Valley of the Red Gods
Valley of the Red Gods is a series of large-scale oil paintings built through colour washes, scumbling and fine mark making. Taking its conceptual and chromatic cue from the Red Disa (Disa uniflora), an iconic and rare orchid endemic to the Western Cape, the flowering phenomenon is not depicted but invoked. Found along mountain streams and waterfalls on the slopes of Table Mountain, the Red Disa blooms briefly yet spectacularly, its scarlet petals appearing almost otherworldly against stone and water.
It is a flower bound to place, dependent on precise ecological conditions, flowing water, altitude, light. The intensity of the flower reverberates: reds bleed into blues, florals fracture into reflections, colour becomes atmosphere. The paintings function like pools of water, mirrored surfaces that collapse depth and time.
Across the serioes, depth is constructed through shifting relations between opacity and luminosity, where colour operates as poressure, saturation and flow.
