World Inspired Landscapes: Uganda

Uganda was known for a long time as Buganda, and it still has a region inhabited by the Bantu kingdowm that is called Buganda. It was the center of power of Central and North East Africa prior to colonial times, after which it became a British Protectorate. This changed the demographic to the point that Uganda is now a vast majority Christian faith, with Islam second most. Its geography consists of very high mountains and wide plains of temperate and arid climates, reminiscent of Madagascar. I was impressed with the vast mountain vistas, and the presence of gorillas in their natural environment. I did a gorilla-themed painting in the Congo installment of the series. The neat thing about Uganda was that there were pine trees and palm trees in the same locations. There was also a type of succulent that seemed to grow on top of a dead tree, or perhaps it just had a trunk that looked like a dead tree, kind of a cardboard colour. The trees also had a wispy mint-green moss growing on their bark. Plants that grow on trees are called epiphytes. I based the entire composition of the Honduras painting on the idea of epiphytes growing on a branch of a tree in the rain forest. In the Uganda painting, I depicted some interesting cactus succulents in the foreground, and some mysterious looking tall, scraggly trees in the middle ground. By varying their shapes and heights, visual interest was created. The background was a standard African red-earth with distant blue-grey mountains, and a soft pastel sunset.
 

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