Last year we had the wonderful opportunity to travel to South Africa. And what would a trip to SA be without going on a safari? We were very fortunate to be able to go to Addo Elephant National Park and spend a couple of days there. I think this needs experience needs to be captured in a series of painting – both with poured watercolour and large oils.

Memories of Addo National Park I by Helen Shideler

Safari

We were so excited to be on safari in an open jeep that for the first few hours we did not even mind the rain! We knew South Africa had been in a long draught so we would not dare to even think of complaining. Sort of. After several hours, the rain started to fall even harder. We had to put our cameras away. Although we could still see so many majestic animals, they were a little bit blurry and we were more than soggy and the cameras at risk.

We saw elephants (sigh), zebras, buffalo, warthogs, springbok, dung beetles and so much more. We went back the next day and toured around ourselves. No rain. Just 100 degree temps. All the poor animals bedded down in the bush to try to keep cool. Oh yeah, ostridges – are they ever large!

All this to say, I managed to get so many incredible, once in a lifetime reference photos. I finally started a series on this experience. I have been working almost exclusively in oils this year and was missing working with watercolours.

Poured Watercolours

I spent a lot of time thinking and dreaming about where to start knowing that I wanted to do a poured watercolour. It has been a full year since I did one. Pretty unbelievable. TIme to get back at it. This painting took five applications of mask and six paint pours. The steps are in the slideshow below.