Eswatini is a small landlocked country in the south of Africa formerly known as Swaziland. The King of the country decided recently to change the name so as to reflect their history and people since Swaziland was a colonial name given to them by the British. Eswatini is the only African country with a strict monarchy government. They have elections for administrative posts but the King can hire or remove who he pleases. As with many of the African countries, Eswatini is rick in natural resources and agriculture which make up most of their exports. The landscape consists of rolling hills and wide valley plains of grass. Impressive trees dot the landscape. As I study the African landscapes I see some similar themes like the pointy volcanic mountains, and the iron oxide reddish clays. No wonder the first use of iron oxide pigments for art was in Africa, they are rich in the mineral and have a history of cave painting that goes back tens of thousands of years.
The colour scheme of this painting is a range of olive-greens to brown-oranges with golden yellows in between. I have been exploring the earth paints and studying colour mixing, which has made it possible to create a rich variety of colours in this area of the colour gamut. Many of the colours are middle chroma, that is they contain some grey, others are dark value, like in the tree trunk and distant trees. When painting it helps to think about hue, value, and chroma as three separate ingredients than can be mixed together in clever ways.
World Inspired Landscapes: Eswatini, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2022 (No. 3079a)
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