GALLERY
Net Twee Afrikaaners
Net Twee Afrikaaners
Here I created a small still life of my birth flower, the afrikaaner. These always bloomed around my birthday, all around the yard I grew up in. Their stunning bright colour, joined with how dense the flowers grew on them, always made the yard look like a fairytale.
Abstract Wiggles 8
Abstract Wiggles 8
Wiggles 8 is a single-piece addition to the series; it’s also the smallest in the Wiggles series so far. Here I continued with the colour scheme exploration by using different colours from my previous versions, here I stick with the brighter colours though.
Abstract Wiggles 7
Abstract Wiggles 7
Wiggles 7 is a set also made for my favourite abstract series. The colours are more muted than before, but instead of the original colours I used or the one colour themes, here I wanted to use colours that complement each other.
Just a Little Sweet
Just a Little Sweet
Just a little sweet focuses on a few open and closed ginidela’s (passion fruit). These fruits are some of my favourites. I used to enjoy these with my mother in the summers, eating bags full at a time, and these always give me that warm feeling in my chest, just like those summer days with my mom.
Mushrooms Baby
Mushrooms Baby
Mushrooms are similar to moths in my eyes. Overlooked and underrated. There are so many stunning and unique mushrooms out there, and their beauty mesmerizes me.
Mothera
Mothera
Mothera is the same consept as the Smal but mighty series, but here I realised I should break free from the series to allow it to grow as much as it pleases. Mothera is also a still life of a warm coloured moth. Moths have always been just as beautiful to me as butterflies; they seem to always be overlooked or despised. I never understood that.
Small But Mighty 8
Small But
Mighty 8
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 8 is the first installment of the Small but Mighty series that has a living creature in it. Much like the white and yellow flowers, I didn’t use one specific reference for this moth. All I knew was it had to be a moth. Moths have always been stunning to me, so I really enjoyed painting this.
Small But Mighty 7
Small But Mighty 7
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 7 is actually a first for me. Not a fruit and not a flower, but instead a vegetable. Clearly, I jest, vegetables might not have been featured in any of my paintings quite yet, but they are no different from fruit, stunning and tasty. What else would a foodie paint at the end of the day?
Small But Mighty 6
Small But
Mighty 6
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 6 is another still life of a flower, but here I wanted to put a spin on things. I decided to paint a withering sunflower, the juxtaposition of a sunflower and something not quite alive looks very interesting to me here.
Small But Mighty 5
Small But
Mighty 5
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 5 is a still life of some beautiful yellow flowers. Like the white flowers in a previous installment of the series. I had no real reference, so I encourage the viewers’ imagination and recognition of these flowers.
Small But Mighty 4
Small But
Mighty 4
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 4 is another still life of a flower. This time around, I picked my favourite, a Sterlizia. Once again, this is seen by the world as luxurious and exotic, but it was a very common sight in my little South African yard. Hw luck and beautiful.
Small But Mighty 3
Small But
Mighty 3
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 3 is a still life of some delicious figs. Figs are a fruit often painted as a luxury item enjoyed by the rich, but I grew up with a big fig tree in our yard. Figs to me are something free and sweet, something I can simply get and hand out. Isn’t that strange?
Small But Mighty 2
Small But
Mighty 2
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 2 is of a few white flowers. I didn’t reference any specific flower, so encourage any connection or inspiration. I simply like painting flowers.
Small But Mighty 1
Small But
Mighty 1
Small but mighty is a series of small paintings I started doing to ensure I can still paint even when life gets busy. Each painting is only an A6 and not my usual A3-A0, which means I can finish it faster and feel less hesitation due to not being sure when I can finish it. Small but mighty 1 focuses on one of my favourite fruits to paint, peaches. The colours and texture always amuse me, and I will probably never get tired of painting them.
Clarence Live Painting
Clarence Live Painting
Painting a landscape live has always been one of my dreams. Living in the city, it leaves me with little opportunity to paint landscapes in the flesh, or rather in the rock, dirt, leaves, and stuff. That’s why when we went to Clarens, I jumped to pack my paints. I truly enjoyed and appreciated the experience, and I can’t wait to do it again.
Abstract Wiggles 6
Abstract Wiggles 6
Wiggles 6 is once again a multiple canvas installment to the series. Here I focused on the warmer shades of red, brown, and yellow to give the warm autumn look and feel, but kept with the focus on pattern, colour, and line.
