‘THE WARMTH I CARRIED’
Oil on Canvas
50.5 x 50.5cm
£550
Personal Reflection
While painting this piece, I found myself reaching for colours that felt less like flowers and more like earth. Dusty ochres, warm browns and muted greens carried me somewhere familiar - a place I couldn’t quite see, but could still feel.
I’ve realised that my memories of South Africa aren’t always tied to specific moments anymore. They’re carried in atmosphere. In the warmth of late afternoon light. In dry grasses. In the colour of soil. In the feeling of standing somewhere vast and open.
The protea has become more than a flower in this series. It has become a vessel for memory. As I layered each petal, they began to overlap like fragments of the past, weaving together into something that felt both personal and universal.
This painting reminds me that home isn’t only remembered through places; sometimes it’s remembered through colour.
Rich with muted earth tones and layered botanical forms, this painting explores the quiet relationship between memory and place.
Inspired by the warmth of the African landscape, the overlapping protea petals echo the way memories gather over time - softened by distance yet held with remarkable clarity. Rather than depicting a single bloom, the composition becomes a landscape of belonging, where colour, texture and form intertwine to reflect the enduring connection between identity and the places that continue to shape us.