Living in such a humid and hot subtropical environment there is an ever present jungle around us filled with all sorts of beasties and creepy crawlies. Dear friends came to visit and spent a week with us exploring the game reserves, the beautiful beaches and relaxing in the garden. At the end of their stay I was asked to paint 2 large jungle inspired paintings. I decided to use some of the things they saw while visiting.

A visit to the banana plantations in Monzi along the banks of the Umfolozi river, the ever present monkeys hovering in the hope of catching us unawares and grabbing our fruit, chameleons found on a night drive into the iSimangaliso park and the lush tropical vegetation and flowers in the garden were a few of the features that would be included in this commission.

I had a few stipulations I had to work within… It had to be a visual diary, no thick palette work and the inspiration had to come from not just the garden, but the area so I included sisal, coral tree flowers, bananas, passion fruit, leopard orchids, stralitzia, and helaconia which grow wild here (and some are even in our garden).