Notes

Contrary to popular belief, Pierneef seldom painted directly from nature. He made a number of naturalistic drawings and impressionistic water colours of the landscape before him, which he then translated into well-composed, synthesized oil paintings in his studio. Sometimes he relied on his memory only, drawing on pure imagination and fantasy. The first recorded drawing on which the present work is based, was executed as early as 1944. This was exhibited with the title, Soutpan, at the Pierneef Festival in Johannesburg arranged by the Egon Guenther and Adler Fielding galleries in 1964. The drawing is illustrated in the commemorative booklet that accompanied the exhibition.

The present oil painting provides a wonderful insight into the intervening synthesis that took place in Pierneef’s studio. An off-white grassland forms part of the wintery foreground of the landscape, culminating in a typical thunder cloud formation, more indicative of a summer downpour than a winter scene. However, the two acacia trees seemingly are in full bloom, as they would be in springtime. Pierneef juxtaposes two types of cloud in the same background: on the left, the orange reflection of a setting sun on a billowing white cloud formation contrasting sharply with the ominous dark rain clouds on the right, typical of an impending mid-day downpour. Different time zones are thus present in the landscape. So potent and magical was the painter's artistry, according to Justice JF Marais, who opened the Pierneef Festival exhibition, "that those who know the Bushveld well have been, and still are, persuaded beyond all argument that that is the visible reality, as real as can be." Justice JF Marais (1964) Pierneef Festival booklet. Johannesburg; Egon Guenther and Adler Fielding galleries, page 3.