Tesserae is the name of the little tiles that make up a mosaic. These tesserae here make up a mosaic of micro movies that try to capture moments in my life and the process and thoughts behind a series of artworks. I have made them using still images from my paintings as they were in the process of coming into being and once final, and from people and images that have inspired them. My very talented musical son Julian has composed short sections of music to accompany them. We have worked together, feeling our way intuitively to create and capture an experience, mood and idea to share. I always think that creating art is actually performance art. The performance is over once the artwork is complete. So in these micro movies this is what we are trying to capture — the sense of immersion as the artwork is created. K Schoonees

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My painting practice centres on oils on canvas, braced and cradled ply, or timber, often with an acrylic underpainting. When working in watercolour, I prefer good quality stretched paper, frequently combining it with ink. I enjoy working with powder pigments, which offer exceptional colour saturation and can be used with either linseed oil or acrylic medium. Over the years, certain colours have become enduring favourites — indian yellow, viridian green, and naples yellow — alongside an ongoing fascination with the varied qualities of different whites. I love experimenting with a range of brushes and alternative application methods to explore the expressive possibilities of mark-making. Underlying all of this is a strong focus on tonal relationships: learning to look past colour and read the painting purely in terms of light and dark. K Schoonees

Mixed media holds a special place in my practice for the conceptual possibilities it opens up. Freed from the constraints of a single material, it invites an exploration of positive and negative space, the layering of ideas, and the recycling of failed projects through collage and repurposing — finding new life in what didn't work the first time. I class sgraffito under mixed media: a process of building up layers of different materials and then, almost by magic, revealing paint effects and textures that would be difficult to achieve through painting alone. Mixed media work is generally done on cradled and braced boards or ply, where a firm surface is essential to support the layering process. I am currently exploring the use of wax medium — still very much in the learning stages, but already drawn to what it offers. K Schoonees

Drawing is an ongoing and constant practice for me — the equivalent of scales at the piano. I make sure to draw every week, and attend a life drawing group regularly, which offers not only the companionship and community of fellow artists, but three concentrated hours of focused practice. It is, in many ways, a form of mental gym work: exercising and strengthening the hand-eye coordination and visual perception that underpin everything else I do. It deepens my understanding of tonal work and keeps those instincts sharp and alive. Most drawings are quick and gestural — five to thirty minutes — and I keep only those that interest me or might help develop an idea, discarding more than half each time. Occasionally I will take a life drawing and work on it over a few days, but drawings are generally far quicker to resolve than paintings or mixed media pieces, which I may work on for several weeks or even months at a time. K Schoonees

Birds in Our Hands

My Art Mates Teach and Inspire me And show me the Way With a Clatter of Coffee And Squidges of Paint A rattle of easels Scraping the floor A Chatter of Silence On frowning Foreheads. We are a Gathering of Artists Tied in a Band, Marching like feathers Holding birds in our hands. May we be safe, May we be kind, May we live to see And not to be blind. K Schoonees April 2024 This painting was sold to friends and is now in France.

Into the Blue

Gather all the droplets Times them by two Thread them lightly Through the trees to the sky Hold them aloft to circle all askew Then let them go Into the blue K Schoonees This work was sold from Browne's Gallery and is in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Female Gaze

I'll always be a woman and you'll always be a man But We are human We are here now We make choices We have hands We have eyes and Legs and arms and feet and nose and ears and Mouths and toes And knees and elbows And fingers and bellies We have names We laugh we cry We shout and call We curl up small and stretch out tall and although I'll always be a woman and you'll always be a man we'll always be but children With a clamouring deep inside K Schoonees

I'm Carried Aside You

I'm carried aside you Tumbling turning Swooping twisting hanging on, then letting go drifting down, resting, lying and looking up, Accepting the sky Allowing earth and life to merge Through leaves and layers blustery shifts Our journey is slowly ebbing as it should K Schoonees 2026

Embedded Memory

→ Marching like feathers — Tesserae

Folded in my mind vibrates the chitter clatter squawks and cries of lace across the sky Jacobean curtains in golden sun as excited cuckoo warns of time Curled hiding in Basotho blanket scrolls A Natural History Museum of stuffed lore and scary nighttime tales Praying mantis stalks my brother's terror while shongololo rolls up tight in exploding wet grass of tiny frogs the scritchty legged Christmas beetle is saved Why do weavers hang their nests? Snakes of course below Hot toktokkie cheekily bums and finds his mate How much of this will remain? once we humans have had our gain K Schoonees 2024

Earth People

Eyes wide in the splintering light Touching as we meet the tangled mass of living strands. Facing forward our hands entwined, to find the bonds of Sisterhood and man. Our footprint handprint is on our world, as a trail of leaves and branches fall, and criss and cross our female male gaze. In the dark and lightness of us all, on a spiders thread we see through the forest now. We feel the air grow quiet, and sadness hits our soul, only care and love can hold and guide us. K Schoonees

