Painting the moments between moments at Lion Sands

For Nigerian artist Joy Adeboye, life usually moves to the restless rhythm of Lagos. The city is alive with unrelenting noise and energy, but at Lion Sands, she found herself enticed into an entirely different cadence. “The wilderness softened my pace,” she reflects. “It made me more attuned to stillness. I live in Lagos, a very chaotic city, so it was beautiful to bask in silence punctuated by bird songs.”

Born in 1998, Joy is part of a generation of young Nigerian artists whose work is reshaping global conversations. With a degree in Literature from Obafemi Awolowo University, she draws heavily on storytelling traditions. Using watercolour, she weaves narratives of emotional alchemy, spirituality, and the workings of human psychology into layered compositions.

Her career already includes significant milestones. In 2024, she was featured in The Vanguard with AMG Projects, and in 2025, she presented her "Perversions of Quiet Girls" series at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.

Joy’s sacred pause in the wilderness

Enjoying several weeks at the Artist Residency at Lion Sands, Joy discovered a different kind of inspiration. From her usual urban surroundings, her work explores what she calls “the invisible currents of feelings and thoughts”. Yet, immersed in an African Big Five wilderness, she leaned into awe. “In the bush, I found myself tapping into the wonder of nature’s rhythm instead,” she says.

One evening stands out in particular. Driving through the reserve, Joy climbed to the top of a hill to watch the sunset. As the sun slipped below the horizon, flooding the sky with colour, she felt something shift inside her. “The fullness I felt in my heart from experiencing the breathtaking vastness of the wilderness will stay with me for a long time,” she shares.

The Beauty in Between

The abundance of unhurried stillness and eloquent silence defined Joy’s time at Lion Sands. Here, the richness and vastness of the bushveld drew her imagination outward to the wild and inward to the self. The resulting works in watercolour reflect the depth of her encounter with nature.

Asked what piece of art might embody her residency, Joy answered without hesitation: “It would be called The Beauty in Between. The residency felt like a sacred pause, where I could listen, watch, and just be.” That sense of threshold – a place of transition between chaos and calm, city and wilderness, thought and feeling – became the intriguing subject of her art during her stay.

What she hopes her work from Lion Sands will evoke is simple: “a quiet wonder, the kind you feel by being in the wilderness for the first time.”

Soften into wonder at Lions Sands

Joy’s next showcase will be at ArtX Lagos, where she plans to continue her inquiry into existential questions. Yet her frame of mind has shifted. “I’m exploring these questions with a lot less angst,” she says, crediting the balance she found in the bush.

When asked which artist, past or present, she would invite to experience a residency at Lion Sands, she said she would choose Hilma af Klint. Joy explains: “Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist whose vibrant abstracts allude to the unseen, the spiritual, and the poetic. I would love to see what the bush would have revealed through her art.”

At Lion Sands, Joy found more than inspiration. She was gifted a reminder of the power of stillness and the beauty that can be found in the spaces and moments in between. Her message for the next artist to arrive at the Artist Residency is both succinct and stunning: “Soften into wonder.”

To browse more of Joy’s watercolour portfolio, visit her Instagram profile.

The Artist Residency brings artists – new and established – into a creative space where they can focus on their craft, while connecting with an appreciative audience. This space becomes their home for weeks at a time, where they can draw unparalleled inspiration from their location and wildlife sightings to create new pieces, while also showcasing their work.

Contact morgan@lionsands.com if you are interested in purchasing any artwork from our featured artists.