My recent work continues the theme of Deforestation but I am now engaging with linear and geometric shapes and forms that inter-relate with the mark making on the surface. I am reflecting the degradation of the natural environment by the urbanization that is dramatically encroaching the landscape of Johannesburg, creating architectural invasions.

My work explores deforestation of the urban environment. In making this work I am aware of the destruction of nature for capital gain by developers insensitive to the turmoil created to the ecosystem and to the life that is integrated into it, to the damage that is caused to the places that insects, birds and animals depend on for their survival.

However, alongside my concern for the devastation that is wrought by development, is my recognition that urbanization is inevitable and that domestic, commercial and industrial architecture is a necessity. Indeed, I am attracted to architecture that honours principles of design but that, moreover, respects the natural context of which it is part. It is the aesthetic integration of the build environment into nature that has become the subject of my new work.

My paintings grapple with the tension that exists for me between my distaste for the harm that is caused and the appreciation of beautiful architecture. I create works that are essentially organic in form – that contrast loose painterliness with geometry. Impasto and glazes harmonize into compositions that emphasize my enduring fascination with oil paint and its possibilities to express the most profound concepts. Through this medium’s versatility to be both a medium for drawing and one that has the possibility to evoke atmosphere with colour, tone and texture I am able to express myself.