The past 6 weeks have been an incredible period of reflection and realisations. There’s a lot you learn just by taking a few moments to sit and observe. And I was glad for the chance to do a lot of that. Among many of my realisations there, there was one that informed my painting practice at Witklipfontein…

Everything in nature is connected to one another: other than the obvious, a lone seedling is still connected to the soil, which in turn, is connected to the million of microorganisms that exist within a teaspoon’s worth of soil. Even a bird in flight cannot boast of being untethered to another living thing. It is all these connections that form the basis of life and what a wonderful and intricate web of relationships!

I am incredibly grateful for my invaluable experience at Witklipfontein and I’m grateful for the connections I made with each of you. A person is a total sum of every experience and every person they meet– I’m fortunate to have added you to mine.

I will forever treasure my memories of the farm and I feel particularly lucky that I got to make art while surrounded by art. I count the architectural marvel that are the lodge and the residency buildings as art. Inspiration is everywhere but Witklipfontein? Not to exaggerate but it has it in spades. That’s if the spade broke the world record for the largest spade ever made. Again, not to exaggerate.

Thank you to the SAFFCA team, Pierre and Ruzy for this incredible opportunity. Thank you to the Witklipfontein team, Michael, Nadia, Hailey,  Sharon, Tatenda, Emma, Grisham, Dumisani, Martin, and Wisdom for your support and ensuring that our stay was comfortable. Thank you Aline for your advice and all the French pronunciation lessons. My deepest gratitude to Xavier for opening your doors and heart to us artists. This was my very first residency experience and the bar is currently set quite high! 

From now on, every hill I see will remind me of the impact Witklipfontein had on me.