Painting What Presence Feels Like: Katherine Hughes at Lion Sands
August 17, 2026
An elephant moving past the deck brings London-based artist Katherine Hughes’s work to a temporary halt. It would be the first of many such moments.
Katherine arrived at The Artist Residence at Lion Sands Narina Lodge expecting to create a collection inspired by the wildlife around her. Over the following month, she did that, producing five oil paintings and 16 sketches. Yet, the experience also began to alter the way she observed and painted her subjects. She moved beyond recording what an animal looked like and became more interested in translating what it felt like to share a moment with it.
She began to sketch, studying its scale and movement, but found herself thinking about everything a drawing could not easily capture: the animal’s gentleness, its composure and the quiet power in its presence. The difficulty was precisely what compelled her to keep trying.
Returning to the Wild with New Eyes
Raised in Tanzania, Katherine grew up with safari and an enduring love of wildlife. She’s since lived in South Africa and Paris, completed an arts degree in London and developed a varied practice spanning oil painting, sketching, sculpture and creative collaborations. Her work is recognised for expressive palette-knife marks, confident colour and a willingness to leave room for imperfection and imagination.
Although Katherine knew African wildlife well, her residency at Lion Sands gave her a completely different safari experience. She describes it as feeling almost like her first safari: “It was a completely new environment, with different landscapes, different wildlife and a different pace. Everything felt new and exciting.”
Learning to Loosen Her Grip
Being surrounded by so much inspiration did not make the creative process effortless. There were days when she worked on a canvas for hours, only to scrape it back and start over. Katherine shares that the beauty around her sometimes made the pressure feel greater: “The wildlife here is so beautiful, so powerful and so full of character that I constantly worried whether I was doing it justice.”
Katherine began to recognise that the paintings that succeeded were seldom those she controlled most carefully: “This residency taught me that the goal isn’t perfection – it’s connection. The paintings that finally worked were never the ones where I obsessed over every detail. They were the ones where I stopped trying to control everything and simply responded to what I was seeing and feeling.”
A New Language of Colour and Presence
The muted greens, browns and natural textures of the landscape reintroduced Katherine to a softer, more organic palette. It didn’t replace her familiar use of bold colour, but instead, widened the language of colour available to her.
The month also strengthened her conviction that her best work comes from observing animals directly. Photographs and memories can preserve visual information, but time spent in an animal’s presence reveals something less tangible.
“When you’re immersed in nature like that, you stop painting what you think an animal looks like and start painting what it feels like to be in its presence,” she explains.
That intention can be seen in When Darkness Sings, a painting of vultures that was selected to join the MORE Collection. Katherine admits that she’d not always paid much attention to these scavenging birds, but began to find them fascinating as she learnt more about their role in removing carcasses and limiting the spread of disease.
Dark tones acknowledge their intimidating appearance, while emerald green and warm yellow reveal the beauty and value she came to appreciate in them. The work reflects a wider feature of Katherine’s practice: her interest is not limited to the animals most readily celebrated. She also wants viewers to look again at species that are misunderstood or dismissed.
Art with a Purpose Beyond the Canvas
Katherine’s commitment to wildlife began long before she understood how it would influence her career. Growing up, her family regularly helped injured birds, stray animals and other creatures in need. Over time, she realised she didn’t only want to paint wildlife because she found it beautiful; she wanted her work to contribute to its protection.
Today, she donates up to half of her sales proceeds to conservation and children’s charities and has collaborated with organisations including Space for Giants, Save the Rhino International and WWF. Her 2022 debut solo exhibition, Untamed, presented 20 portraits of endangered species, bringing together the two purposes that continue to shape her work.
Her month at Lion Sands strengthened that purpose, but it also gave her renewed confidence in how she wants to pursue it. Supported by field guides, trackers, lodge staff, managers and those working behind the scenes, she was able to focus fully on observing and creating. She left with some of her strongest work and a clearer belief that painting from life brings a depth to her work that’s hard to find elsewhere.
Looking ahead, Katherine hopes to spend more time in wildlife environments around the world, continuing to learn from the animals she paints while using her work to raise awareness and practical support for their protection.
Her message to the artist who visits Lion Sands next captures what the residency gave her most: “Don’t take a single moment for granted. The greatest gift this residency gives you isn’t just the wildlife – it’s time. Time to observe and create, time to reflect, and time to remember why you became an artist in the first place.”
Follow Katherine on Instagram: @katherinehughesartist
Interested in purchasing artwork by our featured artists at Lion Sands Narina Lodge? Contact sue@lionsands.co.za
The Artist Residency at Lion Sands welcomes established and emerging artists to live and work at Ivory Lodge and Narina Lodge. Curated in partnership with the Southern African Foundation and Fellowship for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA), the residency gives artists time and space to create in the wilderness, while inviting guests to meet the artists and experience their work as it takes shape.
