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My recent Cape Town life really affected me, spurred me into moving more into my art again with a slightly different purpose, getting a bit more technical yet staying within my own self created compositions and backgrounds.  It's tricky with Classical Botanical Illustration for me, I did do a 2 year Dip course at the RBGE (Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh) 2009 - 2011 so I have these skills, however, I find myself stifled and not flowing well with tight constrictions and my work is really more in the Botanical ART Category. I had a fun exposition in Texas once that had both categories up explaining the contrasts and comparisons, all my own pieces, and it looked like two totally different artists!

I'm finding the word "contemporary" (strict meaning is artists alive today however usually working with an economic, political  or environmental factor of the day) to fit my works.  I will have to lighten up on the backgrounds a lot if entering a botanical illustration expo, maybe just have a flash of colour here and there on the edges of the main images but not the whole thing.  I'll be trying that out with my red Coral Tree works I am working on now.

Having a unique composition, painting parts or all larger than life, painting different stages of the plants story or perhaps designing works from a different perspective than the classical "straight on" view are all ways of "modernizing" botanical illustration, a more "contemporary" way.

Both these pieces here, Hare Rama Banana Sunflower and Cacao Flower Fantasy are great examples of how I have been working the past 7 years with this "contemporary twist". I found a few online contemporary/modern botanical art groups to join and am involved with a few botanical illustration societies so will be interesting to see how it is evolving these days among other artists.  The Contemporary Botanical Art Exposition at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town just finished yesterday and there was great response worldwide for many of the pieces. I may be entering the BAASA's, Botanical Art Association of South Africa, next expo which is scheduled for 2025 so have plenty of time to dither but I will have to get a bit less "artsy" and more technical.  I think this needs to occur with no background.  There is also the SASA, Society of Art of South Africa, that I will join, both groups to be a part of my art future, the SASA a bit more "my style".

For the rest of my time here in Bali I may just do something a bit more freeing to match how I feel here when I am done with the Red Coral Tree works...this isn't work to me, this is my lifestyle!  Living my passions and creating them on paper is all about how I feel and grow, absorb my surrounds and stay vibrant...it will be a challenge to try to box that in in any way but I think it will be a good balance when moving into some future plans I am envisioning, a second home in a more urban world in conjunction with my Bali life, Cape Town.