World Inspired Landscapes: Zimbabwe

 

At long last, five years to be precise, I reached the final country alphabetically, which of course is Zimbabwe. There are two pages summarizing the series, from A to L, and from Ly to Z. Before I get to describing the painting, a little about Zimbabwe. Once the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, it was a regional power that gave way to a series of other entities prior to colonization by the British. Going back further, there are human settlements dating back almost half a million years! Unfortunately after independence they suffered from authoritarian rule and military dictatorships. The country geographically is sitting on a high plateau, and has part of the spectacular Victoria falls on the north border. Mostly savanna, there are intense rainy seasons interspersed with extreme heat and dry weather. Tourism was popular, but poaching and deforestation has eroded this resource. Despite the troubles, Zimbabwe has well developed infrastructure and an active research sector with higher education. Such innovation gives hope for growth and realization of their potential. 

Since its the last installment of the World Inspired Landscapes series, I composed a scene that takes a tour of various styles. The scene is a massive baobab tree standing tall over the savanna while some zebras try to blend in. Centered on the tree, there are five shards each with a different style. The top left is night, the top right is day, the right is black and white, the bottom is bright primary colours, and the left is sepia tone. Its a good way to end off the series. Looking forward, there are about half a dozen of the paintings I might revisit in the future, and I have an idea for a new series that would be less restrictive than painting every country in the world. As an artist, this series pushed me past my limits, some of the paintings like the United Kingdom rain drops and a few others were really advanced stuff. It was great fun to do this series, I learned a lot and hopefully you did too.

World Inspired Landscapes: Zimbabwe, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2025