Celebration

This painting was started in 1995 and completed in 2025. I worked on it on and off for over 30 years. At one point I decided one half was finished but then changed my mind. The top half I only completed recently in 2025. Now and then I am still not sure if it is complete — I may still work on it. It was done in two panels to achieve the height I wanted. It uses the idea of the tree of life and mother nurture as a metaphor for the celebration of birth, nurturing of new life, growth, flowering, seeding and the natural process of death and regeneration. K Schoonees

Coming Home

→ Coming Home — Tesserae

My nephew and his partner had just become engaged, and they wanted to commission a painting. I visited their home, walked the path where they take their dog each day, and spent time in their environment. Over the following weeks — including a week beside a beautiful lake and time walking in a small kahikatea forest on the East Cape — the painting came into being almost as if it had chosen itself. It was only after I finished it that I realised the significance of what I had painted. The heartleaf was a plant they kept in their lounge. The hydrangeas were in a pot outside their front door. The Montbretia grows along the path between their home and the sea. I had absorbed all of it without knowing. I wanted the work to hold something of the life they are building together. Heartleaf philodendron is known for its trailing vines — a plant associated with love and growth in relationships, right for two people beginning something new. The nigella, or love-in-a-mist — its seed pods speak of protection and transformation, the quiet strength underneath a delicate surface. Hydrangea carries in Japanese tradition a sense of heartfelt emotion and understanding — the kind that deepens over time. Crocosmia or Montbretia, those bright orange sprays along the path, bring energy and passion. They grow wild and vivid, and I loved them for that. The kahikatea stands behind it all — New Zealand's tallest tree, living six hundred years. When its canopy fruits it feeds the birds and is part of a rich ecosystem. K Schoonees

In Memory

In memory of my grandfather — he lived through both the First and Second World Wars, and lost his own father, my great-grandfather, when he was twelve. His father worked as a journalist in the Anglo-Boer War in the early 1900s. My grandfather was an important influence in my childhood. As a small child I would go with him to the art gallery and park together. On the way we would stop at the fishpond and drop a penny in among the goldfish. The wish was always secret but I think I know now what it was. I painted the white poppies for remembrance without glorification, for the private grief that runs beneath history. The reflections above are memories: light on water, a small hand in a large one. K Schoonees

Willow

Willow is not a real person, it is a personification of the tree. It is the curtain of willow tree branches hanging and drooping down in front of my second story balcony. West light coming over Devil's Peak mountain in Cape Town and dazzling through the sticks and leaves. It was a special time. K Schoonees

Love in a Mist

I went to visit a friend with a lovely garden, a greenhouse full of pots, colours blooming, flowers, vegetables and herbs. Blown away by all the flowering colours, I almost missed it — tucked on one side against a wall, a pot with dead dry sticks. Suddenly as I looked down it was as though another universe exploded in my mind. Sci-fi looking seed pods caught my attention. I went home and looked up what they were. They turned out to be Love-in-a-mist seed pods — from the Nigella plant with its stunning colourful flowers when in bloom. I tried to capture this thought. A whole universe exists where we don't expect it. If only we look… K Schoonees

Alight

This is a companion painting to Budding. It is the same view except at night, with the image now in the beam of headlights. The little buds are ablaze. K Schoonees

Eve

As a child and later as an adult I have always enjoyed the sensation of being in water. The wonderful feeling of fluidity and weightlessness. The painting is a celebration of this feeling. The name Eve means breath and life. K Schoonees This painting was sold to friends in New Zealand.

Budding

This painting was inspired by regularly driving and walking past a row of poplar trees. In spring the little buds containing the brand new green leaves are silky soft like bright velvet pods. The image is painted on four separate panels but joined together to create the impression of moving past them. The image in each panel is not quite aligned to create the experience of immersion in the image sliding past. See also: Alight — a companion painting of the same view at night. K Schoonees

Pods 1–8

This drawing was a tonal and compositional exercise that I did in year 1 at Browne's. It was the basis for the colour study — see Playing with Colour in the Paintings gallery. K Schoonees

Playing with Colour

This painting was done as part of an exercise in 1st year at Browne School of Art. It was designed to help us explore colour and was the culmination of a number of classes working through both colour theory and tonal work. We were to do 20 × 20 cm panels exploring colour combinations. Twenty small objects were laid out on a table and students each had to choose one object to use as a starting point. Being a bit slow to choose I ended up with a strange woody item. I had no idea what it was. It turned out to be a part of the husk from durian fruit. It is very much an acquired taste and smell — some people love it and others beg to differ. It is so rich in odour that in Singapore and Bangkok the fruit is banned on public transport. I initially struggled to have any sense of connection to the object. We first did exploratory tonal and compositional work — see Pod drawings on the Drawings page. Having done these, I proceeded to work on this colour series. Breaking up each 20 × 20 cm panel into a 3 × 3 grid I could subtly explore variations in colours and movement. It ended up being a work of synesthesia — the colours and composition strongly linked to smell and vapour, the whole almost a chocolate box experience of choice. K Schoonees

