Stop Street, 2025
Oil on canvas
40,5 cm x 50,5 cm
Artist’s Statement
This oil painting explores contemporary realism by celebrating the quiet dignity of everyday objects. Working from the roads in Tembisa, I use layered glazes and controlled brushwork to capture how light defines form, texture, and surface. The goat is not to copy reality, but to slow the viewer down and reveal beauty in the familiar.
Trained at FUBA Academy from 1987. I approach still life as a way to honour South African craftsmanship and daily life. Each object in the composition captures the livelihood and cultural embraces of my community
Oil on canvas allows me to build depth slowly through transparent layers, as I start faintly with thin coats, to a thick layer to build areas that contrast with one another. This technique creates the soft shifts in tone and material weight that make realism feel alive. The 40 x 55cm format draws the eye close, encouraging careful observation of detail, shadow, and reflection.
This work is part of my ongoing practice of finding stillness in ordinary moments. Through careful rendering, I hope to invite viewers to pause, look closer, and find meaning in things we often overtook.