Abstract Wiggles 5
Abstract Wiggles 5
Abstract Wiggles 5 is the little sister to Wiggles 1. The colours and overall feeling are the same, where it is different is the size and were axactly the lines go. In sort I simply enjoyed painting Wiggles 1 so much that I just wanted to paint it again, but slightly differently, so I simply did. What is art to an artist after all, if I can’t paint something simply because I want to?
Abstract Wiggles 4
Abstract Wiggles 4
Wiggles three lends the idea of only focusing on one colour in different hues and shades, while returning to the first Wiggles painting in terms of how big it is compared to Wiggles 2 and 3. Wiggles 4 is focused on grey with the idea of being a highlight in a bright wall, doing what a bright painting would do on a white wall, but turned around.
Abstract Wiggles 3
Abstract Wiggles 3
For the third installment of this series, I wanted to use two canvases that would fit together when they were complete. Like the other Wiggles abstracts, they focus on colour, line, and shape, and here the main focus is blue.
Abstract Wiggles 2
Abstract Wiggles 2
This is the second addition to the Wiggles series. I found this series so much fun after the first painting I did that I simply had to do another. This time, I used a hexagonal canvas I had handy to emphasise the flowing lines and bold colours of the piece with the geometric contrast.
Abstract Wiggles 1
Abstract Wiggles 1
The Wiggles series is one of the series that I started when I was going through an art block. I sat in front of my canvas and just focused on colour and pattern, no theme, no subject, just having fun.
Wedding Series
Wedding Series 1
When I was doing my wedding planning, adding my art into the process was one of the main things I wanted to do. I painted three floral still lives to use in the design of my invites, menus, and thank yous. After the design and the wedding were over, I gifted one painting ot my parents and one to my in-laws and kept the third for myself. These three paintings now serve as a reminder of the fact that we are all connected through my husband and me.
Burst 1
Burst 1
Burst is a little abstract experiment I did for a few months. Each day, I would add a colour to the canvas based on how the day went for me, anger, sadness, joy, and so on. The concept is to see how these colour littery paint a visual diary of how my months went and how my various emotions blend from one to the other and how that, in a whole, looks and feels when you look at it at the end.
Cracens Den
Cracens Den
Cracens den started out as an abstract painting. As I was sitting there, I was just enjoying the painting process and the feeling that comes with it, when I realised the canvas started resembling the sea during a rough storm. I decided to lean into it and added the ship wreckage and craen tantacles. Sometimes the painting decides what it wants to be, and you just have to go with it.
Floral Arrangement 1
Floral Arangement 1
Flowers have always been one of my favourite things to draw and paint. The amount of shapes, colours, and patterns they have always brought me joy. This composition is a representation of that joy by painting the flowers as if viewed from above. You can’t see the pot or the vase, and you are meant not to even think of it; you are meant to only enjoy the beauty of the flowers themselves.
Dunes
Dunes
Dunes was also one of the commissions I have done. I was asked to create a scene from Namibia with its iconic onyx included in the landscape. I used many research and reference materials to get it just right, to create almost a love letter to the stunning dunes and nature of Namibia, which my Patren misses so much.
Purple Scapes
Purple Scapes
Purple scapes was one of my commission works. It was requested for a purple-themed guest room. The theme of the room was not the only requirement for the pair, however. The second requirement was that they needed to be landscapes. This was naturally the perfect time to paint a pair of lavender landscapes, each depicting its own landscape but married in theme, colour, and detail.
Sunshine
Sunshine
Sunshine is one of the many paintings I did in the middle of an art block. When I was sitting in front of the canvas I had painted dark blue for no other reason than not wanting it to be blank anymore, I found myself wanting to paint something bright and happy like sunshine. In true Nadia fashion, however, a landscape with a sunny sky just wouldn’t do the job. So the next best thing is flowers, and what else than sunflowers.
Fierce
Fierce
Anger. When I wanted to create a painting that spoke to the feeling of anger, I did a ton of research into the natural nature and ferocity of animals. All the usual suspects came to mind, lions, hienas, eagles, vultures, and even spiders. All animals that might spark fear, but when you really look at them, you see there is nothing but compassion and care for each other. Chickens, on the other hand, usually unsuspecting and even funny at times, turned out to have a very nasty and angry streak to them. They would claw and fight and kill each other for very little and with all their feathery butts have.
