"Garden of Creation" by Michelle Dunaway
Oil on Linen 24"x36"
Soon after visiting France, I visited to South Africa for the first time in the autumn of 2022. Africa had been a place of legend and wonder for me and somewhere I had longed to visit from a very young age. Spending time earlier Rosa Bonheurs studio in France in the spring I was struck by her many paintings of lions (she had a Lioness as a pet ). As I sat in her studio imagining the paintings I would do of Joan of Arc and also of lions I was more than excited for my upcoming journey to Africa and to venture on safari in remote areas of the bush for the first time.
Being in Africa captivated me so much, I have returned there to paint four times in the past two years. There is a simultaneous peace coupled with passion in the wild that is unrestrained and potent. As we traveled in the jeep amidst the dusty roads at sunset we came across a pride of lionesses on hunt. They were poised and alert watching some zebras in the distance. As they made their way down the hillside, their prey sensing their presence, escaped and the lionesses gave up their hunt nestling in the golden hued wild grasses around our jeep in the African desert. I was mesmerized to be so close to these powerful lionesses …something I had dreamed of seeing from life for many years. I studied ones face in particular, she was magnificent, scars upon her nose from life yet she was a young adult without cubs yet and forging her way in the wilderness. I felt such a connection to her. Seeing her beauty even with her many scars made me realize my scars were beautiful too and evident of a life lived with passion and intention.
As the sun descended, suddenly the entire sky above turned a golden tone as if shimmering with gold leaf and gilded light, My eyes were drawn upward to this splendid painting God was creating before our eyes. As I looked back at the lioness she too had her head titled up taking in the glorious sky with a sense of reverence on her face. She wasn’t thinking about hunting, or about survival, but instead she was transfixed on the beauty of the heavens the same as I was in that moment. Could she be inspired by the beauty, the drama of light and color as I was I thought ?
Then she turned and locked eyes with me. Lions don’t often look directly at you on safari in the bush , perhaps a quick glance and nothing more. As she looked at me there was no hostility or alarm, just a contemplating, a quiet considering of me as I considered her and I felt a compassion pass between us. We held each others gaze for a long moment - the moment I chose to depict in this painting. I felt I recognized something of myself in her and perhaps she in me as well. I have had moments like that before with human beings , especially ones I've painted, but this was my first experiences as such with a wild lioness ! This was just several months after being in France formulating my painting of Joan of Arc looking up toward the sky and painting in Rosa Bonheurs studio strewn with canvases of lionesses
Everything seemed to interweave …moments of inspiration, moments of connection. I didn't expect to experience such a divine moment in Africa. I felt as though I was in Gods garden of creation as it were meant to be.
Oil on Linen 24"x36"
Soon after visiting France, I visited to South Africa for the first time in the autumn of 2022. Africa had been a place of legend and wonder for me and somewhere I had longed to visit from a very young age. Spending time earlier Rosa Bonheurs studio in France in the spring I was struck by her many paintings of lions (she had a Lioness as a pet ). As I sat in her studio imagining the paintings I would do of Joan of Arc and also of lions I was more than excited for my upcoming journey to Africa and to venture on safari in remote areas of the bush for the first time.
Being in Africa captivated me so much, I have returned there to paint four times in the past two years. There is a simultaneous peace coupled with passion in the wild that is unrestrained and potent. As we traveled in the jeep amidst the dusty roads at sunset we came across a pride of lionesses on hunt. They were poised and alert watching some zebras in the distance. As they made their way down the hillside, their prey sensing their presence, escaped and the lionesses gave up their hunt nestling in the golden hued wild grasses around our jeep in the African desert. I was mesmerized to be so close to these powerful lionesses …something I had dreamed of seeing from life for many years. I studied ones face in particular, she was magnificent, scars upon her nose from life yet she was a young adult without cubs yet and forging her way in the wilderness. I felt such a connection to her. Seeing her beauty even with her many scars made me realize my scars were beautiful too and evident of a life lived with passion and intention.
