We spoke to Cape Town-based artist Amy Ayanda in 2020 about her works. We decided to follow up with her and see how things have changed since then. She gives us insight into her new studio, her exploration with oil paints and the arrival of twins.

It’s been a few years since we last caught up. What has changed for you since then?

Many things have changed; I gave birth to twins and am now a mother of three. Juggling this while trying to grow my business hasn’t been such an easy feat but I have slowly begun to find my footing, with many helping hands to support me. I also started working with oils more in 2021 and have brought it into my practice, which I am really enjoying. 

Where are you currently creating?

I have a great studio at home; I moved back into a home studio when I was about to give birth as I knew I wouldn’t be able to commute to work with newborn twins. We moved into my childhood home recently except now I am here with my family. It has been a beautiful circular experience, coming home and creating where I once played as a child. 

How has life influenced your style since our last interview?

Life is busy, to say the least. I have managed to find a good rhythm postpartum and have since launched two collections. Obviously, my time is more limited; there is a lot more intention when I go into the studio. The collections which I have launched are a lot more considered and take longer to get out; which can be a good thing but doesn’t always lend itself to much time for play, which is where I think my work thrives. I have been painting with oils more recently, more whites and impasto mark making. 

Do you have any cool projects on the go currently?

I have recently gotten a space at Side Street Studios on Albert Road in Woodstock. It is on the ground floor with big open windows so you can peek right in at all the magic. The space is now my showroom and store where I sell my work. It is also where I meet clients if they want to have a commission piece created. I love painting from home but I have always wanted a more professional space where I can operate and run the store from. I have worked hard and it feels good to see that hard work pay off. You can book an appointment to view my work at amyayanda@gmail.com

Can you tell us how your music is going and how your art and your music connect?

Music is slow but I have somehow found time to write while I rehearse now and then. I have also been taking lessons in production (an evening online class while the babies are all asleep) which allows me to record anything I write to make demos. I will take these into the studio when I finally get my life together to go record. We are also setting dates to rehearse as a full band again which is honestly just a lot of fun being together in the same room again playing music. 

Are there any new or up-and-coming local artists we need to keep an eye on?

Marolize Southwood has her exhibition launching this Thursday at 99 Loop which I am excited to check out. I am also really in love with Lichen and Leaf’s new range created under Gwynn Studios, really excited to purchase one of her amazing pieces. 

What does a regular (LOL what is regular) day look like for you?

Well, I am up all odd hours of the morning with babies waking up but they usually settle again with some milk. If we are lucky we get a good six-hour stretch. Breakfast time is 6:30 unless we are lucky enough to sleep in! I drop Frances at school and either head to the gym or if I have an early appointment I head to the new office. I order any prints that need ordering, send out any shipments that need shipping. I leave the office around 2 and go to collect Frances from school, it leaves me with time to start on some afternoon painting. I make myself a cup of tea/coffee (depending on how hectic the day has been) and start painting until 4 pm. Our nanny goes home and I start dinner or order in depending on my energy levels. We eat dinner together around 5:30, we bath the twins and get them into bed by 6:30. Once they are down with their milk I get the dog and we go walk for half an hour. Get home, evening paint session, shower, bed by 9:30/10:30. 

Do your children share your passion for art?

Frances loved building things, she loves to paint too but her concentration really sits with cutting and glueing and making truly incredible little inventions from nothing. Atlas and Jude are still very much in their throwing and putting things in mouth phase so it’s way too soon to tell.

Does your art still have strong maternal and familial themes?

I am always returning to the same subject matter. There is a lot that is not constant in my life but returning to familiar themes always seem to ground me, it’s something I won’t ever perfect but will change and grow as I do throughout my life as a creator. 

What are your goals for the next year?

To study again, and to grow more flowers. 

Visit Amy’s website here and follow her on Instagram @amyayanda.

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The post Artists We Love: Amy Ayanda appeared first on Visi.

The taming of the wilderness in Dylan Lewis’ sculpture garden belies his wilderness within.

“I was gripped by a madness that has finally quietened down after 10 years.” Dylan Lewis looks out across the 7 hectares he has moulded into an undulating landscape that mirrors the contours of Stellenbosch Mountain towering above it. Dotting the garden are his sculptures of wild animals, shamanic shapes – some half- human, half-animal – and lately nudes too.

All he started out to do was level some ground where his children could play, but something happened when he first set eyes on the huge earthmover he’d hired. “When I saw the potential of what that machine could do, it gripped me. I spent almost two years with earth-moving equipment, these very large machines contouring the landscape, much as I would with the surface of a sculpture, using the same principles but on a much bigger scale. I developed a sign language with the operator and he became an extension of my hand.”

When Dylan had finished moving the earth around to please his sculptor’s eye, he had 7 hectares of bareness. Looking at this strange, wonderful Eden now, it is a surprise to learn that he never intended to make a garden. Equally surprising is his confession that he knows nothing of garden history, gardening or plants.

He called in the help of garden designer Franchesca Watson. She formulated some of the early ideas for planting and implemented the basic plan. Later, she put Dylan in touch with indigenous plant expert Fiona Powrie, a horticulturist at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden for many years. “I would say, I want this kind of volume or this colour, and she would suggest a plant.

“It is not a linear Western garden imposed on the landscape. It is very organic, very natural. It could appear that nothing has changed here, that no work has been done, because it fits in with the natural order.”

Dylan describes the process as intuitive. “The garden seems to have tendencies towards the Japanese. I have always admired their gardens. Aesthetically there’s something that resonates with me – the distillation of nature to its essence, the contrast of textures.”

We pass a brass plate with a poem, The Rising by Ian McCallum, engraved on it. It talks of the reader’s soul one day raging about an unlived life. Surely this man whose creative expression is rewarded with acclaim is not guilty of a wasted life?

“From an emotional point of view it may appear that I live a congruent life,” Dylan says, “but it has not been easy. I grew up in a very conservative fundamentalist environment. I lived that fully until maybe my mid-30s. Holding myself was difficult. The rest of my life to date has been a response to that, an attempt to recapture an authentic life.”

For more information, visit dylanlewis.co.za. Visits to the Sculpture Garden are by appointment.

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