070g.jpg (2013) Painting by Jeni Smithies

I was born in the wilds of Zambia, Africa in 1960 to parents who lived for adventure and I grew to love and respect wildlife. We later moved to South Africa where I began a career in the transport industry. After many years and four children, I decided to give up my job and pursue my dreams. One was to paint murals and trompe l'oeil, which I did as a very successful business for 10 years, travelling all over South Africa. These images can be seen on my other Art Majeur site - Kunda Kamwali Art. I was commissioned to do a painting for Jacob Zuma, which I considered an honour and an absolute achievement in my art career. I then studied to be a field guide and bought a farm, where we farmed cattle and chickens. I qualified as a field guide with distinctions and although I will never use it as an employment opportunity, it gave me more insight into the wildlife that I so adore. I battled cancer for two years and we decided to sell the farm and take early retirement.

I now live next to the Addo Elephant Park and spend a lot of time photographing and documenting wildlife, which I then use to create my paintings. My main objective with each painting is to capture the very spirit and essence of these incredibly special animals and have been told that their eyes reveal their souls in my paintings.

It is an honour to reproduce the photographs that I have the pleasure of taking and I hope that the results are just as much a pleasure to behold by the people who purchase my art.

One lifetime is largely insufficient for me to achieve everything I’d like to! I run almost everywhere I go, my mind racing days ahead of me as I plan the next joyous life experience. I am driven by my African spirit to capture the intrinsic beauty of our wildlife on canvas; believing naively perhaps, that in doing so, I will instil in the viewer the objective of joining me in saving the animal kingdom from destruction by the human race.

My abstracts, likewise, are inspired by the beauty of the earth and its gems - an iridescent spectral conundrum, colliding gloriously in colourful play with the glittery aventurescence caused by metallic inclusions. Could there be anything more stunningly beautiful? I like to paint alone. Just me, the canvas and my music.

My studies as a Field Guide, through Africa Nature Training, have given me a deeper understanding of my subjects, as has my upbringing in the wilds of Zambia. To sit quietly, watching elephants frolic at the waterholes, or the crazy antics of warthog young. This is when I am still. At one with nature. I dream my dream….. follow my heart….. imagine….. listen to the wind….. drink sunsets….. create adventure and wish on every star. I do it my way.

• Nationality: SOUTH AFRICA
• Date of birth : 1960
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary South African Artists