Pixie in a red dress

the original painting measured 38 cms. Diameter

and was painted in mixed media on archival quality rag mat board

I met this young girl when I visited Kabali village on the way into Shenton’s camp in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.  About 60 people (including children), live in this village of about 20 households and they are from the Kunda tribe. There were only about half this number of people there when I visited, mostly women and children and I was very kindly welcomed though at first they were rather perplexed by the reason for my visit. Once my guide explained that I was interested in finding out more about their lifestyle and was an artist, everybody relaxed and sang me a welcome song and we even danced (to much laughter), as the children joined in. Then they took me on a short tour of the village and explained how they managed mostly on subsistence farming and the trading of their woven palm leaf mats .

I wanted to reflect this life in the mat-like texture of the background and the use of earthy colors. The little girls hair was sparse and really did stand out stiffly and to a point, which gave her a cute pixie-like appearance . The background was made by impressing texture medium with a pattern and then painting it with acrylic. The hair is painted in acrylic with gloss medium added, her skin is painted in pastel and the dress is composed of two different woven fabrics glued down as a flat pattern and then painted with acrylic paints.