here was made in that one place, in that one month. They can't be repeated.
Why it matters
When you buy art, a wild animal benefits.
Up to 50% of my profits go to conservation and children's charities, and some works are auctioned with 100% of the proceeds going straight to the cause. You're not buying decoration. You're putting a rhino on your wall, and money behind the real one.
Everything I do comes back to this: I paint to tell the stories of animals that can't speak for themselves.