At first, this painting feels completely abstract — a landscape of flowing green, warm ochre, black and white. But the longer I look, the more I begin to discover. I see the suggestion of flowers reaching upward, delicate stems appearing from the darkness. Forms come and go. Nothing is forced into definition. It feels as though nature is remembering itself within the paint.

That is why I would call it The Garden Within. We all carry an inner garden — a place made from everything we have lived through. Some parts are bright and flourishing. Others are tangled, shadowed or still waiting for light.

The warm orange feels like life and creativity pushing forward. The greens speak of growth and renewal. The deep black marks give the painting its strength — because without darkness, the softer forms would never shine as beautifully. And those small touches of white feel like openings. Breathing spaces. Hope.

What I love most is that the painting does not tell us exactly what to see. It asks us to feel first, and discover later. Perhaps that is how we discover ourselves too.

We do not become who we are all at once. Slowly, through every season, something beautiful begins to emerge. And one day we realise — the garden was inside us all along.

— Beau van Zyl