Last few days to vote for the Visitiors’ Choice Award and to stand a chance to WIN something for yourself I’ve made a little reel to try and capture some of my favourites (but they are all SO good I confess it’s taken me the better part of three months the myself to choose a single favourite out of so many goodies!) Here’s wishing all my fellow exhibitors the best of luck. You’re all LOVELY humans and I feel like my prize has already been ‘won’ by meeting you all 🤗 Vote via the link in my bio ☝🏻or by visiting @nationalportraitgallery website directly

Can I steal a whole minute of your time? It’ll be fun, I promise! Call it a little mid-week ‘what-I’ve-been-up-to’ quiz … 🔍Find out if you’ve been following all my news 🕵️Find out how well you know me ❤️ See how you too can be involved in something super special that’s happening tomorrow Let me know in the comments if you guessed the answer correctly! @madleadershipfoundation @morganfreeman @matt_damon_official @owenfaz @francoispienaar1995 @siyakolisi @london_dailynews

The Heart-Held Icon project is an initiative started by the MAD (Make A Difference) Leadership Foundation @madleadershipfoundation which was founded in 2003 by former Springbok captain Francois Pienaar after his promise to Nelson Mandela 23 years ago, to make a difference in South Africa. Together with a group of business leaders, he created MAD to support talented scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds, opening doors to quality schooling, mentorship, and opportunities that change lives. Recently, MAD launched the Heart-Held Icon Project where well-known celebrities and artists have been invited to decorate a Heart-Held Sculpture, printed in plant-based bioplastic. This collection will be auctioned in London next week, with proceeds supporting MAD’s mission to open doors for even more young people with academic and leadership potential and inspiring the next generation of MAD leaders. I am so honoured to be part of this campaign and am contributing three pieces to this year’s auction, each carrying a story close to my heart. This includes my own decorated Heart-Held Sculpture as well as a fine art print, and pack of postcards, of my portrait - The Age of Adolescence. Together, these works celebrate the courage it takes to grow, to hope, and to become - which is exactly what MAD Leadership Foundation strives to achieve through its work with South African youth. 📷 “High Hopes” is a Heart-held Icon depicting African hands cradling a heart adorned with hot air balloons. I chose these motifs as a way of symbolising dreams and ambitions rising skyward. It speaks to the boundless hope that lives within every community, every young person, every act of reaching upward.

REPOST: credit to @road2culturedom (Thank you Jess for putting this together) Just a reminder that the HSFK Portrait Award at the @nationalportraitgallery is up for just one more month before it goes on tour in the UK. “A chance to see 51 amazing examples of contemporary portraits and you can vote for your favourite portrait when you visit This year’s edition is my favourite of the 3 years I’ve been to this show - so much of the work feels familiar, raw, celebrating the everyday, big and small life moments, amazing people in our families, communities with some stunning technical elements to admire Runs from 25th June until 7th October 2026”

Blink and you miss it! The artwork on the cover of this reel sold at my latest group show - yay! But it took more than four years to find its forever home. Whereas my latest artwork on my easel also sold on the opening night of its first outing. You just never know when it might go. Nor where it might go. Speaking of which, I’m putting together my September newsletter - complete with a reflection on the month just gone, the highs and lows, the plans for the month the head (and, I repeat, plans! As sometimes not everything goes the way we plan. Like my labour-of-love newsletter emails. Which I only send out once a month. Which I spend a lot of time crafting to ensure they are both fun and interesting to read… and not a waste of your precious time. Which …sadly…. often end up in spam. No matter how hard people try to sign up and save my email address. So, speaking of planning: Sometimes it’s worth just diarising a regular check of that spam folder as lots of you seem to be finding my emails in your junk folder. If this happens, please move them to your inbox; mark as “not junk”; save my email address and - best of all - REPLY to my email. That way you’re sending a message to your overzealous email filter police that I’m a friendly soul and not some weird bot after your Nanna’s savings!

Apologies! Bit of a disrupted week in my studio. The builders MOVED IN!🤪 They need to replace my windows but I need to keep working. So we just made a plan. Sorry that this means I’ve had to reschedule the release of my New Paintings. But at least it gives you more time to sign up to my newsletter to get first dibs 🤪

What a month that was! In the spirit of AirLink (IYKYK😉) August just flew by!! Here’s a little “Tuesday Newsday” reel highlight package that just shows how much was packed into my art schedule during the month of August. You’ll see everything from painting people and places, to sourcing prints and postcards, for all those lovely people who have been unable to get to the @nationalportraitgallery to see my work in real life. Right through to two group shows, one at @gallery_glencarlou and one in Cape Town with some of my fellow @salon104.art artists. If you feel like you missed out, I’m sorry. I had a hard time keeping up myself! But you can be sure to stay in the loop if you sign up to my newsletter - all the useful links are in my profile - and there is a superb bonus coming up this month to celebrate Spring here in South Africa: in becoming a subscriber you’ll have first dibs on my brand new paintings! Only one thing dropped off my radar in August and that was a paper-based art sale. I haven’t forgotten! It will be prepped and ready soon. Please check you have my email address saved in your contact list and CHECK YOUR SPAM in case it’s ended up in your junk folder 🫣

As we hurtle towards the end of another month, a moment to pause - a throwback to last weekend when I had the fortune of attending a VIP function at @gallery_glencarlou For the past couple of months I have had the astonishing privilege of having no less than a DOZEN of my art works on show in this most amazing of spaces. Practically a retrospective, as the works represent my diverse range of subject matter, medium and scale… and hang on no less than three walls! They hang amongst the work of some amazing artists, some whose work I’m familiar with, many whom I am not. There is such a variety - yet a thread runs through each of our practices - connecting us in the way we see the world. I am in awe of the brilliant mind of Christa Swart, the gallery’s manager and curator, who has woven this exhibition together with such skill. Words can’t really do it justice - and neither can my photographs - though I have done my best to give those of you who live far away a taste of what this space is like. Space to breathe. Space to step back and admire. Space to connect. Space to disconnect. But for those of you who live close by and who CAN make it but have yet to go, I implore you to make the time to get there before the show comes down THIS WEEKEND (the works will be removed on Sunday). Even if you have no intention of making a purchase, it is a feast for the eyes and the soul. For those interested in making an investment in the art, just be sure to come prepared. You never know of someone behind you is eyeing up the art you are mulling over (look closely to see if you can spot the lovely human who will be taking home “My Sister’s Keeper”. Yes, my painting in the last slide is now SOLD. “Interwoven” At Glen Carlou Gallery, Klapmuts, Western Cape ✨Last day - Saturday 29 August✨ @ralphjohnson.potter @mignonandersonhattingh @michellesolomon.art @artmarindadt @the_lizels @lilymaas.art @gabileestudio @artmarindadt @jacques_dhont_ @evonsmuts @astridblumer @brincataldo