As the sun descended, suddenly the entire sky above turned a golden tone as if shimmering with gold leaf and gilded light, My eyes were drawn upward to this splendid painting God was creating before our eyes. As I looked back at the lioness she too had her head titled up taking in the glorious sky with a sense of reverence on her face. She wasn’t thinking about hunting, or about survival, but instead she was transfixed on the beauty of the heavens the same as I was in that moment. Could she be inspired by the beauty, the drama of light and color as I was I thought ?
Then she turned and locked eyes with me. Lions don’t often look directly at you on safari in the bush , perhaps a quick glance and nothing more. As she looked at me there was no hostility or alarm, just a contemplating, a quiet considering of me as I considered her and I felt a compassion pass between us. We held each others gaze for a long moment - the moment I chose to depict in this painting. I felt I recognized something of myself in her and perhaps she in me as well. I have had moments like that before with human beings , especially ones I've painted, but this was my first experiences as such with a wild lioness ! This was just several months after being in France formulating my painting of Joan of Arc looking up toward the sky and painting in Rosa Bonheurs studio strewn with canvases of lionesses
Everything seemed to interweave …moments of inspiration, moments of connection. I didn't expect to experience such a divine moment in Africa. I felt as though I was in Gods garden of creation as it were meant to be.
Oil on Linen 24"x36"
Soon after visiting France, I visited to South Africa for the first time in the autumn of 2022. Africa had been a place of legend and wonder for me and somewhere I had longed to visit from a very young age. Spending time earlier Rosa Bonheurs studio in France in the spring I was struck by her many paintings of lions (she had a Lioness as a pet ). As I sat in her studio imagining the paintings I would do of Joan of Arc and also of lions I was more than excited for my upcoming journey to Africa and to venture on safari in remote areas of the bush for the first time.
Being in Africa captivated me so much, I have returned there to paint four times in the past two years. There is a simultaneous peace coupled with passion in the wild that is unrestrained and potent. As we traveled in the jeep amidst the dusty roads at sunset we came across a pride of lionesses on hunt. They were poised and alert watching some zebras in the distance. As they made their way down the hillside, their prey sensing their presence, escaped and the lionesses gave up their hunt nestling in the golden hued wild grasses around our jeep in the African desert. I was mesmerized to be so close to these powerful lionesses …something I had dreamed of seeing from life for many years. I studied ones face in particular, she was magnificent, scars upon her nose from life yet she was a young adult without cubs yet and forging her way in the wilderness. I felt such a connection to her. Seeing her beauty even with her many scars made me realize my scars were beautiful too and evident of a life lived with passion and intention.
As the sun descended, suddenly the entire sky above turned a golden tone as if shimmering with gold leaf and gilded light, My eyes were drawn upward to this splendid painting God was creating before our eyes. As I looked back at the lioness she too had her head titled up taking in the glorious sky with a sense of reverence on her face. She wasn’t thinking about hunting, or about survival, but instead she was transfixed on the beauty of the heavens the same as I was in that moment. Could she be inspired by the beauty, the drama of light and color as I was I thought ?
Then she turned and locked eyes with me. Lions don’t often look directly at you on safari in the bush , perhaps a quick glance and nothing more. As she looked at me there was no hostility or alarm, just a contemplating, a quiet considering of me as I considered her and I felt a compassion pass between us. We held each others gaze for a long moment - the moment I chose to depict in this painting. I felt I recognized something of myself in her and perhaps she in me as well. I have had moments like that before with human beings , especially ones I've painted, but this was my first experiences as such with a wild lioness ! This was just several months after being in France formulating my painting of Joan of Arc looking up toward the sky and painting in Rosa Bonheurs studio strewn with canvases of lionesses
Everything seemed to interweave …moments of inspiration, moments of connection. I didn't expect to experience such a divine moment in Africa. I felt as though I was in Gods garden of creation as it were meant to be.