Ann’s Portfolio

Ann’s Portfolio of wildlife art: Here is some of my work shown in various settings.

Travelling Africa

I have developed a great love of the African bush and its animals, travelling in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. This soon meant that I began taking photos of my encounters with the wildlife. It became a natural progression then to transform and simplify them on my canvases.

The ‘Wild in Africa’ Series

Graffiti art sprayed on street walls and ancient Khoisan images scratched into rock equally excites me.

Some of the earliest examples of creativity combined with contemporary expression seemed destined to meet through my lenses in diverse but well-traveled landscapes. Both were and are used to express (very different) environments. The same areas in the bushveld of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, where I disappear for weeks to capture wildlife images, are the same territories once used by the Khoisan to catch their prey. I saw the connection between those ancient tribes recoding their quests and our need to record our lives, as depicted via street art. Recording these diverse forms of public personal expression makes the past an intrinsic part of the present. 

As a photographer and artist, it occurred to me that this combination of ancient and modern art would form a dynamic documentary for my form of expression—wildlife photography.

Working with numerous transparent layers (sometimes up to 30), I seek to create a depth or view into the past through the present.

I begin by selecting from my wildlife photographs, establishing the work’s central theme. Looking through my graffiti files, I then add appropriate backdrops using acrylic pens, spraypaint, and inks. The Khoisan rock art provides other essential details. Then, I choose additional small elements, such as African symbols, to add further meaning. Sometimes, I encounter historical anomalies, such as What is a centuries-old image of a whale and a penguin doing in the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana, several thousand kilometers (16 hours by car) through the desert from the nearest coastline. (A challenging question that remains unanswered.)

Each work becomes a filtered view into the past and present, and my proposed work completes the triangle of history, present, and future observer. Graffiti art sprayed on street walls and ancient Khoisan images scratched into rocks in the wild excite me equally. As a photographer and artist, I seek to record and combine these forms of public personal expression with my own. Thus, history is revealed through contemporary photography and graffiti, making the past an intrinsic part of the present.

‘Give it Horns’ Series

“I have for the past few years been working on a series of works titled ‘Give it Horns.’ The works have incorporated a number of African symbols with meanings such as ‘hope,’ ‘perseverance,’ ‘unity,’ ‘balance,’ etc. The symbols reflect the processes and mindsets we need to create in order to stop the senseless killing of rhinos and other species. Some of the symbols are Andrinka symbols (West African), whilst some I have created from our own local Xhosa heritage.”

The ‘Bang Bang’ Series

In the ‘Bang Bang’ series, (see example second from Ann’s Portfolio top), I take my experience of living in Africa’s disappearing wildness and blend it with iconic commercialism. I see the two elements fighting for dominance.
Painting this dynamic then becomes a therapeutic way of healing the paradoxical forces of creativity and destruction at play within myself. ”

I work to build up a painting adding layers and more symbols each time, only to then start the process of slowly stripping away. This creates a new ‘landscape’ that can bear little resemblance to the underlying image.
Like the books I write, it involves adapting and editing – a constant process of evolving until the result feels (almost) balanced.