Monday, September 7, 2015

Water in a dry place (2)

Water in a dry place is a recurring theme in my paintings and now too I realize in places that I am compelled to seek out. Whether it is that Africa imprinted itself on me during the first 22 years of my life, with a love of dry, dusty heat and the juxtaposition of rain when it eventually comes. Or is it whether I am simply drawn to the meeting of opposites, I don't know. It is likely a little of each.

Botswana is a country defined by both its lack and abundance of water. Much of the country is sandy and dry, it once having been the bottom of an ancient and massive lake. It sees annual evaporation exceeding annual rainfall in much of the country and the dry season is for much of the year. In the center of this otherwise deeply dry place lies the Okovango delta - a place of lush green growth and abundance of water that fills annually when the river that feeds it floods. We are here right ahead of the rainy season, so it has been dry for a long time and cows are thin and the land is parched as everyone waits for rain and green grass to return. The delta however still has cool deep channels and rivulets running out in to the earth, with thick papyrus and palm forests lining the waterways. 




Flying over the delta yesterday, we looked down over a minaturised world of elephant and hippo seen from above and gathering around rivulets and pools that are the end point of a river's journey. This is the place where the river pools and drains in to the earth, bringing life and abundance, months after the last rains fall. It is an emerald in a yellow-grey landscape, with snaking lines and forms utterly organic yet at the same time abstracted and graphic. It's beauty like a cool glass of water to a partched throat.

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