Bulbs

This painting was conceived in 1994. I was growing bulbs in pots on my second floor balcony. I was fascinated by their growth and what we don't see in the world that is beneath the surface of things. K Schoonees

From the River to the Sea

Prickling our feet on petals and sand The wind lifts and turns little rocks in our hands Roots cradling the soil as our toes crisp and curl Our thoughts peel away in a breath that swirls In the twist and the churn we see the blood stain In the midst of the lives not meant for this pain From the river to the sea, from earth to the sky They hang on to life and will not to die, All we can do is plant daisies in minds And hope and pray for a miracle in time. K Schoonees

Golden

Across the water Suspended in bright golden city light are Gleaming shifting beams that move gently sliding back and forth in a buzzing quiet is it real? or is it simply a mirage K Schoonees

Lillian

This portrait was painted in watercolour with triangular potato prints. The whole painting is made up of small triangles of opposing colours with ink detailing around her eyes and mouth. I asked Lillian to sit on a high chair while I sat on a low stool below her. She has an air of authority — of strength, confidence, pride and self-belief — and I wanted the composition itself to hold that. The triangles form a shimmering halo effect around her head. K Schoonees This work was sold from Montebello gallery and is now in the USA.

Green & Gold

Walking in the Waitakere forest the ground was covered with golden leaves, ferns and forest floor debris. Bright light catching misty veils of rain filtering through the intense green canopy above. A sense of forest intoxication filled me. I'll never forget. And the discovery of tiny bright yellow mushrooms…

Yellow Mushrooms In the dripping glow How I love the smell and crunch Of scratchy logs and bugs below So then I looked and looked but could not see… Blue Mushrooms Where are you I hope so much You still survive And are hiding here in the Green and gold K Schoonees

1994

In 1994 South Africa held their free and fair elections. I stood in the rain in a long line to vote holding an umbrella. There was a young man next to me voting for the first time, together with many others. He was only a year or two younger than I, but would have grown up in a totally different environment. The sense of joy, optimism and goodwill, is something I will never forget. A rainbow nation. If only the world could be a place of true compassion and acceptance of all people, no matter creed or colour. K Schoonees

In My Arms

8 in a series of 9 small gold paintings that I did in 1994. I have slowly been gifting them to friends and family. K Schoonees

Louisa

I did this drawing in my early thirties. It was based on a thirty-minute life drawing but I continued to work on it for many hours later until I felt it portrayed what I wanted to show. At the time I was still processing something I couldn't quite name. On reflection, I know now it was about grief — something I was coming to terms with. Not that one ever does. K Schoonees

Seated Man

This charcoal drawing was made in the early 1990s at Montebello, Cape Town, from a twenty-minute sitting. K Schoonees

Crouching

This was a twenty-minute charcoal and wash life drawing done in Auckland in the early 2020s. It was just a quick drawing but I liked the way I caught something about the human vulnerability and body language. K Schoonees

Gestural Drawing

Two quick five-minute gestural drawings superimposed over each other to give a sense of movement. I subsequently used sketches from this series to make a triptych about the destruction of our world — but I ended up destroying it. I probably shouldn't have. The negativity in it didn't feel productive, or what I wanted to put out into the world. K Schoonees

Scroll

This was a first-year Browne School exercise. We were each given a piece of paper and asked to draw it. I used the brown paper background as part of the drawing. Although this was simply a flat piece of paper, it became more than that by exploring its three-dimensional properties — the way it curled and cast shadow, the volume suggested by a crease. Things can be more than what they are. I've included it here because regular observational work like this is, for me, like practising piano scales — it keeps the visual memory and eye-hand coordination sharp, and there is always something new to learn about achieving a particular visual effect. K Schoonees

Head in Hand

In the 1990s I started to realise that regular drawing work was essential to developing my ability to explore visual subjects. This was one of the first drawings I did at Montebello in Cape Town, when I joined a life drawing group run by Gabriella Raaff. I learnt an enormous amount from her. K Schoonees

Through My Fingers

→ Through My Fingers — Tesserae

This was inspired in part by the work of Walter Battiss. I did it as a playful project — thinking like a child looking through their fingers at the adult world. K Schoonees

Portrait of a Woman

Done at Montebello, Cape Town. I loved the immediacy of the expression I managed to catch here — and the way that feeling of spontaneity sits alongside the roughness of the texture. K Schoonees

Chair

I used this chair for many years at my drawing board. Not exactly a comfortable sit. I spent too many hours on it. One evening the sunset and west light created a shimmering glow through the leaves of the willow branches outside the window and I wanted to capture the feeling of it. K Schoonees

The Eternal Child

The Eternal Child is an ongoing image that I explore over and over again in my work. You will find it in the Celebration painting in the roots of the tree. It is in other sketches and paintings I have done and am still working on. This version of the painting is the first one I did in Cape Town in 1994. K Schoonees This painting was bought by a friend and is now in Australia, Sydney.