SVN - Exhibition Catalogue 2025 - Catalog - Page 5
THOUGHTS ON THE LOWER ZAMBEZI
I first travelled to the Lower Zambezi eighteen years ago
and was immediately spellbound by the colour and light,
the drama of the escarpment and the quietude of the
mighty river, that great artery of southern Africa; I have
been trying to capture the magic and intrinsic beauty of
this extraordinary place ever since.
From the arboreal cathedral of towering winter thorn in
their dreamy cobalt haze, resounding with the music of
the full field guide of myriad birds and insects, and
wandered by elephant in their slow ponderous
solemnity, to that riot of shifting sunset reflected in the
serpentine swathe of the Zambezi, each time I revisit I
am enchanted anew.
In the languid limbs and lines of leopard and lion there is
such raw power; in the fragile tracery of acacia on a map
of infinite blue sky, the shafting dancing light on the horn
of buffalo and antelope, in the sheer brilliant white of
cattle egrets slipping through the half-dark against the
treeline there is an infinite, breathless, majesty.
Eighteen years later, the mountain and the river still hold
my heart and my imagination. I hope it will capture
yours.
Serena Vivian-Neal,
November 2025
