Events – Lena's Portfolio

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TOP40 TOUR Invitations

Where: Aspire Art, Trumpet Building, 21 Keys Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg
When: 6 November 2025 - 15 January 2026
Contact: carina@aspireart.net

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Contact Info

+27 82 218 1906

Pretoria South Africa

lena@lenahugo.com

Leave me alone, I’m still in progress. 😗 @m

Leave me alone, I’m still in progress. 😗

@morecollection1933
@saffca.eu_saffca.npc
@lionsandsgamereserve

#theartstudio #drawingsthatneverend #bushveld #bushscape #drawingsoftrees

“Bokkie” 18cm x 28cm Pastel on sandpaper @saf

“Bokkie”
18cm x 28cm
Pastel on sandpaper

@saffca.eu_saffca.npc
@lionsandsgamereserve
@morecollection1933

#pastelart #chalkpastel #pastelonsandpaper #bushveld #antelope #bokkie

Happy to spend an artist residency @lionsandsgamer

Happy to spend an artist residency @lionsandsgamereserve in partnership with @saffca.eu_saffca.npc and @morecollection1933 during the month of November and December.💚🌿

Here you get a visual idea of the inside and surroundings of my studio space.

#artresidency #bushveldart #krugerpark #artinnature #pastelart

The devil’s in the details. This is the first t

The devil’s in the details.
This is the first time I really, really try my hand at landscape.
To think that I would carry my obsession with detail over even to this genre! What I’m seeing here probably consists of millions and millions of sticks and perhaps a few ovals which my eyes can’t register. Crazyness! Never saw so many sticks in my life in one location. And I forgot all my pencils in the studio and only had this 0.3mm HB pacer with me!

Well, I’ll stick to it until it succeeds, turns out to be an embarrassing and disastrous flop or is irreparably damaged from all the times my paper gets blown into the veld by a sudden gust of wind.

I’m learning to accept my obsessions. I have recurring dreams of being late or slow. But, this is who I am. My current en plein air working environment here @lionsandsgamereserve is extremely calm. I learnt ever so many times before, that the way to do it (for me) always goes hand in hand with patience and time. At the beginning it looks awfull, but with preserverence, one sometimes reaches a certain moment where everything just... well there you have it.

I listen to birds and insects and animals. I’m sure I hear the occasional hippo from the river’s side? Rarely the “quiet” is interrupted by a distant human made noise. Every now and then an insect crashes into me or run over my paper. Yesterday I saw a newborn antelope strolling across my “scene” following its mother - so newly introduced into this world, that it could barely walk properly yet. Little dots and stripes, like Bambi.

Getting drawn into the sticks and sand and air, seeing ever more detail, the closer I look.
Definitely not rushing this drawing. Nature is not letting me, my eyes are not letting me.

I chose this spot with its degree of human influence, because my romantic side was attracted to a weird screen structure built in the distance from dead pieces of wood and which for some reason reminded me of a scene from Lord of the Rings. The structure will emerge more clearly in the drawing as time goes.

@saffca.eu_saffca.npc
@lionsandsgamereserve
@morecollection1933

#enpleinair #landscapedrawing #bushveld #drawinginprocess

Many people are not aware that I made two portrait

Many people are not aware that I made two portraits of @zannakatoka

The first one “Valuable” was created @admirals.residence residency in 2024 and is now part of their permanent collection. The second one “Red Rubber, Black Gold” was made at the beginning of this year for the Portrait Awards hosted every second year @rust_en_vredegallery
It can currently be viewed @aspireartauctions as part of the Top 40 travelling exhibition until 15 January 2026 at Trumpet Building, 21 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank
Enquiries can be made at carina@aspireart.net

Both artworks are pastel on wooden board against a back ground of gold leaf. The first image (“Red Rubber, Black Gold”, for the Portrait Awards) gives you a better idea of the effect of the gold leaf, and it’s an all over better photograph, because I had a professional photographer in for the photograph! You have no idea how difficult it is to photograph gold leaf!

“Valuable”, now @admirals.residence has an unfinished look to her hair where I made some of the wooden under surface show through the pastel.

#portraitawards #pastelportrait #pastelandgold #chalkpastel #goldleaf

Lazarus is almost finished I think. I’m listeni

Lazarus is almost finished I think.

I’m listening to “The broad highway”, by John Jeffery Farnol @librivoxandaudiobooks

#artprocesses #pastelprocess #chalkpastel #pastelonnewspaper #pastelportrait #inthestudio

My two handsome pigeons and a pigeon sleeping on m

My two handsome pigeons and a pigeon sleeping on my gutter, on view and available until this Thursday 30 October @trentgallery All framed with kiaat wood and museum glass.

Handsome Pigeon II
16cm x 16cm
Pastel on sandpaper

Handsome Pigeon I
13cm x 13cm
Pastel on sandpaper

City Pigeon
10cm x 15cm
Pastel on sandpaper

#pastelartwork #pastelonsandpaper #pigeons #doves #chalkpastel #animalportraits #miniatures

Pastel on Newspaper laid down on board

Listen, I’m holding the phone with my free hand so excuse the shakiness 😂

#artprocess #pastelart #pastelportrait #artonnewspaper #chalkpastels

“Tiny Tile Factory” 16cm x 21cm and “Farm

“Tiny Tile Factory”
16cm x 21cm

and

“Farm Workers”
13cm x 21cm

Pastels on sandpaper @trentgallery until 30 October

#pastelart #chalkpastel #pastelportrait #factory #farmworker #hardpastel #softpastel

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Contact Info

+27 82 218 1906

Pretoria South Africa

lena@lenahugo.com

Copyright Lena Hugo