South Sudan has an interesting back story, like most regions in this part of east Africa there are ancient fossils going back forever. In more recent times the region mostly resisted the regional powers such as the influential Arabs from the north, and the eventual colonial forces that arrived. The main reason apparently was that South Sudan has a massive wetlands on its borders that made it impossible for land armies to cross due to the conditions and the diseases that were carried in the swamp lands. This had the effect of protecting the local indigenous peoples, and the wildlife. To this day there are several millions of antelopes that still migrate in the country, while other areas, for example North America, mostly wiped out the migrating animals. In the case of our continent it was the buffalo that were nearly wiped out, there was an article about it in the CBC recently. South Sudan also has incredible teak trees that are in forests, although economic pressure is starting to affect the trees too. The locals plant them as a form as agriculture. This painting turned out better than I had hoped, it was a technical challenge. I made several sketches of antelopes, male, female and young, in order to understand the body shape, the running poses, and how the legs bent. Their joint are reversed between front and back. The back legs were particularly stressful since they seem to have two angles. The males seemed darker, and had larger horns. Completing the effect was the dusty beige and olive landscape with intermittent trees. There are also zebras in this painting but you cant see them because they are camouflaged.
World Inspired Landscapes: South Sudan, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2043b)
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