Joburg is alive with little white butterflies. Crowds of them are dancing across the city, from west to east, on their way to Mozambique. These are known as brown-veined whites Belenois aurota.
I often allude to butterflies in my paintings, so I decided to capture the feeling of late summer in Joburg – the intense green of kikuyu lawns and jacarandas, sparkling blue swimming pools, purple-blue agapanthus and hot pink bougainvillea.
I started out by choosing the colours – green and blue is difficult to come by in lipstick, so I use creme eyeshadow pencils instead.
First I add and mix the colour
Finally I draw in the butterflies with a ball point pen and an earbud and there you go: summer Jozi butterflies dancing across the city from east to west.
