Ed Bredenkamp

“I was born in a small mining town in Zimbabwe and spent my childhood in the almost perpetual sunlight of southern Africa. I explored the wild hills surrounding the suburb where I lived; raced my bicycle up and down the streets lined with jacarandas and bougainvillea – and drew.

After school, I studied at the Zimbabwe College of Art and Industrial Design. With my partner Ian, we lived for several years at a safari lodge in the spectacular Matobo Hills – a wilderness of granite outcrops, leopards, black mambas and white rhinos. In 2002 our house was burnt down and we emigrated first to the Seychelles and then to South Africa. Ian and I now live in the beautiful coastal village of Hermanus. We own Lembu, a small gallery, which is also my studio.

I started painting professionally in 2005, concentrating mainly on wildlife and am now most well-known for my ‘Red Elephants.’ Red seems to capture the essence of the animal; its enormity; its immense power and strength. In Zimbabwe, we spent a lot of time in a private reserve on the edge of Hwange National Park. There was a herd of approximately three hundred elephants there. To have a large wild bull elephant come within touching distance is a heart-stopping, breath-taking moment; time stands still and the incredible presence and authority of such a colossal animal is overpowering. I hope my paintings in some way capture this sensation.

I work primarily in oils but also like sepia tone watercolours and original linocut prints. In addition to SA, I have also shown work in the Netherlands, Italy, USA and UK.”