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Beyond 2015

The inspiration for the BEYOND Collection is the Cape's mysterious, fine-leafed indigenous vegetation known as Fynbos. Sprawling from the peak to sea across the peninsula's majestic slopes, the fragrant, rhythmic pattern of this rampant maze evokes a sense of connection with nature and inspires a curiosity, a call to something beyond. In soundless contemplation, it's as though Pincushion Proteas become dream catchers and we enter a realm where we sense before we see.

The call seems to be intrinsically related to the mesmerizing pattern of the vegetation. The plants weave in conscious unison, their life-hardy stems stretching upwards, directed and purposeful, while the tendrils of the imagination explore connectedness and contact. Thousands of individuated varieties thrive in the windswept valleys nourished by salty mists and nurtured by the boundless entanglement of being. Away from the contraints of time, there is a synthesis of intentions, a rhythmic meditative focus, an incantation which repeats the motif of the infinite in leafy interlocking hue. It is at this point that we sense before we see; it is the moment that the artist feels moved to capture the reflections on this dreamy threshold of awareness and make the invisible visible.

Each work is unique and expectional, some focusing on the sythesizing pattern, others bringing an element of the pattern to the fore. Hiding when it reveals and revealing when it conceals, the silent pattern of the Fynbos is none other than the age-old Arabesque, the pattern of the infinite, the expansive expressions that adorn the walls of ancient palaces and temples, representing all that is connected and infinite; hence the sense of peace and union when in an outdoor cathedral of Fynbos.

We share in a special collection that explores the elusive essence of the beyond, each painting touching on a moment of the artist's experience of this realm, captured in real time for all time.

Words by Giselle Courtney, inspired by the Cape Fynbos Tea Ceremony.





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