About

“I collaborate with watercolour
to create memories that resonate
with our yearning to return to the Garden”

As watercolourist Stephen honours the constraints of watercolour to release the wild freedom in the colours, water, brush and paper to show form and distinctive details in God’s creation.

Rivers, waves and waterfalls in constant motion. Trees unfurling curves and cool shade over decades. Boulders sculpted over centuries. Mountains taking the shape of ages. Each creature unique. Each person fearfully knit together, showing the wear of their journey.

In his work he offers respect to those who create the pigments, the paper and the brushes and of course He who designed the water itself.

Stephen started painting in watercolour in 1985 in Swakopmund, Namibia. He captured the harsh, subtle mystery of the Namib in watercolour. Later he exchanged the ochre, sienna and umber for the vast range of greens of The Fairest Cape. While pursuing a corporate and later a consulting career he continued painting watercolours.

“My watercolour journey began in 1985 in Swakopmund, Namibia, painting desert scenes in a class, listening to “Autumn Leaves” and enjoying the smell from the brewery over the road.

Earlier in the year, with a degree in Geology and a Masters in Applied Science, I had ridden up to Swakopmund on my XT500, to work on a uranium mine. One day a watercolour in a gallery window stopped me in my tracks. A fish eagle lifting a fish. Each pinion feather, a single stroke of a brush. I met the artist and signed up for classes.

I mixed colours in my dinner plate and created the first swatch on the sheet of Arches taped to my bread-board. And I recall cycling home through the dark, misty streets with the evening’s work taped to the bread-board in my pack. This was powerful magic.

Watercolour is ideal for portraying the harsh, subtle mystery of the Namib. But later I exchanged the ochre, sienna and umber for the vast range of greens of The Fairest Cape. I pursued a corporate and later a consulting career. All the time I painted watercolours in all the free time I could carve out.

In early 2020, everything stopped. My consulting stopped. Facilitating workshops is a challenge. Doing it online is impossible. I asked God to be with me, I contracted with Aura, my wife, and focused on Watercolour. And here we are with a body of work, a plan and a long list of things to be done.”