All about art

My love of travel is only equaled by my love of art. I have a particular weakness for African wildlife art. Here are two artists which have captured my attention.

Simon Stevenson, www.abrushwithAfrica.com, paints with tea and ochre - a medium he explains on his site - which captures the dry season savannah palette perfectly. I have returned many times to his "Painted Creche" of Wild dog puppies, my finger hovering over the "add to basket" button. Wild dogs have taken on a special importance to me because I have never had the good fortune to see them in Tanzania, although I have been countless times to the Selous Game Reserve which offers me my best chance. A cherished going-away present from Tanzania in 2003 is a friend's framed photograph of Wild dogs in the Selous which he snapped on one of the few trips to the reserve without me. Wild dogs are a highly endangered species on the African continent: only Botswana, South Africa and Tanzania have populations of more than 300 individuals. Some surprising and exciting news out of Northern Tanzania in 2006 was that Wild dogs were spotted in Tarangire National Park in August, and again near the Serengeti's Naabi Gate.

Sue Stolberger, www.suestolberger.com, who grew up in Tanzania, works in oils, watercolors and pencil and has lived close to her source of inspiration for the past 11 years - on the banks of the Ruaha River in Ruaha National Park on Tanzania's southern circuit. Inevitably, Sue has been drawn into conservation issues. Ruaha NP takes its name from the Great Ruaha River, tributary of the Rufiji, East Africa's largest waterway and the river which defines the Selous Game Reserve. The Great Ruaha (Ruaha is a corruption of the word river in the local HeHe language) is drying up, the result of irrigation schemes upstream for rice farming. The tributaries of the Ruaha typically dry up completely in the dry season, exposing fine white sandy bottoms. Animal traffic is heavy on these "sand river" highways because beneath their surfaces lies a layer of impermeable rock that has trapped water within digging reach when parched game needs it the most. During the 2003 dry season even elephants couldn't find water beneath the sand highways, an indication of how low the water table has fallen. Hippos died, huddled in desiccated mud pools. One official response has been to close the irrigation gates from June through October (the dry season), but from her observation point of the river bank, Sue notes serious decline of the wet season flow as well. Less water results in a change of wildlife distribution: animals are forced out of the park in search of water where they get into conflicts with villagers who live on the park's peripheries. When this happens, wildlife loses out. Sue writes eloquently about the Ruaha River on her site and I recommend that you read what she has to say while also taking a look at her beautiful art work.

Sue is a member of www.natureartists.com which promotes nature art and conservation worldwide.

04-09-2006