The Long Road Home

This painting was inspired by a drive home from Johannesburg to Cape Town, heading into the sunset. It had been raining and the road was still wet, but the closer I got to home, the more the clouds began to clear.

That feeling is what I tried to put on paper. The sky takes up most of the painting: heavy purple and grey clouds, with the sun breaking through and sending rays of light across the sky. Below, the wet road runs straight towards the horizon, shining with reflected light, while the dark hills and scrub on either side are already falling into shadow.

Anyone who has made that long drive will know the feeling of the last stretch: tired, but with the light up ahead and home getting closer. It is the same road where I spotted the horses that inspired The Roadside Horse.